The Exiles: Urban Dis/location

Set in the shadows of a 1950s Los Angeles that has all but disappeared, Kent MacKenzie’s hybrid feature The Exiles follows a group of American Indian friends over the course of a typical Friday night. Featuring themes of urban decay and intimate betrayals, the film is a gritty portrayal of the consequences of the federal Indian policy of urban relocation and one community’s determination to survive. Why Did Gloria Die? provides a damning look at the ongoing human cost of racial prejudice and social neglect in 1970s Minneapolis through a heartrending journalistic investigation into an Ojibwe woman’s struggles. Finally, Charlie Hill (as Harold Sinseer) animates the screen with characteristic wit in Harold of Orange, leading the Warriors of Orange on a sojourn from the reservation to the boardroom as they pitch “pinch beans” as the next revolutionary elixir. With an original screenplay by Gerald Vizenor, the film is a wry critique of stereotypes about contemporary Native Americans.

—Sarah Whitt

FILMS IN THIS SCREENING

The Exiles Kent MacKenzie, United States, 1971

FEATURING 
Homer Nish
Tom Reynolds
Yvonne Williams

Why Did Gloria Die? Bill Moyers Journal, United States, 1973

Harold of Orange Richard Weise, United States, 1984