THE CITY IN FILM
List of some feature films with urban themes from CSULB library
The Greater Middle East

Crimson gold PN1997 .C8732 200
This is a story of Hussein, a humble pizza deliveryman who feels continually humiliated by the injustices he sees all around him. When his friend Ali finds a receipt for a stranger's necklace purchase, Hussein is stunned by its exceptionally high cost. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such a luxury. Soon after, he and Ali are refused entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their scruffy appearances; his rage over this slight sets off a series of events. But, Hussein will taste the luxurious life for one night before his deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge.  Iran

The Cyclist    PN1997 .C926 1996
Nazim, formerly a cyclist, but now a lowly Afghan guest worker in Iran, must overcome many obstacles in his attempt to ride a bicycle continuously for seven days and nights, in order to obtain money to pay for medical care for his desperately ill wife.    

Children of heaven    PN1997 .C46427 1999 
A young boy, Ali, loses his sister Zahra's school shoes. In order to stay out of trouble, the two come up with a plan to share Ali's shoes, but they must keep it a secret from their parents. Iran. Award winner: Montreal Film Festival, Newport Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival.   

Dastforoush = The peddler    PN1997 .P398 1996
Three short tales set among the poor of contemporary Tehran describing a kindly but naive couple who want someone to adopt their baby, a mentally unstable man who lives with his invalid mother, and the last hours of a peddler suspected of betraying his friends.

arrow  La bataille d'Alger = The battle of Algiers    DVD  PN1997 .B346 2004   VHS PN1997 .B346 1993   
Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.

arrow James' journey to Jerusalem    DVD    PN1997 .J3348 2004
"A cannily droll mix of social commentary and modern fairy tale, Israeli filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz's debut feature follows the adventures of James, a devout Christian making a pilgrimage from his African village to the Holy Land. He becomes part of the migrant labor workforce in Tel Aviv and pursues his religious quest-- until he gets a little taste of fortune by turning the tables on his employers ... an astute exploration of the economic, moral and spiritual hypocrisies of Western society filtered through an evocative portrait of modern Israel's cultural and generational divisions"--Container. An easy choice.
 
Halfaouine = The rooftop hopper    DVD    PN1997 .H24326 2003 
Noura is an inquisitive 13-year-old whose eyes are opened to his own sexual desires when he visits the local Turkish bathhouse with his mother. Gazing upon the spectacular array of unclothed women and girls, Noura begins to experience his first pangs of longing. But just as Noura is awakening to the pleasures of the fair sex, he risks being wrestled from their tender, affactionate companionship and being thrust into the callow and rigid company of men. Tunis.   

Yol    PN1997 .Y665 1983
A portrait of modern Turkey as seen through the eyes of five prisoners granted furlough to visit their families. 

Berlin Jerusalem     DVD    PN1997 .B4122 2003 
This moving drama of the birth of Israel focuses on two women - Else Lasker-Schuler, a German poet, and Tania Shohat, a Russian revolutionary. They meet first in Berlin, where utopian ideals and fear of the Nazis force their escape to Palestine. Re-united in Jerusalem, they confront a harsh reality in the city idealized in their dreams.

Uzak = Distant     DVD     PN1997 .D54148 2005
    Winner of the Grand Prix and two Best Actor Awards at the Cannes International Film Festival, Distant, set in a wintry, contemporary Istanbul, is a profoundly beautiful film about detachment and isolation typical in any place affected by modernization but unusual in a non-Western city like the biggest city of Turkey.  Summary: When a successful photographer's wife leaves him, he falls into an existential crisis. His cousin from a small village comes to live with him to get a better job. The two are total opposites and have a hard time adjusting to each other's habits.

DЇunyЇa  = Donya  DVD  (Iran 2002)  PN1997 .D65515 2002 
Haji Enayat sends his wife and children to Iraq for a pilgrimage. While his family is gone, he marries a beautiful young woman who has traveled to Iran from the US for business. Then his wife returns and finds out about the marriage ...  Iran, Tehran

In This World   88 min   (UK 2003)   PN1997 .I48185 2004     DVD     
The hazardous journey of two Afghan boys as they travel from Pakistan through Iran, Turkey, Italy, France and the UK in search of refuge in London, revealing the desperate measures people take to escape persecution and life-threatening conditions.
Europe

Fratello sole, sorella luna = Brother sun, sister moon    DVD     PN1997 .B76 2004 
Medieval Italy, 12th cen.  A compelling, insightful look at the early years of Francis of Assisi, who abandoned a life of wealth and comfort to seek a spiritual union with the world.

arrow Hate = La Haine  PN1997 .H34 1996 
Excellent film!  Said is an Arab, Hubert is black, Vinz is a jew. Each of them need to vent the anger they feel about the police brutality that landed another friend in the hospital.  Immigration and the suburban condition in France.   

Il deserto rosso = Red desert   PN1997 .D454 1980
A woman finds herself unable to adjust to her urban environment after being involved in an automobile accident. Italy, 1970s. 

Wings of desire = Himmel über Berlin   Video Cassette 11259
A romantic fantasy set in modern Berlin about an angel who wishes he were mortal and is willing to fall from the sky if it means a chance to fall in love.

Accattone  PN1997 .A2724 2003 
Presents a vivid picture of the Roman slums through a story of a pimp, his friends, his enemies and his girls . Italy of the 1960s. 

arrow Goodbuy, Lenin! DVD PN1997 .G592 2004 
Alex's proud, socialist mother falls into a coma for eight months. When she wakes, her heart is weak, so Alex has to keep the secret that the Berlin Wall has fallen and capitalism has triumphed. What begins as a little white lie turns into a major scam.

The Full Monty PN1997 .F844 1999
Six unemployed men, inspired by a touring group of male strippers, decide they can make a small fortune by putting on a striptease show of their own with one small difference. They intend to go the "full monty" and strip completely naked. A hilarious, heartfelt comedy in which six friends discover the inner strength to overcome the problems in their personal lives.  UK

 Dirty Pretty Things   DVD   PN1997 .D54144 2004  
    Nigerian exile Okwe and Turkish chambermaid Senay toil at a west London hotel that is full of illegal activity. Late one night Okwe makes a shocking discovery, which creates an impossible dilemma and tests the limits of all they know.

La noire de ...  = Black girl  DVD   PN1997 .B56744 2005  In La noire de ..., a Senegalese maid goes to the [French] Riviera with her employers and gains a new perspective on what it means to be African outside of Africa. A story of exile and despair.

Shadows in paradise // Varjoja paratiisissa   (1986) DVD   PN1997 .S383635 2008
An episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a co-worker, an affair and much more. Finland

L'Auberge espagnole // The Spanish Apartment  (2003) DVD PN1997 .A8593 2003
Xavier is a strait-laced French college senior who moves to Barcelona as part of a student exchange program, much to the dismay of his beautiful girlfriend. But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos as Xavier gets an eye-opening lesson on how to live, love, laugh and party.

Somers Town    70 min.     DVD (2008)    Multicultural Center
A black-and-white study of a social environment in London, concentrating on a pair of unlikely new friends (a British runaway boy and a Polish immigrant teen) and the girl they both fancy.

A Call Girl (Slovenia 2010) Multicultural Center
Growing up in small-town Slovenia, 23 year-old Aleksandra is grateful for the excitement and anonymity of big city life when she moves to the capital, and she plans to take advantage of everything that the city has to offer—quickly styling herself as a high-priced call girl. Dropping out of society, she barricades herself inside her penthouse apartment , and watches the world pass her by. But her isolated existence – English studies and mortgage payments by day, her call-girl lifestyle by night – is thrown into chaos when one of her clients, a visiting politician, dies of a heart attack on her watch. All of a sudden, Aleksandra must confront a new range of emotions—fear, guilt, loneliness—all the while being pursued by a band of local pimps, as well as the cops, who are hot on her trail.. The old village life she had escaped from might now become her only refuge. 91 min

Russia

 The rider named Death  DVD PN1997 .R893 2005
A small band of radicals takes on a dangerous game of political assassination as they attempt to bring down the Russian monarchy through any means necessary.  Based on terrorist Boris Savinkov's autobiographical novel.  Moscow of nearly a century ago is "exquisitely recteated".

Tchaikovsky  DVD  PN1997 .T38485 2004 
Videodisc release of film produced in 1971.   Academy Award Nominee Best Foreign Language Film - 1971.  Late Imperial Russia, the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg, places of nobility.  Life of one of the bestmusic composers of all times.

Oblomov DVD  PN1997 .O246 2004  .
A moving adaptation of Ivan Goncharov's great 19th century tragi-comedy novel about a gentle aristocrat who would rather sleep than compete in a modern world of expanding industrialization . ...  The film's description claims that it is set in glittery St. Petersburg during the heyday of the czars, Oblomov is also full of enchanting scenes of lush interiors and ravishing landscapes.

Strike    DVD    PN1995.75 .S774 1999 
Story of a strike by factory workers in Tsarist Russia which is brutally suppressed.

Moscow parade = Prorva    PN1997 .M674 1993
The post-Soviet view of the Stalin Era. Set in Moscow in the summer of 1939. Anna, a former aristocrat, is married to one of the chiefs of the secret police. She hates these men who have exterminated her family and who are abusing her now. But she takes advantage of their luxurious life--all the things that are available only to the Soviet elite.   
Very arty, surreal film filled with haunting and strange beauty.

arrow Moscow does not believe in tears = Moskva Slezam Ne Verit    PN1997 .M672 1984 VHS  DVD
The Setting is in 1958, and three small town girls have just arrived to pursue their separate dreams in the big city [Moscow]. Shows how their lives have turned out 20 years later.   
Comment:  An easy choice for the urban.  Academy Award, Best Foreign Film.

Little Vera = Malen’kaia Vera    PN1997 .L5778 1989
The controversial, award winning Russian movie about a woman torn between her lover and her bitter parents.  Set in a small southern provincial town.

Progulka = The Stroll    PN1997 .S7858 2003 
Watch the exploits of three young romantics as they dance around St. Petersburg, Russia, getting themselves involved in everything from a soccer riot to a rainstorm to a fight between best friends. Set in mostly real time, Olya, Alyosha and Petya act as if the world is their due and they live to enjoy every moment of it.  Comment: You literally stroll through modern St.Petersburg, even a map is provided.  A useful urban film.

Since Otar left = Depuis qu'Otar est parti   DVD   PN1997 .S5965 2004
A family portrait of three generations of Georgian women in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. Eka obsesses over her physician son Otar, while the other two attempt to deal as best they can with Eka's burning desire to see him. A poignant, bittersweet story.
Latin America

arrow Ratas, ratones, rateros     DVD    PN1997 .R3494 2001 
    A truly moving picture, highly recommended!  Salvador, a young delinquent gets mixed up in the affairs of his ex-convict cousin who is in search of easy money and a hideout. Dragging along his family and friends, Salvador ends up destroying the few things that made sense in his life.  A poverty stricken Ecuador

arrow  Cidade de Deus = City of god    PN1997 .C5784 2003
    The world's most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro's City of God, where combat photographers and police rarely go. The true story of a young man who grew up on these streets and whose ambition as a photographer is our window in and his only way out.  

The City of Men     DVD   PN1992.77 .C4675 2006
Two best friends grow up together in the "favelas," shanty towns built in the mountains around Rio de Janeiro.  TV series... From the makers of City of God.

 Central Station    PN1997 .C412 1999
    When a young boy witnesses his mother's accidental death, a lonely, retired school-teacher reluctantly takes the child under her wing. Brazil. Golden Globe: Best foreign language film  

 The Silence of Neto    PN1997 .S5682 1994   
    Produced entirely in Guatemala and filmed in the colonial city of Antigua, this film tells the story of a young boy's coming of age while his country struggles to preserve democracy amidst CIA cold-war propaganda. Through the eyes of young Neto, the viewer is given an authentic insider's look at the diverse people of Guatemala and the historical events in the mid-1950's that have shaped their destiny.    

Pixote    PN1997 .P515 2001
    Ten-year-old Pixote (Portuguese slang for 'Peewee') is one of three million homeless children in Brazil. Hauled off to a crowded detention center, wide-eyed Pixote witnesses rapes, beatings and other acts of random violence by both the guards and the inmates. With the transvestite Lilica and his lover Dito, Pixote escapes from the reform school where he and his friends hit the streets alone, embarking on a life of violence and crime.   

I am Cuba    PN1997 .I133 1999
    Four main stories show the rise of the Communist revolution in Cuba, including Battista's Havana and the grinding poverty and oppression of the Cuban people. Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese present.  Highly poetic.   

arrow La virgen de los sicarios  = Our lady of the assassins     PN1997 .L33 2002
    An older writer, Fernando, returns to his hometown, Medellin, Colombia. There he falls in love with 16-year-old assassin, Alexis. After Alexis is killed, Fernando hunts for his killer in the Medellin slums and falls in love with Wilmar, a boy who resembles Alexis.  Quisi-documentary style. Key themes: urban violence, teenagers, masculinity, gay men.  

The motorcycle diaries         DVD    PN1997 .M7847 2005    
    An inspirational adventure, based on the true story of two young men (one of them -- the most famous revolutionary figure of the 20th cen., Che) whose thrilling and dangerous road trip across Latin America becomes a life-changing journey of self-discovery.  Several urban places including the ancient Inca capital.

 Taxi para 3  = A cab for 3    DVD    PN1997 .T3845 2003 
    A Black comedy telling the story of Ulises, a taxi driver who thinks that joining the gang that holds him up may be just the way out. The lure of easy money throws him off the straight and narrow road to the rich neighborhoods wherein lies the cash that will help him pay off his beat-up taxicab. After various bungled burglaries and overwhelmed by a zero tolerance police drive, the inept theives end up in Ulises' home, trespassing on him and Javiera, his beloved daughter. This situation is too much for Ulises, who resolves to end the partnership in a drastic way.  Chile

 Chun guang zha xie = Happy together    DVD    PN1997 .H25876 2004    
Yiu Fai and Po Wing left Hong Kong for a great waterfall in South America, but in the end are stuck on the streets of Buenos Aires. Yiu Fai's life takes on a new spin, while Po Wing's life shatters continually.   Winner of the Best Director Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together is a cinematic balancing act, a stunning display of filmmaking style and a touching love story evenly mixed into one film.

La historia oficial  = The official story    DVD    PN1997 .O335 2004   
An Argentine teacher lives in blissful ignorance of the evils perpetrated by her country's government. Over time, she begins to suspect that her adopted daughter may have been the child of a murdered political prisoner. When she attempts to unearth the truth, her investigation reveals levels of political corruption so abhorrent that the illusions of her past life are irrevocably shattered.

Suddenly     DVD       PN1997 .S816 2002 
Marcia, a frumpy lingerie sales girl from Buenos Aires, lives a solitary life of dreary routine after having been dumped by her boyfriend. But soon her dreams of romance are unexpectedly answered when a pair of feisty leather-jacketed, crop-haired lesbian punks, Lenine and Mao, accost her on the street.

Bolivia     DVD  PN1997 .B67885 2005
A man must work as an illegal alien in Argentina in order to support his family in Bolivia. The film paints a portrait of struggle in the modern economy of Argentina and the mistreatment of illegal workers. Buenos Aires
East Asia

Mang jing = Blind shaft    DVD     PN1997 .B649 2003
    Two wandering con men travel from mine to mine, befriending single men and then killing them so that it looks like an accident. They then go after the mine management for hush money.  Both a bleak film noir set on a lawless frontier and an indictment of China's disastrous Economic Miracle  Quasi-documentary film, detailed realism.  Other themes: urbanization, masculinity, coming-of-age, informal economy.  An excellent film!  

Xiu Xiu = The sent down girl    PN1997 .X58 1999 
    Between 1967 and 1976, nearly 8 million Chinese youths were "sent down" for specialized training to the remotest corners of the country. The young and beautiful Xiu Xiu dreamt of becoming a horse trainer in Tibet, far away from her busy city home. Her training begins in the isolated plains of Tibet but slowly Xiu Xiu discovers that she is unlikely to ever see her home again without a wealthy sponsor. Her world becomes a horrifying cage, where "patrons" promise her escape in exchange for her sexual compromise.  This sounds like a rural film but perhaps would allow discussion of urbanization, deurbanization, images of urban places etc.   

So close to paradise    PN1997 .S6325 1998
    Gangster film about two country boys who move to the big city to begin new lives and while one is content with his menial job, the other enters the world of gangsters and underworld alliances. China

Yi ge dou bu neng shao = Not one less PN1997 .N67 2000 
     A young woman is ordered to a remote Chinese village to be a substitute teacher. Barely older than her students, the shy girl is charged with keeping the class intact for one month or she won't be paid. When one of her students disappears into the city to find work, the stubborn teacher is determined to follow the boy and bring him back to school. Once in the city, her simple peasant pleas fall on deaf ears, and only when the local television sympathizes does her search bear fruit.  

Duo luo tian shi = Fallen Angels  DVD  PN1997 .F217 1998 
Set in the neon-washed underworld of present day Hong Kong, the film intertwines two exhilarating tales of love and isolation.  In the garishly lit late-night world of Hong Kong, the lives of four lonely people briefly intersect: Wong Chi-Ming, a jaded hit man who wants out of his dangerous, solitary business but is leery of emotional involvement; the Agent, the beautiful partner-in-crime he's never met, but who's fallen in love with Chi-Ming anyway; Baby, a bleach-blonde, night-crawling cookie who's looking for love but will settle for being remembered by Chi-Ming; and He Zhiwu, a mute, overgrown child who, in the wee hours, breaks into closed-up shops, opens them for business and forces customers to shop against their will.

A great wall     DVD    PN1997 .G692 2002 
This moving and humorous story chronicles the return of Leo Fan and his American-born wife and son to his native China and provides a comical insight into the cultural clashes between traditional Chinese families and Chinese-American families.

Hibiscus town    VHS    PN1997 .H45495 1980 
Hibiscus Town is a simple town surrounded by beautiful scenery. Kindhearted and pretty Hu Yuyin sells a local variety of beancurd and lives frugally with her husband Guigui. They save money and finally manage to build a new house. However, this new house brings them trouble. During the "four clean-ups" movement of 1964, they are classified as new rich peasants. Their house is confiscated and Guigui is driven to suicide. Later, during the "cultural revolution" there is more trouble. China

Taoyuan Zhen = Shangri-la town    DVD    PN1997 .S5224 2003   
Cities and towns -- China -- Drama.

Fenggui lai de ren = The boys from Fengkuei (110 min.) DVD  PN1997 .H74 2001     v.1 
Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.  Taiwan

Lian lian feng chen = Dust in the wind (100 min.).DVD  PN1997 .H74 2001     v.4
Dust in the wind: A love story about a young couple from a village in the southern part of Taiwan. The boy goes to Taipei to work after graduating from junior high to earn money to send home. The girl follows him the next year and they work hard to earn enough money to marry. Then the young man spends three years in the military and the girl marries someone else. Although the young man regrets what happened he does not blame the girl.

Beijing yue yu lu  = Beijing Rocks DVD (109 min)  PN1997 .B3516 2001 
Story of Yang Yin, a dance girl in search of love, Road, an impetuous rock singer seeking recognition, and Michael, a Hong Kong-born composer in search of himself. Set in the underground rock and roll scene in China.  The main characters are wandering through the Great Wall, the Imperial Palace, the Tienanmen Square as well as the chic embassy districts.  A totally different Beijing, young and restless, romantic and colorful, fragile and daring, is revealved for the first time against the powerful beat of Chinese rock & roll.

3 iron  DVD (88 min)   PN1997 .T48888 2005 
When a mysterious drifter breaks into a mansion, he discovers a lonely, beautiful woman trapped in an abusive marriage. When she escapes on the back of his motorcycle, their romantic adventures are just beginning.  Very urban film, by Kim Ki-Duk. South Korea, Seoul, apartment types.
South Asia

Salaam Bombay!    PN1997 .S125 2002 
    Krisha, a ten year old boy, has been abandoned in Bombay by his mother. He tries to earn money to go home while he lives in the streets.  

 I have found it  = Kandukondain kandukondain DVD   PN1997 .I234 2005   
India. Rich and pampered sisters Sowmya and Meenakshi want for nothing except the true love their hearts crave. While Sowmya grudginly places family responsibilities ahead of romance, Meenakshi yearns for a white knight. Manohar, an aspiring filmmaker, falls for Sowmya but will wed her only after directing his first film. Commando Major Bala woos Meenakshi despite physical and emotional war wounds and competition from Srikanth. But with the patriarch's health ebbing, the romantic storm Meenakshi and Sowmya wished for may soon be eclipsed by the harsh realities of modern life.  
"A Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and sensibility"--Container. "A giant leap forward for Southern Indian "Kollywood" movies--the Tamil-speaking cousin of Bollywood Hindi language film"--Container.
South East Asia

The scent of green papaya     DVD    PN1997 .S3 2001   
 Set in 1950s and 1960s Saigon, a young country girl joins a family as their servant and develops an enduring but secret attachment to a friend of the eldest son.
Sub-Saharan Africa

Mapantsula    PN1997 .M262 1988
    Panic is a mapantsula, a Zulu term for a petty crook. Set in South Africa, he is imprisoned with Anti-apartheid activists. There he is transformed into a man willing to become involved with social change.

Sometimes in April   DVD   PN1997 .S63332 2005 
Based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over the course of 100 days an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen.  Similar, Hotel Rwanda film.

Abouna = Our Father  (Chad/France 2003)   81 min.   Library   PN1997 .A245 2005     DVD
After two young Chadian boys discover their father has abandoned them, they embark on a desperate quest to bring him home.  The film allows to see landscape of this remote area of the world, esp. useful for showing the settlement there (it is next to impossible to find any film showing Sub-Saharan settlements). 

Borom Sarret   an extra film on disk with another film La noire de ...  = Black girl DVD   PN1997 .B56744 2005  Borom Sarret follows a cart driver as he meets an unfortunate array of people in Dakar [Senegal].
USA/Canada/Australia

Little Fugitive  DVD  PN1997 .L575 1999 
When a seven-year-old boy is tricked into believing he killed his older brother, he flees Brooklyn and ends up on Coney Island. New York City

Bread & Roses  DVD PN1997 .B72263 2001 
A group of immigrant workers take a stand against the million dollar corporations who employ them.

On the waterfront DVD PN1997 .O433 2001
An ex-fighter gets a job working on the gang-ridden waterfront under a crooked gangster boss.

Kids DVD PN1997 .K423 2000
24 hours in the life of a group of contemporary teenagers who believe they are invincible.  An excellent film on NYC teenagers' life.

Welcome to the dollhouse DVD PN1997 .W438 1999
Eleven-year-old Dawn "Wienerdog" Wiener is a junior high geek who just wants to be popular. Teased by her classmates and tormented by the school bully, Dawn develops an improbable plan to seduce the star of a high-school garage band.  An excellent film on the suburban condition.

Night on Earth Video Cassette PN1997 .N52165 1992 
In cities around the globe (Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, Helsinki), the occupants of five taxi cabs are headed for some unexpected destinations.

The boys next door  Video Cassette PN1997 .B68947 1986 
Roy Alston and Bo Richards look like normal red-blooded American teenagers, but don't let their looks fool you. Together they turn a volatile and frustrated adolescent anger inside out and turn an "anything goes" weekend in Los Angeles into a violent spree fueled by an incredible and explosive rage.

Chinatown Video Cassette PN1997 .C474 1998 
Los Angeles private eye Jake Gittes is approached by a mysterious woman who wishes to have her husband investigated. As the case unfolds, though, he discovers it to be much more complex and dangerous than he had expected, involving politics, powerful men, and terrible family secrets.

The Two Jakes Video Cassette PN1997 .T85 1990
Set in 1948 Los Angeles, The Two Jakes is a sequel to Chinatown. Jake Gittes is a successful private eye who takes on a case of suspected adultery that explodes into murder. Chinatown was tied to water and its importance to a growing city- The Two Jakes is linked to a grab for oil.

Mi vida loca Video Cassette PN1997 .M52 1994   
The members of rival Latino gangs in Los Angeles are feuding, and the girl friends are trying to stay out of the struggle for power and survive.

Boyz 'n the hood Video Cassette PN1997 .B698 1992
For three young men growing up in South Central Los Angeles, the "hood" is a place of drive-by shootings, unemployment, drugs and pain. But their reactions to the world around them vary- one is an unambitiuos drug dealer, his brother is a college bound teenage father, and the brother's best friend is guided by a strong father who hopes for a better life for his son.

Happiness DVD PN1997 .H2587 1999 
A dark comedy that centers around three sisters struggling to achieve happiness and middle class perfection.  Note: "Mature audiences only. Viewer discretion is advised."--Container.  An excellent film on the suburban condition.

Who's that knocking at my door PN1997 .W5478 2004
This debut feature film of Martin Scorsese is the story of a young, unemployed man who is content to hang out with his equally unambitious buddies in New York's Little Italy. Then he falls in love with a college-educated girl and is forced to look at the neighborhood and life itself in a new way.

After hours Video Cassette 11297 
A word processor, looking for a break from his humdrum Manhattan routine, gets caught in a bizarre web of seemingly chance encounters with the downtown night people.

The age of innocence PN1997 .A31183 1993 
A ravishing romance about three wealthy New Yorkers caught in a tragic love triangle, the ironically-titled story chronicles the grandeur and hypocrisy of high society in the 1870's"

Mean streets PN1997 .M4236 2004
Charlie, a 27-year-old, tries to work his way up the bottom rungs of organized crime's ladder. Amy Robinson is Teresa, the girlfriend Charlie's family declares "unsuitable" because she has epilepsy.

Taxi driver PN1997 .T384 1985
A psychotic New York City cab driver goes on a violent rampage in an effort to rid the city of undesirables.

It's a wonderful life PN1997 .I77 1986
Sentimental classic about a young man who attempts to end his own life, only to be shown the error of his ways by his guardian angel

American beauty PN1997 .A34 2000
An emotionally & spiritually comatose suburban man decides "to hell with it all" and reverts to living as he did when he was happiest--as a carefree teenager. His desperately uptight wife and sullen daughter can only look on as he quits his corporate job to become a burger flipper, starts getting high with a strange new neighbor (whose parents are even stranger) and lusts after a pouty blonde teenager--his daughter's best friend.

City lights PN1997 .C5783 1992   
A tramp wins the love of a blind flower girl and attempts to obtain money from a millionaire to help her regain her sight. Great film!

Wall Street PN1997 .W344 2000 
An ambitious young stockbroker is lured into the illegal, lucrative world of corporate espionage.

Do the right thing PN1997 .D5533 1994
This powerful visual feast combines humor and drama with memorable characters while tracing the course of a single day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It's the hottest day of the year, a scorching 24-hour period that will change the lives of its residents forever.

Manhattan  PN1997 .M25834 2000
Allen portrays Isaac Davis, a successful comedy writer whose wife, having left him for another woman, is now embarking on a book about their failed marriage. Isaac happily consoles himself in the arms of an adoring 17 year-old schoolgirl until he meets someone closer to his own age, who happens to be his best friend's mistress.

La ciudad  = The city PN1997 .C576 2000
Tells four stories about recent immigrants to New York City: a group of day-laborers scavenging for bricks; two teenagers from the same hometown who meet and fall in love; a homeless father who tries to enroll his daughter in school; and a garment worker who seeks justice in the sweatshops.

Crash (Multi-Cultural Center) DVD 2004, 112 min.
Multi-ethnic LA. Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more

Kaante  (Multi-Cultural Center) DVD 2004, 154 min.
Six bank robbers trying to pull off the perfect heist discover one of them is an undercover cop.   An Indian (Bollywood-ish) look at Los Angeles...

A day without a Mexican [videorecording] = Un día sin Mexicanos (UL/MCC) 2004  DVD 95 min
California awakens one day to discover that one third of its population has vanished. A peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent the sole characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their Hispanic heritage.   Feature film with documentary qualities.