''The Exiles'' (1961) is a film by

Kent MacKenzie Kent Robert Mackenzie (6 April 1930 – 16 May 1980) was a film director and producer who is mainly remembered for his film '' The Exiles'', which was about Native American young people in Los Angeles. He also was involved with Dimension Films i ...

chronicling a day in the life of a group of 20-something Native Americans who left reservation life in the 1950s to live in the district of

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles Bunker Hill is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is part of Downtown Los Angeles. Historically, Bunker Hill was a large hill that separated Downtown Los Angeles from the western end of the city. The hill was tunneled through at Sec ...

, California. Bunker Hill was then a blighted residential locality of decayed Victorian mansions, sometimes featured in the writings of Raymond Chandler,

John Fante John Fante (April 8, 1909 – May 8, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel ''Ask the Dust'' (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depre ...

, and

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

. The structure of the film is that of a narrative feature, the script pieced together from interviews with the documentary subjects. The film features Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, and Tommy Reynolds.

Plot

The film is about Native Americans who have left their reservations in the Southwest. It follows them in Bunker Hill, a gritty neighborhood in Los Angeles. The cast of American Indian actors are notable for their lack of self-consciousness as they drink and socialize during a night out on the town ending in a 49 party of drumming and dancing on "Hill X" overlooking downtown LA.

Production

Filming was started in the late 1950s. The film features

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

music provided by

Anthony Hilder Anthony J. Hilder (1935 - April 26, 2019) was an American author, film maker, talk show host, broadcaster, news correspondent and former actor. In the late 1950s to the mid-1960s he was also a record producer, producing music mainly in the sur ...

and Robert Hafner. It was performed by

The Revels ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, who recorded on Hilder's

Impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Impac ...

record label. Years later Norman Knowles of The Revels recalled some of the tracks they recorded for the film. They included "It's Party Time" and possibly "Revellion". According to Knowles, the song "Commanche" which was written for the movie was cut.

Release

''The Exiles'' premiered at the 1961

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

. As it was only licensed (

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

version) to schools and churches, it did not find a distributor to release it theatrically in that year, and so over the years it fell into obscurity, known to cinephiles but remaining largely unseen by the public. A restored version produced by the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the ar ...

premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2008, and

Milestone Films Milestone Film and Video is an independent film distribution company, founded in 1990 in the United States by Dennis Doros and Amy Heller. The company researches and distributes cinematographic material from around the world, including silent film, ...

released it commercially and on DVD in summer 2008.

Legacy

In 2009, it was named to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and will be preserved for all time. Years later, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' film critic Dennis Harvey's review of the 2015 film '' Mekko'', about a Native American, mentioned ''The Exiles'' and ''

On the Bowery ''On the Bowery'' is a 1956 American docufiction film directed by Lionel Rogosin. The film, Rogosin's first feature was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. After the Second World War, Lionel Rogosin made a vow to f ...

'' (1956); he referred to the two older films as being classics also set on skid row.

Cast

* Yvonne Williams * Homer Nish * Tommy Reynolds * Rico Rodrigues * Clifford Ray Sam * Clydean Parker * Mary Donahue * Eddie Sunrise as singer on Hill X * Jacinto Valenzuela * Ann Amiador as waitress at The Ritz * Delos Yellow Eagle * Louis Irwin * Norman St. Pierre * Marilyn Lewis as Yvonne’s friend * Bob Lemoyne * Ernest Marden * Frankie Red Elk * Chris Surefoot * Sedrick Second * Leonard Postock * Eugene Pablo * Matthew Pablo * Sarah Mazy * Gloria Muti * Arthur Madrull as man being shaved * Ted Guardipee * Ned Casey * Jay Robidaux * I. J. Walker * Julia Escalanti as Rico's wife * Danny Escalanti as boy with skypiece * Della Escalanti * Tony Fierro

Production crew

* Written, produced, and directed by Kent MacKenzie * Cinematography by Erik Daarstad, Robert Kaufman, John Morrill *Production by Ronald Austin, Sam Farnsworth, John Morrill, Erik Daarstad, Robert Kaufman, Beth Pattrick, Sven Walnum, Paula Powers * Additional photography by Sven Walnum, Nicholas Clapp, Vilis Lapenieks. * Archive photographs by

Edward S. Curtis Edward Sherriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis travele ...

* Editing by Kent Mackenzie, Warren Brown, Thomas Conrad, Erik Daastad, Thomas Miller, Beth Patrick * Music by Anthony Hilder, The Revels, Robert Hafner, Eddie Sunrise * Sound by Sam Farnsworth * Sound effects edited by Thomas Conrad

Additional crew

*Marvin Walowitz *Lawrence Silberman *Stuart Hanisch *Mindaugus Bagdon *Charles Smit *Judy Bradford *Ken Nelson *Ron Honthaner *David MacDougall *James Christensen *Stanley Follis *Ramon Ponce

References

External links

* * *''The Exiles'' essay by Catherine Russell at

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*''The Exiles'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide to the 50 Landmark Movies Added To The National Film Registry in 2009-10, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011, pages 103-10

Milestone Films
(distributor) {{DEFAULTSORT:Exiles, The 1961 films American documentary films American black-and-white films Documentary films about Native Americans United States National Film Registry films 1961 documentary films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films