The Exiles

The Exiles is an “anti-theatrical” and “anti-social-documentary” film. It was conceived, not necessarily in protest against those two forms of film usage, but rather in search for a true and different format which would reveal the complex problems of the Indians in the city. Instead of leading an audience through an orderly sequence of problems-decisions-action and solution on the part of the characters, we sought to photograph the infinite details surrounding these people, to let them speak for themselves, and to let the fragments mount up. Then, instead of supplying a resolution, we hoped that somewhere in the showing, the picture would become, to the viewer, a revelation of a condition about which he will either do something, or not — whichever his own reaction dictates.

The film shows 14 hours from the everyday lives of Native Americans who have left their reservation to live in the City of Angels. When night falls, the young men go out drinking, playing cards, flirting with women, fighting and dancing. The Apache Yvonne goes to the cinema alone. One critic wrote about the scenes of an aimless night co-developed with the amateur actors: “They have lost their reservations and themselves.”

The Exiles | R: Kent Mackenzie | USA 1961 | 72 min | O-ton Englisch (keine UT)