If you've been reading this website for any length of time, you'll know what a sucker I am for any stories about New York. If they're based here, feature characters from here, or even if they make a fleeting reference to New York, I'm all over them.
So it goes without saying that when
The Film Society of Lincoln Center emailed last week, inviting me to purchase a ticket to the 15th Anniversary screening of
"La Ciudad" ("The City"), I was intrigued. I'd never heard of the film before, but the invitation email described it as an immigration film about New York's Latin American community, "and a powerful exploration of what it means to be an American today". The late (and very great) critic
Roger Ebert even declared it to be "a movie to treasure", so of course I was sold.
Even though the rain was pouring outside on this dreary Wednesday, the mood inside Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theatre was buzzing. Such was the popularity of tonight's event that the only seats available when I arrived were in the very front row of the theatre. Initial disappointment quickly turned to wide-eyed wonder as four unrelated stories came to life on the screen in haunting black-and-white. "La Ciudad" was filmed over a seven year period and for the most part, the cast is comprised of non-professional immigrant workers.
In a panel discussion after the screening, two of the film's performers, its director
David Riker, and Producer,
Paul Mezey, cast their minds back 15 years and shared their stories on the uniqueness of the film-making experience.
Riker said that he relied on the non-professional actors to tell
him the authentic immigrant story of New York. That is, Riker needed his "actors" to show him what a sweatshop was really like (harrowing), or what it was to be a labourer and have to beg for work each day from business owners who may or may not end up paying you. Or what a mother goes through when she can't get her hands on the $400 she desperately needs to send back home for her sick young daughter. Or how a homeless, illiterate father can't enrol his daughter in school because he doesn't have a rent receipt or a phone bill to prove that they live in New York. Or what it feels like to arrive in New York, make a random connection that fills you with confidence, and then lose your way in the concrete jungle - all in the space of 12 hours. What dialogue there is in the film is largely in Spanish with English subtitles. But words aren't needed to convey pain, or desperation, or despondency, or frustration - that's all there in the eyes of the performers. It was really moving.
"La Ciudad" was remastered for tonight's screening, but the film makers have
launched a Kickstarter campaign to "rescue" the movie and put it onto DVD for wider distribution, as well as to make the movie available online. They're already half-way to meeting their $14,000 goal, which is really impressive. If they succeed in this endeavour, and you can get your hands on a copy of "La Ciudad", I would really recommend you watch it. The movie isn't fast-paced, and it is subtitled, but it is a remarkably timeless production that offers a perspective of the lives of New Yorkers that you may not otherwise get to know.
