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The City (1998 film)
The City (Spanish: La ciudad) is a 1998 American neo-realist film written and directed by David Riker, his first feature film, and shot in grainy black-and-white film stock. The drama features actor Joseph Rigano and, in neo-realist fashion, an ensemble cast of non-professional actors. The film is also known as: The City (La Ciudad).[2] The drama consists of four vignettes that plunges you onto New York City's poorer neighborhoods where Latin American immigrants, many of whom barely speak English, live at the mercy of exploitative employers and inflexible institutions. Many of the characters are in the United States illegally to make money in order to send back home to their poor families. The picture won numerous awards including the Organisation Catholique Internationale du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel (OCIC Award) at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. PlotAmong intermittent scenes of Latin Americans having their photo taken by a photographer, the four stories in the picture include:
CastProfessional actors
Non-professional actors
Bricks
Home
The Puppeteer
Seamstress
ProductionDavid Riker spent five years researching the project (1992-1997), and worked with the non-professional actors in order to capture the "impoverished authenticity of life on the streets" of the Latino community in New York City.[citation needed] The film was shot on 16mm.[1] ReleaseThe film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1998 before appearing at other festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival. However, it took a long while to find a distributor, until Zeitgeist Films agreed to distribute it. They released it October 22, 1999 and it grossed $125,000 in a 10-week run. It was re-released in three New York City theaters by Echo Lake in areas with a high Latino population over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend where it grossed $12,976. Zeitgeist also re-released it in four arthouse theaters in other US cities.[1] Home mediaA DVD of the film was released by New Yorker Video on June 7, 2005. The DVD includes the featurette: The Making of a Community Film. In a DVD review of the DVD, technology critic Gary W. Tooze, wrote, "New Yorker have drastically improved their DVD packages in the past few months with strong extra feature additions, but their image quality appears to have plateau'd. This is non-anamorphic and exhibits minor coming in spots (non-progressive) but much of the inferiority of the image is a function of the independent manner in which it was produced...The featurette addition is a super extra and helps further appreciation of this fine film. Even with the weak image we strongly recommend!"[3] ReceptionCritical responseThe film critic for The New York Times, Stephen Holden, lauded then film when it was released, and wrote,"The City doesn't go out of its way to pull your heartstrings, but its understatement makes it all the more devastating. The anxious, careworn faces of downtrodden people who have no choice but to continue as best they can convey their plight more powerfully than any words. New Yorkers will recognize these faces. There are tens of thousands of them. They're only too glad to do our dirty work."[4] Film critic Roger Ebert also liked the film and its message and wrote," [The City is] a direct, spare, touching film developed by Riker during six years of acting workshops with immigrants in New York City...Finally [the film] is making its way around the country, at venues like the Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It is a film that would have great power for Spanish-speaking working people, who of course are unlikely to find it at the Film Center. Eventually on television, it may find a broader audience. It gives faces to the faceless and is not easily forgotten.[5] Edward Guthmann, the San Francisco Chronicle staff critic, wrote of the film, "[The City] is Riker's first film and a lovely realization of his humanist dream. Honest and unvarnished, it succeeds in drawing us inside a world—the Latin American immigrant culture of New York—that we typically see only from its periphery." Yet, Guthman thought the film was uneven and he added, "Seamstress" is the strongest vignette in The City, and unfortunately the rest of the film doesn't match its impact. The first piece, "Bricks," is slow in starting, and the second, "Home," is emotionally flat and can't mask the amateurishness of the leads. The City has its awkward and rough edges, but there's a purity here, a goodness of intention and a commitment to justice.[6] AwardsWins
Nominated
References
External links
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