Directed by Diego Echeverria • 1984 • United States
Diego Echeverria’s vivid portrait of South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 1980s captures the challenges the neighborhood faced: poverty, drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single-parent homes, and inadequate local resources. It also celebrates the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community, showing the strength of the culture, its creativity, and its residents’ determination to overcome a desperate situation. Unseen for decades before its triumphant reemergence, this documentary time capsule represents an invaluable piece of New York history.
Up Next in New York Stories
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Stranger Than Paradise
Directed by Jim Jarmusch • 1984 • United States, Germany
Starring John Lurie, Richard Edson, Eszter BalintWith this breakout film, Jim Jarmusch established himself as one of the most exciting voices in the burgeoning independent-film scene, a road-movie poet with an affinity for Americana at it...
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Five Corners
Directed by Tony Bill • 1987 • United States
Starring Jodie Foster, John Turturro, Tim RobbinsYouthful idealism collides with matter-of-fact violence in a working-class Bronx neighborhood in the early 1960s in this captivatingly offbeat urban mosaic featuring an extraordinary ensemble cast. A w...
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King of New York
Directed by Abel Ferrara • 1990 • United States
Starring Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne, David CarusoRenegade director Abel Ferrara—working in collaboration with his regular screenwriter Nicholas St. John—brings his murky moral worldview and eye for pulp imagery to this kinetic, stylish...
