The City (1998 film)
Encyclopedia
The City (1998) is an American neo-realist
film written and directed by David Riker
, his first feature film, and shot in gritty 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).
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
.
Non-professional actors
Bricks
Home
The Puppeteer
Seamstress
A 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!"
, 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."
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.
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.
Nominated
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
film written and directed by David Riker
David Riker
David Riker is an American screenwriter and film director.He was born in Boston, and at the age of five, his family moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he attended a French-speaking school...
, his first feature film, and shot in gritty black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
film stock. The drama features actor Joseph Rigano
Joseph Rigano
Joseph Rigano born 1933 is an Italian-American character actor.He often plays stereotypical mobsters in films such as Casino, Analyze This and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. He is often recognized for his hoarse, wheezy voice....
and, in neo-realist fashion, an ensemble cast of non-professional actors. The film is also known as: The City (La Ciudad).
The drama consists of four vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
that plunges you onto New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
'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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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
San Sebastián International Film Festival
The San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
.
Plot
Among intermittent scenes of Latin Americans having their photo taken by a photographer, the four stories in the picture include:- Bricks (Ladrillos): a group of well-motivated Latino men wait on a street corner for someone to hire them. A contractor (Joseph RiganoJoseph RiganoJoseph Rigano born 1933 is an Italian-American character actor.He often plays stereotypical mobsters in films such as Casino, Analyze This and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. He is often recognized for his hoarse, wheezy voice....
) appears in a truck and selects 10 men and promises each $50 for a day of work. But after they are dropped off across the Hudson River in a dusty lot where a building has been demolished, the terms of employment are revised by the contractor. They are to clean-up bricks and do it on a piecemeal basis (15 cents a brick). The men are not happy but mush on nevertheless. An accident happens and the men are unable to help the victim and appear helpless in their fate.
- Home (Casa): a young man named Francisco (Cipriano Garcia) newly arrived in New York strays into a "sweet 15" party and meets a serious young woman named Maria (Leticia Herrera) who turns out to be from the same Mexican town. Because he has no place to stay, she takes him home to her uncle's house. The next morning when he goes to buy some groceries for breakfast, he can't find his way back.
- The Puppeteer (Titiriero): is a homeless street performer named Luis (Jose Rabelo) who is suffering from tuberculosis and lives with his daughter Dulce in an old station wagon. Hearing that every child in the city is guaranteed an education, the puppeteer, who has refused to stay in city shelters because of contagious diseases, attempts to enroll his daughter in school but is unable to prove he lives in New York City.
- Seamstress (Costurera): in the final and politically incendiary vignette, a woman named Ana (Silvia Goiz) works in a sweatshop where no one has been paid for several weeks. She receives a letter from home with the news that her daughter has fallen ill and needs $400 for an operation. She pleads with her bosses for her back pay but she's threatened with dismissal.
Cast
Professional actors- Joseph RiganoJoseph RiganoJoseph Rigano born 1933 is an Italian-American character actor.He often plays stereotypical mobsters in films such as Casino, Analyze This and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. He is often recognized for his hoarse, wheezy voice....
as The Contractor - Mateo Gómez as Man (Bricks story)
- José Rabelo as Luis, The Father (Puppeteer story)
- Teresa Yenque as Consuelo (Seamstress story)
- Taek Limb Hyoung as Sweatshop Manager (Seamstress story)
- Jawon Kim as Sweatshop Manager (Seamstress story)
Non-professional actors
- Antonio Peralta as The Photographer
Bricks
- Fernando Reyes as Jose
- Anthony Rivera as The Boy
- Miguel Maldonado as The Organizer
- Ricardo Cuevas as Man
- Moisés García as Man
- Marcos Martínez García as Man
- Cezar Monzón as Man
- Harsh Nayyar as Man
- Víctor Sierra as Man
- Carlos Torrentes as Man
Home
- Cipriano García as Francisco, the Young Man
- Leticia Herrera as Maria, the Young Woman
The Puppeteer
- Stephanie Viruet as Dulce, the Daughter
- Gene Ruffini as The City Worker
- Eileen Vega as The Health Worker
- Denia Brache as The Friend
- Marta de la Cruz as The School Registrar
Seamstress
- Silvia Goiz as Ana, the Seamstress
- Rosa Caguana as Friend
- Guillermina De Jesus as Friend
- Betty Mendoza as Friend
- Ángeles Rubio as Friend
Production
David 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.Distribution
DVDA 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!"
Critical response
The film critic for The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, 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."
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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.
Edward Guthmann, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
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.
Awards
Wins- San Sebastián International Film FestivalSan Sebastián International Film FestivalThe San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
: OCIC Award (Organisation Catholique Internationale du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel), David Riker. This is an additional special award; 1998. - Havana Film FestivalHavana Film FestivalThe Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Spanish-language filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, and in English as Festival of New Latinamerican Cinema of La Havana.The festival takes place...
: Coral, Best Work of a Non-Latin American Director on a Latin America Subject, David Riker; 1998. - Gotham AwardsGotham AwardsThe Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City...
: Open Palm Award, David Riker; 1999. - Human Rights Watch International Film Festival: Nestor Almendros Award, David Riker; Tied with Regret to Inform; 1999.
- XSW Film Festival: SXSW Competition Award, Narrative Feature, David Riker; 1999.
- San Antonio CineFestival: Premio Mesquite Award, Best Feature Film, David Riker; 1999.
- Santa Barbara International Film FestivalSanta Barbara International Film FestivalThe Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
: Independent Voice Award, David Riker; Lumina Award, Harlan Bosmajian; 1999. - Taos Talking Picture Festival: Taos Land Grant Award, David Riker; 1999.
Nominated
- Independent Spirit AwardsIndependent Spirit AwardsThe Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
: Independent Spirit Award, Best Cinematography, Harlan Bosmajian; Best First Feature - Under $500,000, David Riker (director/producer) and Paul S. Mezey (producer); Producers Award, Paul S. Mezey; 2000.
External links
- The City site for ITVSITVSIndependent Television Service is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries and dramas on public television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly series Independent Lens and Global Voices on PBS....
on PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.... - The City at DVD Beaver (includes images)