The Exiles on DVD

Kent Mackenzie’s remarkable 1961 film The Exiles was released on DVD this Tuesday (you can buy it from Amazon, but, you know, try not to). The two-disc set includes a whole bunch of Mackenzie’s short work, documentation of his process, and an interview between Stranger contributor Sean Axmaker and Stranger Genius Sherman Alexie.

I reviewed The Exiles about a year ago:

Possibly the first, probably the best, and surely the prettiest film about young, urban Native Americans, 1961’s The Exiles follows a handful of twentysomething Indians as they wander through long-disappeared sections of Los Angeles. Director Kent MacKenzie, then a student at USC, recorded quiet, rambling monologues from his subjects, which play over gorgeous black-and-white footage of their nightly pursuits: drinking, gambling, dancing, playing air piano, brawling, climbing up stairs, walking up hills, and slowly disappearing down lonely dead ends.

And here’s the trailer:

More on The Exiles from Charles Mudede in next week’s issue.