Movies: Ghetto

The film tells the story of Ramón Antonio Brizuela, who since childhood has to deal with rampant violence and the drugs, sex and petty thievery of a Caracas slum. Starting with delinquency, Ramón moves on to serious gang activity and robberies. He gr...

The devastating story of brothers Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, children of the Chicago ghetto, is powerfully told here by a Wall Street Journal reporter who first met the boys in 1985 when they were 10 and 7, respectively. Their family includes a mo...

In this modern adaptation of the classic Greek myth two young lovers bound by a tragic fate plot to escape their homes to start a new life somewhere far from their families....

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The Police Tapes is a 1977 documentary about a New York City police precinct in the South Bronx. The original ran ninety minutes and was produced for public television; a one-hour version later aired on ABC. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond spent th...

Rio de Janeiro. Confronted with the violence that exists in the favela where he lives, Tiago sees the only way out to become a soccer player and, in this way, help his family to have a better life. Although he is the best player in his neighborhood a...

Set in a present day urban environment, "Jack Boyz" is the gritty tale of an ambitious crew of stick-up men with a flawless record. Led by the wise and meticulous minded Salim, the gang follows a strict week-long regimen of cleansing and synergy befo...

FLYIN' CUT SLEEVES, completed in 1993, portrays street gang presidents in the Bronx. Their world was the streets, set against a backdrop of uprooted families, cultural alienation, drugs and violence. Neighborhood teenagers responded by organizing int...

Filmed on the rooftops of lower Manhattan, this performance film features the original Last Poets performing 28 numbers adapted from their legendary Concept-East Poetry appearance at New York's Paperback Theater in 1969. Described as “a conspiracy of...

JAY-Z reminisces on his days as a hustler in Marcy Houses in Brooklyn....

Some argue that modern graffiti was born in Philadelphia, where the pioneers of wall-writing became citywide celebrities during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Graffiti eventually consumed the city, and a new mayor made it his top priority to fight b...

A slapstick burlesque of 19th Century Victorian melodrama featuring a parody of Holmes and Watson who rescue a heroine held by a mustache-twirling villain in a den of caricatured Chinese gangsters....

The Korean Academy of Film Arts has produced an animation for 3 consecutive years through a collaborative project. Considering the severe reality of Korean animation in that it lacks an industrial infrastructure, "The House" demonstrates the possibil...

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In this French comedy, the young adult children of working-class Arab immigrants living in the projects of suburban Paris endeavor to find a suitable cultural identity. The story centers on four young men in their 20s: Farida, who tries to live accor...

Leon Gast's musical documentary reveals New York City's Latin culture and features live performances of salsa greats The Fania All Stars and The Spanish Speaking People of New York. A document of urban American Hispanic culture, Gast's film captures ...

A low-budget film about a father who's proffession is unknown to his 3 daughters. He is a don in the BMF (Black Mafia Family) in New York. But his family is about to find out, as some lowgrade criminals want to take his spot at the top....

A story of two men who become heroin addicts, what they must do to support their habit and how it affects their lives....

In the winter of 1991 an ABC film crew spent six weeks following Sydney's Redfern police. The inner city patrol of Redfern is predominantly working class with a large aboriginal and migrant population. The police in this film are general duties off...

"In this half-hour documentary, Producer Sandra King provides an intimate portrait of a public phenomenon: Graffiti. Over an 18 month period, King and her crew followed the teenage members of a graffiti 'crew,' Vandals on the Street, as they painted ...