La Ciudad (The City) (1998)

The stories of four Hispanic immigrants living in New York City.

Director:

David Riker

Writer:

David Riker

Stars:

Anthony Rivera, Joseph Rigano, Miguel Maldonado

11 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anthony Rivera	...	The Boy
Joseph Rigano	...	The Contractor
Miguel Maldonado	...	The Organizer
Ricardo Cuevas	...	Man
Moisés García	...	Man
Marcos Martínez García	...	Man
Mateo Gómez	...	Man
Cezar Monzón	...	Man
Harsh Nayyar	...	Man
Fernando Reyes	...	Man
Víctor Sierra	...	Man
Carlos Torrentes	...	Man
Cipriano García	...	Francisco, the Young Man
Leticia Herrera	...	Maria, the Young Woman
José Rabelo	...	Luis - The Father

Storyline

The stories of four Hispanic immigrants living in New York City.

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Plot Keywords:

immigrant | hispanic | mexican immigrant | vacant lot | working class | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Korean

Release Date:

7 July 2000 (Spain)

Also Known As:

The City

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,443, 24 October 1999, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$239,074, 14 May 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Journeyman Pictures, Echo Lake Entertainment, Independent Television Service (ITVS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Bringing Out the Dead/Body Shots/Crazy in Alabama/Three to Tango/The City (1999)

User Reviews

The story of Hispanic Immigrants. Great Film

La Ciudad tells four stories of what illegal immigrant life is like in New York City. It is a black and white film with English subtitles. The first story depicts the life of illegal immigrants trying to find any work. A Italian man tells and hires a few of the Hispanic men for fifty dollars a day, and loads them in a truck and takes them to a site with broken down buildings. The Hispanics are supposed to clean and stack bricks for only fifteen cents each, not the fifty dollars they were promised by the Italian man.

The second story deals with a young man, Francisco, who just arrived in America and is looking for his Uncle. As he is searching for his Uncle's apartment, he hears music from a wedding and decides to go and see what is going on. There he meets a girl, Maria, who he dances with and begins to talk to her. After the wedding is over, both Francisco and Maria go back to her apartment, where Francisco spends the night on the couch and plans to have breakfast with Maria in the morning. When he wakes up, he realized that there is no food to eat and decides to go and buy some food. On his way back from picking up food, he realized he had no idea where he was and even how to get back to her apartment.

The third story is about a homeless Hispanic man and his daughter. The man takes his daughter and tries to enroll her in school; however, he is unable to do so because he has no address or telephone bill. The schools needed proof that he lived in the city, and with no proof he could not enroll her in school.

Finally, the fourth story is about a woman, Ana, who works in a sewing factory. The factory has not paid any of the employees for approximately a month, and the workers cannot do anything about it. They just hope and pray that they will get a paycheck the next week. She gets a phone call from back home and discovers that her daughter is ill and she needs four hundred dollars to pay medical bills. She asks her employer to pay her because she needs to pay medical bills; however, her boss says that they don't have the money. She also tried to sell dresses to a dress store however the store would not accept dresses from someone on the street. Finally, Ana became fed up and decided not to work at the factory and just sat at her sewing machine and would not work until she was paid. Then all of the other workers one by one began to stop working as well.

This movie is heartfelt. It shows what an illegal immigrant's life is like and the conditions they live and work in. It really opened my eyes more. I actually saw some of the atrocities that immigrants are put through each day. This movie is extremely powerful. It really makes each person think about why this happens. I'm sure many people think that immigrants who come into the United States live just as good of lives as everyone else, but that is not the case. This movie is an important movie for each person to see. But don't let me be the judge of this movie, watch it yourself and make up your own mind!