CRITIC'S PICK

Kenneth Turan "The Exiles"

One of the key attractions of this lost and legendary Los Angeles documentary, unseen in nearly 50 years, is its luminous black-and-white photography, and unless you act now, you will lose your chance to see it on a big screen, perhaps forever. A cinéma vérité look at the rootless Native American community that once upon a time lived in Bunker Hill and hung out in downtown bars such as Club Ritz, this Kent Mackenzie film is a brooding picture of a darkly beautiful, long-gone Los Angeles, from the houses of Bunker Hill to the raucous downtown of 55-cent shots and Lucky Lager in cans. "The Exiles," along with Mackenzie's documentary short on Bunker Hill, is playing today through Saturday at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood's Hammer Museum. It should be seen.

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