THE EXILES

**Ends Thursday, October 23rd**

"An astonishing, heartbreaking viewing experience and, in its new release from Milestone Films, a major work of restoration and rediscovery." - Andrew O'Hehir, SALON.COM

"CRITICS PICK. Kent Mackenzie's jazzy 1961 film chronicles a day in the life of a group of Native Americans who left their reservations in favor of the glitz and smoke of fifties Los Angeles. Surprisingly enthralling and breathtakingly gorgeous, it's almost astonishing that this find languished in the archives for so long." - Sara Cardace, NEW YORK MAGAZINE

Presented by acclaimed author Sherman Alexie (Reservation Blues) and celebrated filmmaker Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep)!
**Please note: Sherman Alexie and Charles Burnett will not actually be appearing at The Loft Cinema in conjunction with the film.**

Originally made in 1961, and only now seeing the light of a much-deserved theatrical release, Kent MacKenzie's THE EXILES is a dusk-to-dawn story of young American Indians in Los Angeles’ tough Bunker Hill neighborhood. Brilliantly photographed in stunning high contrast black and white (creating a neon-soaked world that resembles a Weegee photograph come to life), and featuring a driving rock-n-roll soundtrack by The Revels, THE EXILES follows a group of friends as they spend one eventful night bar-hopping, drinking, fighting, laughing and dancing. Before dawn breaks, friendships will be tested, hearts will be broken, and the ever-encroaching loneliness will be put to rest for one more night.

Over the course of three years, young filmmaker Kent Mackenzie collaborated closely with his Native American cast to chronicle their lives as urban exiles from their reservations in the Southwest – a story that has been virtually ignored in contemporary cinema. Breaking away from traditional Hollywood filmmaking, Mackenzie created a brutally honest, documentary style that combined glowing cinematography with gritty realism, anticipating the arrival of such indie mavericks as John Cassavettes (Faces), Lionel Rogosin (On the Bowery) and Shirley Clarke (The Cool World) – all essential members of the groundbreaking American Independent cinema movement of the early Sixties. After its world premiere at the 1961 Venice Film Festival, THE EXILES was championed by enthusiastic critics as a brilliant landmark not only for its construction, but also for its radical depiction of modern Native American life, but the film never found theatrical distribution and for decades languished in obscurity.

Now, Milestone Films, who in 2007 re-released Charles Burnett's 1977 masterpiece Killer of Sheep to widespread acclaim, presents this beautiful, newly restored 35 mm print, which was supervised by noted film historian and preservationist Ross Lipman of UCLA’s Film & Television Archives. Championed and presented by Sherman Alexie and Charles Burnett, this brand-new version of a "lost" classic debuted at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival to great acclaim, and THE EXILES can now find the audience it has always deserved.

Visit the Official Site at http://www.exilesfilm.com