Set in the shadows of a 1950s Los Angeles that has all but disappeared, Kent MacKenzie’s hybrid feature The Exiles follows a group of American Indian friends over the course of a typical Friday night. Featuring themes of urban decay and intimate betrayals, the film is a gritty portrayal of the consequences of the federal Indian policy of urban relocation and one community’s determination to survive. Why Did Gloria Die? provides a damning look at the ongoing human cost of racial prejudice and social neglect in 1970s Minneapolis through a heartrending journalistic investigation into an Ojibwe woman’s struggles. Finally, Charlie Hill (as Harold Sinseer) animates the screen with characteristic wit in Harold of Orange, leading the Warriors of Orange on a sojourn from the reservation to the boardroom as they pitch “pinch beans” as the next revolutionary elixir. With an original screenplay by Gerald Vizenor, the film is a wry critique of stereotypes about contemporary Native Americans.

—Sarah Whitt