Stereotypes In The Exiless

The Exiles, a 1961 film written and directed by Kent Mackenzie, is both important to and relevant to this course as it challenges the conventional perception of Los Angeles as a city of opportunity, glamour, and riches for all by exposing the marginalization experienced by a group of 12 Native American men during the 1960s. In juxtaposition to the traditional image of Los Angeles as a city of glamour, riches, and opportunity, these men’s isolated accounts paints them as a collective group part of a larger demographic of marginalized Native Americans and indigenous peoples seeking an escape from their harsh realities. In this regard, Mackenzie not only contradicts many people's perceptions of Los Angeles in highlights its negative aspects, but

Such roaming of Los Angeles serves as their exercising their freedom to navigate their terrain, similar to how they did prior to the white men’s colonization of indigenous people’s lands. Ultimately, these twelve Native Americans, even amid being marginalized and deemed the ‘others,’ find solace in these crevices of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. This comfort amid marginalization and racial inequality serves as Mackenzie’s springboard in arguing that, despite the men being alienated from mainstream society due to being Native Americans and the fact that they bear the collective burden of being on the receiving end of marginalization, there is nonetheless a space for them to socialize within Los Angeles. Thus, this film is important to this course as Mackenzie is offering us a lens through which we can view 1960s Los Angeles; this film demonstrates Native Americans’ perseverance and ability to join arms and stay afloat amid the racial inequality and marginalization to which 1960s Los Angeles subjected Indigenous