(Luis Valdez, US 1981, 103 min., DCP)
Luis Valdez adapts his own stage production (the first Latin-American play on Broadway) into this striking film version. Edward James Olmos reprises his role from the stage as “El Pachuco,” the narrator of the film and the conscience of Henry Reyna (Daniel Valdez, also reprising his role). Alternating between past and present and stage and screen, the film tells the story of Henry, arrested for murder the day before he is to report for duty in World War II. Browbeaten by the police, Henry’s case is forced through the system while El Pachuco shows the events leading up to the fatal confrontation. Inspired by the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the 1943 Zoot Suit riots, Valdez’s work explores the lives of Mexican-Americans in a society that would just as soon discard them.
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Latin Cinematic Heritage Legendary Puerto Rican actor Raul Julia returns as Gomez, the patriarch of the Addams family. After being reunited with his brother Fester (Christopher Lloyd), Gomez and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) have a third child. They hire a nanny, Debbie (Joan Cusack), to care for the child and to keep his older siblings, Wednesday and Puggsly (Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman, respectively) from trying to murder him.
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