La Ciudad: Tales of a City of Immigrants

by Hank Williams

La Ciudad is a feature length film made up of a series of vignettes chronicling life in the city (presumably New York) for immigrants. Writer/director David Riker traveled an unusual path in the making of his feature-length film debut. Riker, a photojournalist, felt a need to delve more deeply into his subjects and let them tell their own stories. The result of that decision was his enrollment in New York University’s Graduate Film School.

“The Puppeteer” was the genesis of La Ciudad. It began life as a 15-minute student film in 1992, and won awards, including the Student Film Award from the Director’s Guild of America. Riker shot the film, a story of a homeless puppeteer dreaming of a better life for his daughter, in just six days. The helplessness of the puppeteer, who is unable to register his daughter in school because he has no proof of residence, is a theme that pervades the movie. The warmth of the puppeteer to his daughter is in sharp contrast to the authorities he encounters. The school secretary, who is unable to sign the little girl up for school, and the city parks worker, who comments that “someone who loves his daughter that much would not let her go around with such a dirty face,” personify the coldness and indifference of the system.

Riker filmed La Ciudad between 1992 and 1997, using non-professional actors whenever possible. Riker explains simply: “I knew that no one could tell their stories better than they could.” Riker’s sensitivity to the subject and his actors is impressive: “My job as a director was to create a space that was safe for my actors. The non-professionals are primarily undocumented and their experience in New York has been hostile.”

Riker’s vision was also that of film as a force for change, by way of telling stories that might not get told. “Bricks,” the first vignette shown in the movie, and one of the most powerful, is one of those stories. He says, “In ‘Bricks’ it was difficult because I was dealing with men that had no continuity on the street corner. They were there for a couple of months and then they disappeared for good.”

“Bricks” documents the plight of the day laborer: hundreds of men line street corners in the early morning hoping to get picked up by someone needing workers. The workers swarm around every truck or van that pulls up to the curb, hoping to be chosen. The boss who picks the particular group shown in the movie transports them to a desolate area in New Jersey then changes the rules of the arrangement: instead of the $50 per day promised, he offers 15 cents for every brick they clean and stack. The workers try to organize, but the effort is thwarted by the desperation of some, who are unable to resist the temptation. The workers band together in the end after tragedy strikes the work crew, but their efforts are too little and too late.

The loneliness and exclusion felt by immigrants is a constant presence in La Ciudad. Riker uses the plot device of reading letters from home to convey the loneliness of loved ones for those who have left home to illustrate the point. The film was shot in black and white, and the images are of a city that is always overcast and dreary.

“Home” was a direct product of Riker’s attention to the community and grew from his observation of the rapidly increasing Mexican population, which made him decide that he needed to make a Mexican story. The story is one of an immigrant who has just arrived in the city and searching in vain for the apartment of his uncle. He stumbles into a sweet-15 birthday party and falls in love with a girl he meets there. Ironically, he loses his way after leaving the girl’s apartment and ends up not only lost but heartbroken as well.

The last story in the movie is “Seamstress,” about a group of sweatshop workers who are abused and owed back pay by the sweatshop bosses. Riker’s “casting call” followed a similar pattern: leafleting on an Eighth Avenue street corner during shift change. The process revealed Silvia Goiz, the lead woman in “Seamstress,” who really is a seamstress from Mexico.

David Riker wanted the final story in the film to answer the questions raised in “Bricks,” which he decided would be the opening story. “Seamstress” tackles how workers can come together to fight for a change in their circumstances, and the outcome is different from that of “Bricks.”

La Ciudad shows a city that most of us only see a part of, but the stories shown are ultimately the same as ours. The emotions are the same that we all have in trying to find our way in this world: complicated in this case, for people who find themselves in a strange land and often under hostile circumstances. Riker’s work also serves as an important lesson to us: you can try to understand people or react from hatred based in fear and ignorance. La Ciudad makes a strong case for understanding and knowledge.

La Ciudad, 88 minutes, playing at the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street.