The Price of Delivery (The Brian Lehrer Show: Friday, 06 June 2008

Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker , co-directors of Take Out , talk about their film which chronicles a day in the life of an illegal immigrant struggling to pay off his smuggling debt.

Negron-Muntaner, Frances. "Feeling Pretty: West Side Story and Puerto Rican Identity Discourses." Social Text 18.2 (2000): 83-106.

West Side Story is often hailed as an intimate look at street life in poor, racially divided New York neighborhoods, but this paper argues that the film's dealings with New York City gang life is superficial and uninformed. There is agreement that, while dealing very generally with relevant themes, the story is not intended to realistically represent Puerto Rican immigration or culture. The creators of the play and film admit that their knowledge was limited even during the film's production.

The film portrays the Puerto Rican identities in a stereotypical manner--the males are all violent, aggressive gang members, while the females are all highly sexualized, whether overtly (Anita) or innocently (Maria) and rarely seen without a male escort. Racialization, or the collection of techniques used to enhance the racial divides, is the cause of much of the film's tension. Makeup is used to make Bernardo's skin darker, both Maria and Bernardo have obviously falsified Puerto Rican accents, and the European-descended Jets all happen to be blonde-haired. Negron-Muntaner notes that without these tricks, all the actors would appear to be simply American. The Puerto Ricans are presented throughout the film amidst a generic "Latino" culture of bright colors, broad movements, and unidentifiable music and accents. One particularly persuasive point for the racial inequality shown by the story's creators is the relative quality of a Puerto Rican vs. American life. Maria was brought to the U.S. to marry Chino, another Puerto Rican, but only finds happiness (and self esteem, as evidenced by her song, "I Feel Pretty") when she receives the affections of Tony, a white man.

The other important topic discussed in this paper is the issue of Puerto Rican/U.S. territoriality. Puerto Rico is the U.S.'s most significant territory, and the turf war between the Jets and the Sharks somewhat reflects the colonial relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. As Negron-Muntaner explains, "Puerto Rico itself belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States; it is bound by the law but has no rights under the law" (86). So it is with the Puerto Rican characters of West Side Story; they are citizens of New York but "belonging" is just as out of reach as it would be for Puerto Ricans still living on their home island. The article also touches upon the themes of homosexuality and gender identity in the film, notably in the characters of Baby John and Anybodys, but as these claims are not as well argued or supported, nor readily apparent upon a more-or-less casual analysis of the film, the articles focus is on the racial themes.

Black Label bicycle club

(i think it is a documentary - but it is unclear)

 see also myspace page for the film - http://www.myspace.com/bikemovie