Independent Lens . LOS ANGELES NOW . The Film

A city street scene with blurred lights and cars, lit-up club scene with two shadowed figures. A young boy, dressed in an oversized black hat, white tie, and dark jacket, stands in front of these two scenes. A quote reads: “Los Angeles may be a diagnostic of what a different America will look like and feel like in the next fifty years.”
—D.J. Waldie, author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir

Los Angeles, once the whitest city in America, is now the most multicultural city in the world. Yet the city's cultural transformation has gone largely overlooked by the movies, the media and even by many of its residents. The entertainment industry continues to churn out outdated images of L.A. while ignoring the many new stories emerging from the city's increasingly diverse population.

A rare and thoughtful evocation of a city, LOS ANGELES NOW looks beyond Baywatch and Blade Runner to create a fresh and candid portrait of America's second largest city following the close of its “Anglo century” (1900–2000). A fascinating look at a city where more than half of the population is Latino and 40 percent are foreign born, the film uses a groundbreaking high-definition format to explore challenging questions and provocative points of view. How will the city’s new Latino and Asian majorities work with other ethnic groups to create a cultural consensus? What is the future of L.A.’s unprecedented multiculturalism—will the city’s many neighborhoods balkanize, or coalesce? And despite earthquakes and a seemingly insatiable desire to destroy and rebuild, can the city retain a sense of history?

Against a backdrop of lights and blurred shadows of people, a quote reads: “Los Angeles is about creating new stories, creating new narratives… If you want dynamic, you have to be in Los Angeles.”
—Fernando Guerra, professor and director, the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University

LOS ANGELES NOW includes conversations with a broad range of the city’s figures, from acclaimed actor Salma Hayek and businessman/ philanthropist Eli Broad to renowned author and essayist Richard Rodriguez and Cardinal Roger Mahony. Far-reaching and thought provoking, the issues explored in the film are relevant well beyond the borders of the city, a city that, as filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez says that Los Angeles is “defined by its energy,” not by geographical boundaries. Many agree that Los Angeles serves as a diagnostic for other urban centers. Cities from Hartford to Las Vegas inevitably face the influx of immigrants, cultural confrontations and urban sprawl. LOS ANGELES NOW provides a much-needed starting point for imagining our American future.

Read exclusive interviews with the filmmaker and cinematographer of LOS ANGELES NOW >>

Learn more about L.A.’s changing neighborhoods >>

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