| Nuyorican Dream |
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| Directed By:
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Laurie Collyer
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| Produced In:
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USA, 2000
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| Running Time:
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97 minutes
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| Genre:
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Documentary
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| Language:
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English and Spanish with English Subtitles
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| Themes:
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Cultural Identity: Latino, Drugs and Addiction, Immigration, Puerto Rico
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| Distributor:
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California Newsreel
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Synopsis:
In an American media landscape offering few Puerto Rican stories, NUYORICAN
DREAM makes an urgent and resounding arrival. Combining cinema verite and
personal documentary with astounding access to her subjects over a seven-year
period, director Laurie Collyer delivers a powerhouse of emotion and insight
with this chronicle of the struggles and aspirations of three generations of
the Marta Gutierrez family. The film follows Robert Torres, Marta's eldest son
and the only member of his family to finish both high school and college and
make it out of the Bronx tenements. College was supposed to lead to the
American Dream, but the experience of transcending class has alienated Robert
from his classmates and, ultimately, his family. Two of his sisters battle
drug addiction, and his younger brother attempts to stay out of jail while his
mother shoulders the family problems, housing both children and grandchildren
on a meager income. Robert's position between the worlds of school and the
street lends the film a powerful double consciousness: a deeply personal and
sympathetic view of his troubled family and an incisive analysis of the
effects of colonialism and poverty on Puerto Rican people.
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