Menace II Society (Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, 1993)
The Hughes brothers’ uncompromising vision of life on the streets of Los Angeles’s Watts neighborhood sent shockwaves through the American indie film scene of the early 1990s.
35MM Print
Film/Video Theater
After directing videos for artists including Tupac Shakur and Tone Loc, Albert and Allen Hughes rocked both the hip-hop and filmmaking worlds with the debut of their stylish first feature film. Small-time dealer Caine (Tyrin Turner) thinks he might want out of the gang life of Watts. As a kid he watched his mother overdose and his father kill a man, and he was present when his friend O-Dog (Larenz Tate) killed a store clerk. But despite some positive influences in his life, he is pulled deeper and deeper into a world of violence and hopelessness. Also with Jada Pinkett Smith and Samuel L. Jackson. (97 mins., 35mm)