Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.
Loosely based on the filmmaker's personal experience, "Terra Nullius" is an impressionistic account of an eight year old Koori girl, Alice, growing up in a white adoptive family which denies her Aboriginality. The film examines how unacknowledged shame and fear passes from one generation to the next, from one culture to another. The last scene depicts a silent meeting between the young Alice and the adult Alice. In order to reclaim her life, Alice decides she must confront the pain and confusion of her childhood.
Lonely college student Alex encounters his favorite filmmaker, JP Smith, stalking around his sleepy town in upstate NY. Together they form a precarious relationship, with Alex becoming the star of JP’s latest flick.
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
Violence erupts when two vicious street gangs go to war in the inner city. Duke, the gang leader of Tokers Town, is feeling the pressure from his Barrio to go to war with their rival gang 14th St. But while Duke was in jail he made a peace treaty with the leader of 14th St. only to discover they had broken it. Now with his homies getting shot and his mothers pleas to stop the violence he is at the breaking point.
A confident young cop is shown the ropes by a veteran partner in the dangerous gang-controlled barrios of Los Angeles, where the gang culture is enforced by the colors the members wear.
During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits.
The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real estate developers and politicians determined to acquire their land for a golf resort.
Matthew (Steve Verhulst) an older, self-absorbed, boring, travel worker meets Anna (Sofia Sparta) a young, wild, multifaceted artist that is looking to push the boundaries of society for the acceptance of her own work.
An innocent man is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but as he's about to be hanged he accidentally kills his executioner. He now faces a new trial, presided over by a young and inexperienced judge.
El Gallo, a young musician who seeks to find his place in this world through Mexican melodies, finds an old love on a party night but realizes that he, like the city where he grew up, has changed.
Odessa is a young warrior in a strange world. As a child, she receives a prophecy from her master, and now she trains her body and spirit to achieve her destiny.
We're all searching for something! Explorer Reed Randle goes deep into the woods on an adventure looking for the "Bigfoot" creature. Lost within himself, can he find meaning again?
Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.
The life of engineer and former NASA astronaut José M. Hernández, the first migrant farmworker to go to space.
An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with the neurotic wife of his casino boss.
Johnny Sun is a Mexican American with a white mother and Mexican dad. He witnesses his parents murder and gets his revenge years later, leading to a hard life as a gangster in drugs and smuggling. He tries to keep his borther from the life and finds himself fending for his own life.
A young and inexperienced actress is hand selected by a high profile director whose manipulative and abusive directing style is enforced for the sake of art.
Two estranged friends, Chloe and Brooklyn, break down after fleeing the home of Micheal Davis, renowned Children’s Author, where he’s presumably been murdered. Brook attempts to take care of both the broken down car, Sabrina, and the wounded Chloe suffering from a bullet wound. The two argue as they wrestle with the frustration of going nowhere. Brooklyn eventually helps Chloe by removing the bullet from her shoulder and then sewing it up all the while Chloe reveals why she decided to visit her childhood home in Bombay Beach instead of remaining separate with her fiancee in New York.
In California, a Mexican-American laborer is falsely accused of shooting the racist farmer he was working for after the farmer stiffed him with a bad check.