I made a short documentary film in 2003. It gets less attention than my other project that wrapped that year (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), but it's close to my heart, and I think it holds up well.

Chavez Ravine, site of Dodger Stadium, was once home to a closely-knit Mexican-American community overlooking downtown Los Angeles—until 1950, when its residents were evicted in what came to be viewed as a historic injustice.

In my 26-minute film, black-and-white photographs of the neighborhood, taken by Don Normark in 1949 before it vanished, spark the reminiscences of former residents—and city planner Frank Wilkinson, who explains how the anti-Communist hysteria of the period made the Chavez Ravine boondoggle possible. Cheech Marin (of Cheech & Chong) narrates; Ry Cooder contributed a wonderful musical score featuring Lalo Guerrero. Last Express alumni Tomi Pierce, Mark Moran, and Andy Anderson all lent their time and talents.

As a self-funded indie film, we got a huge break by winning the 2003 IDA award for Best Short Documentary. PBS noticed, and acquired it for their Independent Lens series. For the past 20 years, the PBS version (trimmed by 3 minutes for television and home video) is the only edition that's been available for viewing... until now!

Opening cartons

Much as I forgot where I'd packed away the 1989 Prince of Persia source code until it turned up in 2012, I was excited to discover a DVCAM cassette tantalizingly labeled "Chavez Ravine" in a storage locker this summer. I had the tape transferred (by OnNumerise, a nifty shop in Paris). As I hoped, it was a dub of the original, uncut film we'd submitted to festivals in 2003.

Now you can watch Chavez Ravine here for free. Compared to the TV version (the one with 300K views on YouTube), the new upload is higher resolution, with corrected subtitles, and all of the original music. I hope you'll enjoy it.

I just re-watched it myself (a pleasant half-hour to share with friends), and was struck that although I made it concurrently with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the film has strong thematic links with my recent graphic novels Replay, Monte Cristo, and Liberty!—maybe because rather than taking place in a far-away exotic land, those books are also about America.