Crossroads: Boyle Heights (film)

A documentary film compiled from life histories of past and present residents of Boyle Heights, a working-class neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles. From the 1920s-1950s, Boyle Heights was a racially and ethnically diverse home to immigrants from Mexico, Japan, England, Germany, Russia and Armenia as well as people from the east, the south and the southwest portions of the United States who lived, worked and worshiped in the area. The film also explores how the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and their postwar return affected businesses and friendships. While many Japanese Americans faced hostility in other parts of Los Angeles, residents of Boyle Heights share stories of a deeper empathy with the plight of those incarcerated. Crossroads: Boyle Heights was originally produced to accompany the exhibition Boyle Heights: The Power of Place (2002) at the Japanese American National Museum .

The Crossroads: Boyle Heights DVD includes three walking tours and a visual portrait of contemporary Boyle Heights street scenes.

Might also like Island Roots (2007); East of Occidental: The History of Seattle's Chinatown (1988); Leap of Faith: How Enmanji Temple Was Saved (2010)