Los Sures

A Puerto Rican Barrio in Brooklyn

Diego Echeverria's Los Sures skillfully represents the challenges of its time: drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single-parent homes, and inadequate local resources in Los Sures, a Puerto Rican barrio in Brooklyn. Five different people living in this Brooklyn neighborhood, are the focus of five episodes in this documentary. As seen through the eyes and ears of each of the barrio's five inhabitants, the litter-strewn streets and crumbling tenements representative of the worst urban blight cannot completely dominate the human spirit.

Remarkably, some hope and ambition and drive are still present in spite of the crime and grime that settles over the neighborhood like dust. It paints a portrait that celebrates the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community, showing the strength of their culture, their creativity, and their determination to overcome a desperate situation.

"A must see for those interested in both the history of Lost New York and the power of nonfiction cinema." - The New York Times

"A picture whose in-the-trenches look at poverty is humane and, sadly, perpetually timely." - The Hollywood Reporter

"An invaluable, wonderfully restored filmic record of a poverty-stricken lost New York time and world, set in a now highly improbable and affluent area." - Film Journal International

Includes 5 short films from the Living Los Sures project, the expanded documentary project from UnionDocs based on the feature film Los Sures. The project includes over 30 short films, the interactive documentary 89 STEPS, and the cinematic people's history SHOT BY SHOT.