Archive L.A. Stories: Engaging the City

Images from the Exhibition | Kim Abeles | Harry Adams Nancy Buchanan | Collage Ensemble | Mallory Cremin Don Normark | Public Works Administration | May Sun Stephen Callis, Leslie Ernst and Rubén Ortiz Torres L.A. Stories: Engaging the City Home Page | Archive - Fall 1998 Home

L.A. Stories: Stephen Callis, Leslie Ernst and Rubén Ortiz Torres

To live and work in L.A. is to witness multiple cataclysmic events and contradictions. Myriad narratives collide here and spin out from the epicenter of the city, which is not one. Among the most pervasive are those cast by the ever-present commercial image industry. From the shores of "Baywatch" to the mean streets of "Beverly Hills Cop," the "Southern California" of the popular imagination defies the lived experience of the place. Largely untold are the stories of the often invisible actors who work behind the scenes in L.A.'s tourist industry.

Working with a budget that might cater a lunch on the set of a Hollywood production, we created a story incorporating the issues that tourist industry workers confront on a daily basis. We chose to draw upon the highly accessible style of the fotonovela, a very popular cultural form particularly in Mexico. The fotonovela, and its media counterpart the telenovela, typically portray lurid tales of sexual exploitation and illicit liaisons in a highly melodramatic, narrative style. We sought to blend this form and noir detective fiction, a genre indigenous to Los Angeles, into an entertaining and informative work.

Murder in My Suite/Bienvenidos al Hotel California is the second project in a series that began with The Big Sweep/La Gran Limpieza. These collaborations emerged from our combined desires to unfold compelling, socially engaged narratives that are experimental rather than based on documentary conventions; to uncover hidden realities of workers whose labor makes L.A. possible; and to work closely with union representatives, union members and community activists to produce cultural projects.

Distinct to Murder in My Suite is the fact that we have delved into an existing narrative-- the organizing efforts of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 11 to unionize a major hotel in downtown Los Angeles. This narrative chronicles the conditions immigrant workers face on the job and within a city that is only able to function by virtue of their labor, a city that simultaneously denies them the decency of a livable wage and other basic rights.

Stephen Callis, Leslie Ernst, and Rubén Ortiz Torres have recommended the following websites. Visit them to gain a better understanding of the personal interests and social issues that influence their art:

• Labornet
• John Brown Books
• Alternativebooks.com