The Raid
Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the run-down apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building's lights are cut and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the sixth floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city's worst to survive their mission. Starring Indonesian martial arts sensation Iko Uwais.
A Patch of Blue
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.
The Window
An imaginative boy who frequently makes things up witnesses a murder, but can't get his parents or the police to believe him. The only people taking him seriously are the killers - who live upstairs, know that he saw what they did, and are out to permanently silence him.
Dead End
The lives of a young man and woman, an infamous gangster and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.
In America
A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
The Long Night
City police surround a building, attempting to capture a suspected murderer. The suspect knows there is no escape but refuses to give in.
Rafter Romance
A working girl shares her apartment with an artist, taking the place in shifts.
One Third of a Nation
The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building's residents.
Street Scene
The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.
The Musketeers of Pig Alley
A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.
Three's a Crowd
Harry, The Odd Fellow, is a tenement worker who lives alone in a shack alongside a warehouse and longs for the companionship of a wife and children like other men. One day he spies a pretty girl in his telescope and sends her by carrier pigeon a note that, alas, is received by the wrong party. The Girl marries and, poverty-striken, leaves her husband during a snowstorm. Harry takes her in, and minutes later her child is born. He works like a slave for the mother and child, pretending they are his own. Meanwhile, the husband finds her and comes to the shack on Christmas Eve as Harry is preparing to play Santa Claus. Not realizing the unhappiness she is causing him, The Girl thanks him profusely and leaves with her husband. Overcome, Harry sits overnight on the doorstep and the next morning is found frozen stiff except for his eyes--with amusing results.
L'Appartement
Straight Is the Way
Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.
Two News Items
"The body of a white woman found floating in the East River last night was later identified as that of Katie Fagan, 650 Barren Alley. No reason was given for the suicide." But there is much more to the story of how Katie Fagan, a young wife and expectant mother, was driven to such desperate action.
The Easiest Way
A virtuous and innocent young woman uneasily gives in to the lavish attentions of a "sugar daddy" but then finds true love with a newspaperman her own age. But when he disappears on a long assignment, she is unable to support herself in Depression-era New York and returns to her previous arrangement, placing her in a predicament when he returns.
Maya
Disillusioned with his wealthy friends, a man pretends to be poor and goes to live in the slums where he falls in love with a burglar's sister.
The Sunbeam
Set in a tenement, a lonely confirmed bachelor occupies a room across the hall from a dour spinster. Children run amok in the hallways playing pranks on the two. A little girl from the floor above, now alone in the world, brings the pair together and brightens their lives.
Taste of the Tenement
There’s no one taste or flavor to define a neighborhood, especially one like the Lower East Side. Follow us on a culinary journey of food traditions born out of tenement life. Using historic and archival recipes, oral histories, scholarly interviews, and special guests Padma Lakshmi and Michael W. Twitty, we create a full-course meal of the American experience through the lens of food.