City of Dreamers - 24 Hours in Los Angeles

“Welcome to “Pets of the Rich and Famous. I’m Donna Spangler and… sorry, what’s the line again?” Donna has messed up - again. The straw-blond 50-something is making a new television show in front of the legendary Hollywood sign – and hoping that she will be able to interest a producer in her idea. At the same time, Torre, an African-American social worker, is getting his kids to chant their motto: “Yes, we’ve got talent! Yes, we gonna make it!” Their school is in a black neighbourhood of Los Angeles, an area of derelict houses, closed businesses and gang shootings on a weekly basis. Yet just around the corner a film crew is filming: Hollywood is using Torre’s neighbourhood as a cheap backdrop. Donna and Torre are just two of the protagonists who the documentary makers followed over many days in L.A. The metropolis in the shadow of Hollywood is a magnet for people who hope to realise their dreams – both small and large. For example, there is Jose, the Latino, who is working hard in his mother’s clothes shop while dreaming of becoming a director. Or Stephen, the artist, who lives in downtown L.A., a neighbourhood that has fallen on bad times, as evidenced by the hundreds of homeless here. And yet Steve sprays hydrants with gold and organises exhibitions. He dreams that one day his neighbourhood will once again be a place where people want to live.

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