Mixed Blood

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Paul Morrissey
William Martinez
Roberto Santano
Alvaro Rodriguez
Peter Cruz
Carlos Rodriguez
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Synopsis
An urban drama set in the Lower East Side in which a ruthless mother-son duo set up an illegal drug trafficking headquarters comprised of the neighborhood's latino youth--it is both a place of business, and a place called home for this extended family-of-sorts... and furthermore, they'll risk anything to protect their turf.
Director
Paul Morrissey
Cast
William Martinez
Roberto Santano
Alvaro Rodriguez
Peter Cruz
Carlos Rodriguez
Arthur W H Smith
Abdel Saez
Ricardo Caimares
Mario Fernandez
Edwina Ebron
Carol-jean Lewis
Roland Otero
Rodney Harvey
Albert Lee Flecha
Marilia Pera
Arturo Rodriguez
Marcelino Rivera
Steven Garcia
William Rodriguez
Richard Ulacia
Ari Boulogne
Anthony Freire
Geraldine Smith
Richard Garcia
John Curet
Steve Baker
Ronnie Berman
Joselyn Marcano
Eduardo Gonzalez
Ulrich Berr
Ralph Martinez
Emmanuelle Lasalle
Linda Kerridge
Yukio Yamamoto
John Rodriugez
Robert Badillo
Jessy Etheredge
Isaac Manga
Xavier Santana
Andres Castillo
Christian Defiris
Julian Lun Pen
Bobby Martinez
Pedro Sanchez
Adolfo Posada
Susan Blond
Patrick Indri
Margarita Morales
Daniel Martinez
Jeremiah Hawkins
Richie Stewart
Christel-marie Guerra
Toby Record
Jerry Conklin
Angel David
Sandra Lewis
Pelati Pons
Holger Pohlman

John Leguizamo
Fabio Urena
Susy Ramirez
Crew
Zequinha Abreu
Greg Addison
Diane Batson-smith
Alan Browne
Alan Browne
Wilfred Caban
Willie Colon
Paul Coombe
Bill Depaolo
Evan Dunsky
Armando M Dwolff
Steven Fierberg
Steven Fierberg
Leonard Finger
Jose Gallardo
Antoine Gannage
E Grenet
N Guillen
Andy Hernandez
Chris Hoskins
Hector Lavoe
Stephen Mccabe
Paul Morrissey
Anne Nevin
Calixto Ochoa
A Oliveira
Francisco Ozanan
Rolf Pardula
Marilia Pera
Diana Pokorny
Susie Prestine
Sandford Rackow
Katie Rezucha
Alain Sarde
Mark Slater
Benjamin P Speth
Andy Stamatin
Michael Steinfeld
Dita Sullivan
Anne Tredway
Wilfrido Vargas
Scott Vickrey
Matt Vogel
Amory Weld
Stefan Zapasnik
Stefan Zapasnik
Lisa Zimble
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Mixed Blood
Morrissey's career was in an odd place upon his return to America, following two aborted projects that couldn't have been more different: a proposed counterculture update of Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, which he wrote in 1980, and Trash II, a sequel to his underground hit, which reached the budget stage in 1981. That latter project morphed into a return to the seedy New York milieu of his previous film as the play adaptation Forty Deuce (1982), a throwback to his famed hustler-themed collaborations with Warhol and actor Joe Dallesandro starting in the late '60s.
Released in 1984, Mixed Blood remains in New York but leaves the hustler trade to focus on the multiracial drug wars brewing in the city's lower east side, specifically in so-called Alphabet City of the East Village, between a Portuguese crime family, the Maceteros, and their Puerto Rican rivals, the Master Dancers. The female head of the Maceteros, Rita La Punta, is obsessed with Carmen Miranda and keeps an iron grip on her dim-witted son, Thiago, whose involvement with a girl outside the group escalates the already growing tension involving local corrupt police forces.
This film is populated primarily by non-actors in the usual Morrissey mold, with Cuban delivery boy Richard Ulacia, stepping in at the last minute after the previous actor dropped out, bringing a certain Dallesandro-style blankness. That's in keeping with the Morrissey method, however. As the director noted in Maurice Yacowar's book, The Films of Paul Morrissey, "None of my central characters - neither Joe nor the kids in Forty Deuce or Mixed Blood... ever behaved in front of the cameras as they did in real life. They were usually happy and talkative but I'd tell them not to smile... A smile is a kind of surrender to date. It eliminates any kind of tension. It implies acceptance and therefore a kind of commitment."
In addition to the beautiful Linda Kerridge, whose all-too-short film career was highlighted with an auspicious debut as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike in Fade to Black (1980), the film does feature one astonishing professional performer at its center: Brazilian actress Marília Pêra as La Punta. Though she had been acting since the mid-1960s, Pêra rose to international prominence with a scene-stealing turn in Hector Babenco's Pixote (1981). She campaigned for her role here despite her limited knowledge of English, explaining to Morrissey that she was experienced with improvisation and often made up her own dialogue. Mixed Blood remains one of her very few English-language efforts, as she has acted almost entirely in Brazil where she remains a fixture in TV series. However, she did return to cinematic prominence again in 1998 starring in the Oscar-nominated Central Station (1998), which also took home numerous awards including the Golden Globe for Foreign Language Film.
Made for $400,000 and originally entitled Alphabet City during production (a title later used for a 1984 crime film with Vincent Spano), Mixed Blood was banned in Ontario for its explicit scenes of drug use but received an exception to play at the Toronto Film Festival. Though not planned at the time, it became the centerpiece of the aforementioned New York trilogy, followed in 1988 by the far more comical Spike of Bensonhurst. That said, this film is not without the trademark offbeat Morrissey humor, particularly a now-nostalgic visit to a store specializing in the preteen Latino pop group Menudo, famous for regularly ejecting its members once they outgrew their "cute" phase. The parallel to the film's gang lifestyle had to be intentional on Morrissey's part, and his use of source Puerto Rican music on the soundtrack reveals his level of attention to detail far beyond the performances. He also enlisted Andy Hernandez of Kid Creole and the Coconuts to provide some original music as well, creating an ambience far from the electronic and rock music prevalent in action and crime films at the time. "Rock and roll made drugs fashionable, and it is a twenty-four hour commercial for drug taking" Morrissey said about his music choices in the Yacowar book. "Ethnic music, on the other hand, isn't negative or pro-drug. It's life affirming, so I would rather use it in my films."
By Nathaniel Thompson

Mixed Blood
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Released in United States Fall 1985
Released in United States Fall September 21, 1985
Released in United States March 1985
Released in United States September 1984
Shown at Toronto Festival of Festivals (Contemporary World Cinema) September 1984.
Released in United States Fall 1985
Released in United States March 1985 (Shown at FILMEX: Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Special Programs) March 14-31, 1985.)
Released in United States September 1984 (Shown at Toronto Festival of Festivals (Contemporary World Cinema) September 1984.)
Released in United States Fall September 21, 1985