A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints
Dito Montiel
USA | 2005 | 98mins | 35mm | Colour

Dito is a successful writer living in Los Angeles, who is summoned home to New York after a fifteen-year absence when his father becomes seriously ill. Memories of his youth come flooding back as he revisits the old neighbourhood, attempts to rebuild a relationship with his father and encounters his ‘saints’ – Dito’s childhood friends who aren’t in prison or dead.

As Dito finds himself whisked back into the youthful events that shaped him, an unforgettable cast of characters unfolds to the sweltering heat of summer 1986. These include Laurie, Dito’s childhood sweetheart; Mike O’Shea, a transplanted Scot with an Irish name who dreams of becoming a punk rocker; Giuseppe, a reckless, destructive and possibly insane member of Dito’s street posse; and the unforgettable Antonio, Dito’s cocky and volatile best friend grappling with an abusive father.

An honest, unflinching account of bittersweet relationships that can never be what they once were, this is a poignant look at untangling misplaced love, reconciling with family and embracing the ghosts of your past.

Director’s Award; Special Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival, 2006