"In a 'hood boiling over with sex, brutality and crime, three friends are at a turning point. But a tangled web of sex and violence binds the women to the very place that could destroy them."--

Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Ajami is a bold crime drama set on the margins of an Arab ghetto. Working with a cast of non-actors in the real streets of Ajami itself, the film deftly meshes characters and conflicts with unsentimental compassion, uncompromising realism, and harrowing violence.

"A teen basketball player's promising career threatens to be derailed by the drugs and violence in his seedy neighborhood"--

Frankie Machine, a veteran of the Second World War, returns to Chicago's Northwest side with a morphine habit. Nicknamed the 'kid with the golden arm', Frankie is an aspiring drummer by day and an illicit card-dealer by night. In Molly, an old flame, he sees the chance for redemption, for hard work and success - but the demons that chase Frankie are not quite ready to let go. Nelson Algren's critically acclaimed and enormously powerful novel probes...

Mann is only thirteen, yet he has already had to deal with more than most go through in a lifetime. His family is still reeling from the tragic shooting death of his little brother, Jason, each person coping with grief in his or her own way. Mann's mother has stopped eating and is obsessed with preserving Jason's memory, while his father is certain that presenting a hard edge is the only way to keep his remaining son from becoming a statistic....

Life is complicated for five inner city friends as Tammy deals with being a single mom, Lamar and Falisha find their friendship complicated after they have sex, Kim is too job-focused, and Lisa's boyfriend returns from prison.

"It's the penthouse or the morgue. This is the philosophy adopted by Keshawn Wilson, a.k.a. K-Dawg, self-proclaimed lord of the streets. Keshawn is the youngest of five kids, and one of only two that don't belong to his mother's husband. As a little boy he feels the distance between he and his stepfather, and life becomes increasingly difficult for him as the years pass; his childhood and young adult years are spent in a home for boys and state prison,...

The lure of easy money leads young Ceazia into a dangerous world of drugs, prostitution and murder. Chunichi spins a fast-paced, harrowing tale about naively getting in over your head.

In the fifth installment of the popular Ghetto Girls series, Coco suffers an injury that leaves her more helpless than she could have imagined. As she relies on her best friend Deedee for love and support, their relationship grows to another level. But Deedee finds out that her friend needs her even more than she’s letting on when Coco's unsupportive mother puts her health in a precarious position. Meanwhile, Deedee has problems of her...