Scorsese still in his twenties, a grad student in the Film Studies Program at NYU, receives a grant to summarize and document the ethnic Italian community of New York. Instead of reciting statistics, he chooses to interview his mom and dad, the children of Sicilian immigrants living in Queens. Yes, they do describe their own experiences and the experiences of their immigrant parents, but what Scorsese shows us is Catherine and Charlie Scorsese, his parents, sitting on a perfectly respectable couch, cushions encased in spill-proof plastic, oversized italianate lamps, a large reproduction of stereotypical (representational) Italian art hanging on the wall behind them. The dynamic between the parents and their relationship to their son are fascinating. Mom is unembarrassed about speaking up. No fig leaves covering any of her remarks. Cajoling. Mischievous. It made me think about the theme of power struggle: there are lots and lots of power struggles in gangster films. It made me think about "the social construction of reality" both in real life and in the movies: how do you know what to believe, how isolated or enclosed are you in terms of the people you associate with, your "reference group", the people against whom you measure yourself and by whom perhaps you want to be measured and included. Did the young Marty Scorsese fulfill the mandate of the grant to create a documentary representing an entire New York ethnic group? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps he did something more important.