“The city is crammed of memories and nostalgias that are my own and not my own — the bus route straight up Broadway, the sweet screech orchestras of summer cicadas, the low-stakes quality of its place in the world,” journalist Brian Jabas Smith muses about Tucson in director Maggie Smith's documentary Tucson Salvage. “It's inviting when you're broken; you're getting by on longing.” The increasing economic divide between the rich and the poor requires a new generation of Studs Terkel–like essayists and Dorothea Lange–style documentarians, and former Beat Angels vocalist Brian Smith portrays the difficult lives of a disabled graffiti artist, a trans ex-con, a tragedy-scarred mixed-martial-arts fighter, a resilient scrap-metal worker and two formerly homeless junkies in his book Tucson Salvage: Tales and Recollections From La Frontera, which has been adapted into his wife Maggie's poignant film.

The Hudson Theatres, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; Sun., June 2, 4:30 p.m.; free. (323) 856-4249, hudsontheatre.com.

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