A fascinating companion to Stroke, Scheme C6 draws on the earlier film's narrative elements and characters. Nilsson continues his groundbreaking collaboration with the Tenderloin yGroup with this improvised, Cassavetes-like piece about the schemes and dreams of those on the edges of urban life. Bid lives on the streets, stealing and reselling car parts, abusing cops and family members and hanging out with his firebrand girlfriend. An attempt to help his friend Grey fund his hip-hop music idea drags Bid back into a family legacy of failure and thwarted promises that opens up more wounds than time or good intentions (if they ever existed) can heal. Fusing the immediacy of handheld digital video with raw, improvised acting, Scheme C6 strikes with an open fist: more emotion than script, more aura than plot, it showcases reality with all its disordered, chaotic flaws and feelings.

—Jason Sanders

• Improvised by the cast. Photographed by Steve Burns. With Cory Duval, Moncia Cortes, David Fine, MC Mars. (94 mins, Color/B&W, DVCam, From 9 @ Night Films)