The Struggle Begins

As many of my ideas for films and screenplays come from real life, Just 2 Get By is a compilation of real life stories I've encountered, stories of real people's lives that touched me, and that inspired me to put the puzzle pieces together.

Here are parts of the puzzle:

I heard the tragic story of a teenage kid, homeless, struggling, who loved his father dearly, enough to lie for him, but who was unsure he'd make it to his 16th birthday because of the world he was born in.

I heard the frightening tale of a teenage kid, a Central American immigrant's kid committed to his family and to succeeding in America, but who was being tortured by street gangs, and given no way out.

The third part of this real life story equation is where I come in, moving to L.A. from Oakland, by way of the Bronx. Living in L.A. I begain to encounter the race and gang tensions present in the city, the ones everyone talks about, the ones of movies like CRASH.



I saw newspaper articles & tv reports about brown and black tensions, about people being killed because of their skin color, because their language, because of invisible lines in neighborhoods that keep blacks on one side and latinos on the other. As tragic as all this is, I've also encountered a true connection between brown and black people here in L.A. Historically, when L.A. became a city in the 1800s it was considered a brown-black town, so the roots of these two peoples have always been connected. Growing up in the Bronx, brown AND black was my community. Here in Cali, it is, as well -- except that I encounter these stresses more.

The final piece of this puzzle is that I'm a self-admitted hip hop head. And NO hip hop is not dead. Yes, Hip Pop is what gets featured these days, but true hip hop is alive and kickin', dealing with hard-hitting issues, and providing voice to the voiceless; it's not just about dance, the beat, and the bling. True hip hop is also about the struggles we encounter in an imperfect world, and the ways we use hip hop culture to explore those issues.

So, with those four elements in play, I wondered "what if..." What if these two teenagers were best friends in a neighborhood dealing with brown and black and gang tensions?" That's when I began conceiving Just 2 Get By. Since beginning this project and completing the screenplay in a cabin up at Big Bear Mountain, graciously donated to me by Werner & Sylvia Marroquin, I've seen that the issue of brown-black tensions is in the forefront these days. I believe it's a timely issue, a hot-button topic that is not going away unless we sit at the table and dialog about it, as a family needs to. This is my attempt.

Please join me on this journey to complete the short movie that me and my crew hope will lead to financing a feature film with commercial distribution, and fosters discussion and positive change in our communities.

Stay tuned for Just 2 Get By The movie.