Strike One
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
David Llaguer-meiselman
Danny Trejo
John Ortiz
Billy Gallo
French Stewart
Reginald Veljohnson
Film Details
Synopsis
At first light, just off shore, in the cobalt blue waters of the Pacific, a lone surfer, attorney Alan Hartford, 48, sits atop his surfboard scanning the day's first breaks before being overwhelmed by a hoard of surfers at this popular point break in the Palisades. Manny Gerardo, 37, ex-"Mureto" gang member, serves as the films narrator. After showering off at the beach Alan drives up the bluffs and heads east. Alan's journey, coupled with Manny's color commentator narrative, portrays the stark contrast of the pristine affluent Westside and the dilapidated downtrodden Eastside of Los Angeles. Upon crossing the LA river, the oppressive heat and blinding whiteout is inescapable as Juan Gerardo, 17, runs for his life with the LAPD hot on his heels. Not long after Juan alludes the police by ducking into his home, Juan's mother, sister Angie, 24, and niece Diana, 7, are engulfed in Juan's nightmare as the Gerardo residence is besieged by the LAPD. Juan reveals the series of events that lead to his arrest for driving the getaway car in a bank robbery his uncle Manny participated in to Sergeant Veritas, a 38 year old cop from the neighborhood, who grew up with Manny and has known Juan since childhood. Angie enlists the services of Alan after discovering Mr. Hartford's business card in Manny's wallet. Juan pleads his innocence explaining that he doesn't even have a driver's license and that his uncle Manny had simply taken him out for a driving lesson that morning. The story shifts to the week prior to Juan's arrest. It is the summer before Juan's senior year, the last phase of boyhood and prelude to the future. Without a father and raised by an overly sensitive, fragile mother, Juan's future will be shaped by the influences of his uncle Manny (ex-Muerto gang member who has fallen into a successful Hollywood acting career playing gang bangers since his release from prison), older sister Angie (a single mom, community college grad, working as an assistant at a law firm
