TICKED aka THE HAZARD PARK PROJECT

English / Spanish with Subtitles

USA 2009

TRT: 19:30 min

Official Website: www.tickedfilm.com

PREMIER

Community Screening September 27th 2009 @ The PDG Performance Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA, USA

FESTIVALS

TEASER

SYNOPSIS

Angel, a young Latino, is caught between life in the gang and his taboo friendship with Jamie, an African-American kid.

BACKGROUND

“Ticked is a narrative short film inspired by articles from the Los Angeles Times that deal with racially motivated killings on the streets of Los Angeles, frequently among teenagers.

The idea was to make a film about street life in Los Angeles without glamorizing it and to work closely with a community that is suffering from violence. A couple of months were spent looking for the right group of kids that wanted to crew and star in the film. After some time, I was referred to Monique Moncayo, an energetic young woman who runs the TEEN CLUB at Hazard Park in Boyle Heights. There she regularly meets with a group of kids to do homework, do sports and play games, go to the beach, visit college campuses, go camping, have BBQ’s and movie nights or just to hang out. Immediately this seemed to be the right group and I did my best to convince them to take part in this undertaking. The most vital aspects of the project were to give the kids an opportunity to gain hands-on experience of "how a film is made” and to let their personalities, their own experiences and ideas bring life to the characters that were sketched out before.

After weeks of getting to know each other, respect and trust-building, rehearsals and a crash, crash, crash course in filmmaking techniques, we couldn’t wait to actually start shooting – The Hazard Park Project was born.”

– Moritz Rechenberg