My Role: Creative, direction, cinematography, editing and post
Feature film pitch at: www.menace94.com
Please Email Gene Sung for PASSWORD and feature film script
SYNOPSIS: In 1994 a group of Latino and Black pro skaters from gang war zones around downtown Los Angeles led skateboarding's shift from suburbia to the inner city and Hip-Hop. They were team Menace, the NWA of skateboarding and this is their true story.
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1990s Los Angeles was an interesting time in skateboarding. The one year murder rate peaked at an insane 2,589, the city was a war zone and the skaters that dwelled there were a reflection of that. Fabian Alomar and Joey Suriel were central figures during that era. They came up skating at the legendary, gang controlled Lockwood schoolyard with Billy Valdez and formed the original Menace team with East Coast ripper Eric Pupecki. Menace, which was the brainchild of pro Kareem Campbell, faced a much different set of issues than their safe middle class suburban counterparts: generational gang ties, LA Riots, police profiling, living in a constant state of alert and racism from within the skate industry. Menace flipped the script and brought skating to their inner city.
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Menace is a scripted biopic that follows the paths of best friends Fabian Alomar and Joey Suriel, who grew up in 1970s to 1990s Echo Park. Both became pro skaters and were given a bit of money and fame. What they chose to do with it was very different.
Fabian is from a third generation 18th Street gang family. He had a decade of escape through skateboarding before falling back into addiction and served multiple sentences in San Quentin and Pelican Bay. Fabian has since found success as an actor in big Hollywood productions.
Joey is from a Salvadorian immigrant family and was an honor student and star high school basketball player. After his pro days, he went on to a very successful career in the skate industry working with the biggest brands and then more success in real estate and the fitness industry.
Through their massive ups and downs the lives of Fabian and Joey have always been closely intertwined, even to this day. At this stage of their lives, both have found success and they remain best of friends.