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Harmony Santana as Michael and Esai Morales as Enrique in GUN HILL ROAD, a film by Rashaad Ernesto Green. Photo credit: Mykwain Gainey. All rights reserved.

Gun Hill Road (2011)

Opened: 08/05/2011 Limited

Trailer: Click for trailer

Websites: Home, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Genre: Drama

Rated: R for strong sexual content, language and some violence.

Synopsis

After three years in prison, Enrique (Esai Morales) returns home to the Bronx to find the world he knew has changed. His wife, Angela (Judy Reyes), struggles to hide an emotional affair, and his teenage son, Michael (newcomer Harmony Santana), explores a sexual transformation well beyond Enrique's grasp and understanding. Unable to accept his child, Enrique clings to his masculine ideals while Angela attempts to hold the family together by protecting Michael. Still under the watchful eye of his parole officer (Isiah Whitlock, Jr), Enrique must become the father he needs to be or, once again, risk losing his family and freedom.

Can a father's fierce love for his family overcome his street-hardened ideas about manhood and end the vicious cycle controlling his life? Writer/director Rashaad Ernesto Green's first feature film is an intricate portrait of a family divided told with sensitivity, gentle humor, and a deep understanding of the environment that shapes its people.

About the Production

Gun Hill Road is the first feature-length film by Rashaad Ernesto Green, an award-winning director of short films such as Premature, Cuts and Choices. He began writing the story in 2009, setting the story in the Bronx, his birthplace, where generations, racial identity and cultural values intertwine to create a constantly evolving neighborhood with a rich sense of history and foundation in the Latino culture.

Gun Hill Road was filmed over 22 days in July and August of 2010, entirely on location in various Bronx locales including Dewitt Clinton High School and on Gun Hill Road itself. The latter is the Bronx street where Green's parents worked together as 18-year-olds at a McDonald's near Burke Avenue.

Gun Hill Road is a family drama set in the multiracial Bronx. An ex-con father played by Esai Morales returns from his latest three-year prison stint to find that everything has changed. His wife and child reject his attempt to re-establish himself as head of the household, and continue to harbor deep secrets that, if discovered, will tear at the fragile bonds of their embattled family.

Both Judy Reyes and Esai Morales are natives of the Bronx. They were attracted to the hometown story of Gun Hill Road and the chance to work with Green, a bright young director with roots in the neighborhood. And Green knew he wanted to cast them as his leads. He wrote the part of Enrique with Morales in mind.

"My brother and I watched La Bamba over and over again as kids and loved Esai Morales in the film," says Green. "Esai is co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts with Jimmy Smits, Sonia Braga, and Felix Sanchez. I was fortunate to win the scholarship three years in a row. I got to know Esai as a person and already had a deep respect for him as an actor. He was my natural choice for the lead in Gun Hill Road. Judy Reyes, whose work I also love, was also my first choice for the role of Angela."

"We've seen the gangster and prison stuff," says Morales of his previous roles, "and now I finally have a chance to play someone I haven't played before: a New York Puerto Rican, which is what I am. Enrique is kind of a Biblical 'Job in the 'Hood.' Everything happens to him in the weirdest ways and he tries to fix his son in the most un-artful ways possible."

Reyes signed on to play the part of Enrique's long-suffering and still smoldering wife, Angela, who finds herself in the middle of a conflict between the two people she loves most in the world. According to Reyes, "After reading this script there wasn't a doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a part of this powerful film. It was an honor to be included in this project, especially given the opportunity to work with such a talented cast and the brilliant Rashaad Ernesto Green. I hope this film resonates with audiences as much as it did with me personally."

For director Green, casting the role of Michael was more difficult. In the story, Michael's sexual transformation tears at the core of the father's belief system. Green was determined to cast the role non-traditionally and outside of the normal means of finding talent through an agent or casting director. He was convinced that in order for the film to be successful, he needed to find the genuine article. In the spring of 2010, Green began what turned out to be an exhaustive search for "Michael" and his cadre of friends in some of New York City's over-18 nightclubs and other centers of downtown nightlife, befriending young people and finding leads for actors. There were a lot of late nights, missed appointments, and frenzied auditions on the road to finding the person he finally cast as "Michael"--a Bronx native and nonactor named Harmony.

"We scoured every over-18 club, bar, parade, drag show and poetry slam in New York for weeks, staying out until three in the morning or handing out flyers at daytime events in the city. We knew it was not going to be easy to cast such a specific role. We had to find a person to really inhabit this role psychologically," says Green. Just two months before production was slated to start, Green met Harmony Santana, who was working at a parade booth in Queens.

After two auditions, Harmony landed the role of Michael and then went through six weeks of intense acting workshops and rehearsals to prepare for the role. "Harmony had a sense of naturalism that was the right fit for this very challenging, hard-to-cast role and showed a lot of heart and dedication, dropping everything to work on this film for nearly three months," says Green.

The cast and crew worked tirelessly to bring the script to life throughout three hot weeks in July and August. Says Morales of the shoot, "Rashaad is a burgeoning talent who will continue to do wonderful things. He knows what he's talking about and he gets people to do what he needs them to do. He puts a lot of work and effort into everything. He had an army of people and he gets everyone to work for him, and that's key. They all went for it and together we created something rather special, which hopefully bridges our understanding even more."

"Rashaad has written and directed a powerful story about a family struggling to reconnect as cultures, values and generations collide," said Gun Hill Road producer/executive producer Ron Simons. "We were blessed with a talented, hardworking cast and crew who brought the right combination of professional experience along with different perspectives on race, culture, sexuality, age and gender. With Rashaad's vision, we were able to make the story of Gun Hill Road resonate on the screen."

Gun Hill Road premiered January 24th in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2011. Selected for the 2010 Tribeca All Access Program, Gun Hill Road was also named recipient of the 2009 Spike Lee Fellowship, the Princess Grace Foundation Award, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Grant, and was recognized by the Urban Arts Initiative in New York City and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. Gun Hill Road was also selected for the 2010 IFP Project Forum, which took place September 19 through 23, 2010.

Director's Statement

This story is about real life and real people.

Inspired by my own family, Gun Hill Road provides a hard yet truthful glimpse into the Latino culture of the Bronx and how this particular family chooses to deal with a father who must readjust to his surroundings when he returns home from prison, and his struggle to accept his teenage child in transition.

Fathers like Enrique believe they are acting in the best interests of their children, by protecting them from hardship or the ills of society. They don't always see how their behavior can suffocate their children and prevent them from learning, discovering themselves, and living their own lives.

I feel for Enrique. I see him in pain, struggling and trapped within his own mental prison. The Bronx has shaped the way Enrique sees the world, his sense of manhood, and what it means to be a man. Bustling with music and life, from the Yankee caps and Puerto Rican flags blowing in the wind, to the cuchifritos and cat calling on every corner, what's not to love about the Bronx? But the world is constantly changing, especially the world that exists outside of the Bronx.

By making this film, I hope to encourage dialog about an issue in this community that needs to be addressed. It's happening right now. The old school culture of the Bronx is at war with its youth. The younger spirited generation is much more open minded and accepting of difference than ever before, leaving them at odds with their parents who raised them. I want to explore a side and complexity of the Bronx and Latino life that is rarely seen in films. At the end of the day, Enrique is a beautiful person who loves his child dearly. He just hasn't been equipped with the tools necessary to break his mental chains. The struggle that exists within Enrique is the same plight that plagues the entire Bronx. And if it's happening here, it's happening everywhere.

Peace & blessings.

--Rashaad Ernesto Green, Director