Of guns and men

When audiences see RJ Harper’s group of short films “Hood Lords,” – a violent action adventure series about U.S. thugs involved in the Mexican drug cartel – some may question whether the series should have been made at all. It’s an uncomfortable and horrifying journey into the grit and brutality of the gang world and its impact on the people wrapped up in that world.
In addition, the violence and crime depicted in the series is too often reflected on the streets of Jersey City, where too many young people are killed or wounded by gun violence fueled by the local drug trade.
And Harper, a Jersey City-based filmmaker, admits he himself struggled with the subject matter.

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‘My hope is that there is enough character development that people don’t turn away.’ – RJ Harper
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“I asked myself whether this was a project I wanted to take on. I myself struggle with the violent in the story,” said Harper who lived for several years in Guatemala while working in the Peace Corps. “But I think anyone in law enforcement will tell you, our indigenous American gangs, including our gangs here in Jersey City, are increasingly influenced by the Mexican drug cartels and the gangs affiliated with them…My interest is in telling stories. And I felt like there could be some legitimate stories to be told in this world, even though it’s violent world.”
“Thug Lords” is currently being filmed throughout Jersey City and New York and will debut later this month via the online entertainment channel KoldKast.com.

The story

The story, based loosely on the true story, is told through the eyes of Laura, 23-year-old Mexican immigrant living in the Northeastern region of the U.S. who enters the local pageant on a whim. Laura’s quiet country life is turned upside down after she witnesses the bloody murders of several discotheque patrons – including cops and a U.S. federal agent – by members of the local gang La Estrella. In the attack’s chaotic aftermath, Laura is kidnapped by gang leader Lino (played with a bestial quality by Noe Hernandez). Captivated by her beauty, Lino also shrewdly recognizes Laura’s value and uses her as a pawn in the gang’s rapidly escalating schemes before she is eventually captured and framed by the government for a host of La Estrella’s crimes.
The unrelenting tension of the series is enhanced by Harper’s use of long, unbroken takes and an almost complete lack of a soundtrack. In one memorable scene, Lino drives Laura to the beach and silently rapes her in the cab of his pickup. It is an outcome sickening in its apparent inevitability. The camera pans the beach at sunrise, the drug lord’s truck a dark blot on an otherwise beautiful tableau and the crashing waves a welcome respite from the malicious silence of the night.
Written by Harper and David Vane, whose last film was screened at the inaugural Golden Door Film Festival in Jersey City last year, the script is a tangle of deception and double crosses that blurs the line between good guys and bad with a series of twists that emphasize the entrenched nature of corruption. The minimization of Laura’s character begins the first time we meet her, with an opening shot from behind to obscure her face. The prevalence of such shots throughout the series deprives Laura of her identity and humanity and adds to the sense of powerlessness that pervades the series’ 12 episodes, which are each approximately 11 minutes each, as her silencing gradually becomes a metaphor for her homeland.
“The question for American audiences accustomed to sexed-up cartel dramas like [Stephen Soderbergh’s] ‘Traffic,’ or ‘Columbiana,’ is why doesn’t Laura fight back? Why doesn’t she just pick up a gun and shoot her kidnapper and rapist,” Harper said. “In a society that has robbed Laura completely of her power, repurposed her identity, and stolen away her family, perhaps the question instead should be, Why would she? In the real world, having nothing left to lose is hardly the motivating factor the filmmaking industry makes it out to be.”
Ultimately “Thug Lords” offers little in the way of hope. Justice, for Laura, is not served. As smoke billows from the skyline early in her ordeal and gunfire crackles faintly. A white limousine rolls past with its celebrating, formally attired passengers happily waving bouquets from the skylight. A wedding procession maybe? Life goes on, but how many more Laura Guerreros are out there, their fates uncertain, their voices muffled by the harsh directives of men with walkie-talkies and bullets.
“My hope is that there is enough character development, enough tension, and a range of emotion that people don’t turn away from the violence in the series,” Harper said, “but discuss it and are interested in seeing more in the future.”

E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.