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.
LOGLINE The true story of two teenage best friends from gang-plagued 90s LA who become famous skateboarders, then head down drastically different paths of professional success and crime.
THE 90s
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, 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.
THE STORY
Same Hood Different Paths - Darkness and Light
Menace is a scripted biopic that follows the paths of best friends Fabian Alomar and Joey Suriel, who grew up in 1970’s to 1990’s 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.
TWO FILMS
Short 2 Minute Trailer or 11 Minute Concept Short
2 MINUTE TRAILER • quick and easy to digest
11 MINUTE CONCEPT FILM • a better overview of the future feature film
feature film script COMPLETED
Please contact Gene Sung for script
The Team
Joey Suriel
Producer and original Menace team rider whose long career in skateboarding began with sponsorship by legendary filmmaker and pro Stacy Peralta. He has close ties with many skate legends and renowned filmmakers who started in skateboarding.
Please contact Joey for feature film inquires: 818.929.9925 • SURIEL.INC@GMAIL.COM
FABIAN ALOMAR
Producer, original Menace team rider and amazing story teller who detailed his life for the Menace project. Fabian will also play his Uncle Shark in Menace. He's also an accomplished actor featured in big productions: Mayans MC, Flamin' Hot, This Fool, House of Chico and many more • FABIAN'S IMDB
Gene SunG
Director, cinematographer, producer and skate history nerd who grew up in the golden era of street skating - late 80’s and 90’s. Gene always strives for a unique art house direction and has extensive production experience from many, many days on set.
Gene’s directing and cinematography can be viewed at : WWW.BUILTBYUGENE.COM
THE look
Frames from our concept film
inspirations
Kids, Dogtown Z-Boys, Mid-90s, Amores Perros, American Me and classic skate videos
SCRIPT TIMELINE
1980
• Gilbert Cisneros serves 8 years of prison
• He first meets his son Fabian
• Gilbert teaches Fabian prison self-defense
• Fabian stabs third grade bully
1986 to 1990
• Joey, Fabian and Juan first meet through skating
• They progress quickly and get sponsored
• Juan and Joey are on Powell Peralta
• Fabian is on Z Skateboards
• Juan has knee injury and quits skating
1991 to 1996
• Joey and Fabian turn pro for ATM Skateboards
• Menace is started by Kareem Campbell
• He sponsors Fabian and Joey
• Billy Valdez, Eric Pupecki are added to the team
• Despite success Menace fails due to copyright issues
1997 to 1998
• Fabian gets injured and falls into addiction
• Joey transitions into the skate industry
• Fabian kidnaps and carjacks drug dealer
• Joey’s industry career takes off
• Fabian is incarcerated
Present Day
• After 14 years in prison Fabian is a busy actor
• He works with at-risk-youth
• Joey has multiple businesses and is a pastor
• They’re still best friends
MEDIA
The Menace story is well documented by Vice, The Nine Club, Berrics and other media
HAWK vs WOLF
Skate legends Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen talk Menace stories when the Swiss SWAT team was called on them
THE NINE CLUB
4 minute Interview cutdown of Joey highlighting our Menace project on skating's #1 talk show The Nine Club: 120.4+ Million total viewership
EPICLY LATER'D
THE BERRICS
WhY Menace
• Built in audience of skaters and Hip-Hop Heads
• 1.4 Million YouTube views on various Menace documentaries
• Nostalgia for the 90s Golden Era is huge
• Wu-Tang, Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Gang Starr and more
• Film will have huge social media push from skaters
• A skate bio pic tied to Hip-Hop is unique and different
• Street Culture history
• Affordable budget at $2.2 million
Archival footage
Many hours of Menace archival footage and photos
HIP-HOP's Golden era
Menace embraced Rap music and this was their soundtrack
“When we came out we wanted our presence to be felt and heard. A lot of people mistakingly took that as some trouble making kids from the hood trying to instill fear, but it wasn’t about that at all. We were just trying to give the industry a glimpse of our world and show the art of skateboarding through our eyes. And what you got was Menace Skateboards.”
- Joey Suriel
THANK YOU