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Down for Life is a 2010 American dramatic film directed by Alan Jacobs based on the true story of a 15-year old Latina gang leader in

The film spans one day in the life of Anjelica Soto, aka “Rascal” (played by Los Angeles native Jessica Romero), a 15-year old Latina gang leader in Watts, as she struggles to survive. Surrounded by escalating violence and racial tensions, Rascal realizes her days in the gang are numbered. Encouraged by her English teacher (Danny Glover) to apply for a writing program in Iowa, Rascal hopes to use the material from her life to write her way out of Watts. The forces around Rascal thrust her into a deadly cycle of violence that seems almost impossible to escape. To leave, she will have to make the dangerous decision to renounce her loyalty to the gang.

Background

Down for Life is based on the actual experiences of Lesly Castillo, born October 4th, 1989, in

Lesly has since renounced her gang ties. She currently is enrolled at Los Angeles Southwest College. ^[3] In September 2007, Locke High School became a charter school operated by Green Dot Public Schools. Despite continued violence at Locke High School, Green Dot Public Schools has subdued hostility, increased parental involvement, and has organized its educational system into six academies. ^[4]

Cast

Jessica Romero as Rascal
Danny Glover as Mr. Shannon
Elizabeth Peña as Mrs. Castro
Snoop Dogg as Mr. Hightower
Laz Alonso as Officer Barber
Kate del Castillo as Esther

Jessica Romero, Andrea Valenzuela, Isamar Guijarro, Sheila Ochoa, and Ilene Trujillo were discovered at local area high schools. Director Alan Jacobs chose local teenagers with no acting experience to maintain the authenticity of the story. ^[5] Jacobs believed that using real girls familiar with the types of issues depicted in the film would create an honesty to their performances.^[6]

Production Team

The film was shot on location at Locke High School, where the story was based, as well as at other locations in South Central and East Los Angeles. These locations were chosen to “evoke the city in all its stark contrasts of privilege and poverty, hope and despair.”^[7]

Alan Jacobs, a New York native, directed Down for Life. Jacobs has directed six feature films, working with actors including James Coburn, Brendan Fraser, Virginia Madsen, Timothy Hutton, and Laura San Giacomo. His first film, Nina Takes a Lover (1994), screened at the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in 1994 and was later released by Columbia Pictures. American Gun (2002 film), his most recent film, was distributed by Miramax. Jacobs also directed a romantic comedy, Just One Night (2000) and co-directed an animated feature, Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000). ^[8] He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Scott William Alvarez is the Producer of Down for Life. After receiving a U.S. President's Award in 1989 from George H. Bush for his academic, creative, and athletic achievements in high school, Scott graduated Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1994 where he also played baseball for the Stanford Cardinal. After founding Insurgency Pictures, Scott wrote, produced, and directed television commercials and marketing films for such national brands as Kelly-Moore Paints and Books For Dummies. In 1999, Scott co-wrote, directed, and produced Shelter (1999), his first project with his new company, Cinema Revival. In 2000, Scott met Patricia Anthony, acclaimed author of Brother Termite, the science-fiction novel recently adapted by John Sayles for James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment. Her World War I novel, Flanders, became Scott's first motion picture project as a writer, producer, and director ^[9].

Dana Gonzalez worked as Director of Photography for Down for Life. Dana has shot commercials for

Bernardo Trujillo, an award-winning art director, was the Production Designer for Down for Life. In 2003, at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, he won the Sierra Award for Best Art Direction for the feature film Frida (2002). In 2005, Trujillo’s work on And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) resulted in an Emmy nomination and a nomination for Excellence in Production Design by the Art Directors Guild. The Art Directors Guild also nominated Trujillo for Excellence in Production Design for the Oscar-winner Babel in 2007. ^[11]

Clayton Halsey and Roger Marshall were the film editors of Down for Life.

Clayton Halsey cut fourteen feature films, over twenty music videos, numerous trailers, promos, and EPK's. In 2000, he became supervising editor on the first season of Survivor and lived on the island in Malaysia for the length of the production. He also recently directed and produced a pilot, Blown Away, a reality show about glass artists on Maui. ^[12]

Roger Marshall is an experienced commercial editor. He has edited commercials for

Vito Colapietro composed the music for Down for Life. Previously, he worked on the soundtracks for Barbershop (2002) and Four Brothers (2005). He also was the composer for Just Another Day (2009). ^[13]

Related Films

Although there are over 45 million Hispanics in the United States, relatively few films feature Hispanic actors or tell stories drawn from their experiences. By comparison, films targeted towards black audiences have enjoyed substantial success at the box office, beginning with films such as