BEANTOWN
The chronicle of a gang war between Boston's Irish mob and Italian mafia. Presented as a straight-faced account of an actual historical event, the film progresses with characters coming in and out of the story as the events dictate and not adhering to the standard Hollywood narrative mold. Showing both sides in an equal light with neither as a clear-cut "hero" or "villain" group, the film is a cold examination of how quickly pride, anger, and desperation can tear a city apart.
The Winter Hill Gang of Southie has been a mere shadow of its former self for over a decade, almost completely destroyed when its now-infamous leader Whitey Bulger went on the run from the FBI in 1995. Since then it has existed as a loose confederacy of small-time Irish-American legbreakers and the occasional opportunistic immigrant, barely scraping together enough cash every year to keep the police from permanently shutting them down. A few years earlier the gang split as the Charlestown-based faction struck out on its own, and the two groups fought on and off again for some time until an uneasy ceasefire was called.
Times are tough on the mob in a city where the working class they prey upon are replaced by increasing numbers of students and yuppies, and so when the latest boss Sean, an eccentric criminal on the run from the heat in Glasgow, catches wind of an Italian heroin deal, he sees a chance to help bring the organization back to its earlier heights. While his other lieutenants are skeptical or nervous about such outright aggression against the stronger group, the young enforcer Molly Finn, having only lived in the States since her early teens, sees this as a chance for the gang to rise up and strike out at the Italians, not realizing what the ultimate cost could be.
As difficult as things are for the Irish, the Leone Family based out of Boston's North End is in an even worse situation. Their leadership completely crippled after years of federal investigations, so many bosses have been sent to prison those in command now find themselves behind the wheel of an organization they wouldn't even have been allowed into had they been alive fifty years ago. The bookish college dropout Sergio and his tough cousin Nick are young and inexperienced, and the sudden power vacuum has propelled them to the top without time to gain the experience necessary for their positions.
Abandoned by the New England family based out of Providence, with the ever-expanding and powerful families of New York snapping at their heels and waiting for them to slip up, Sergio takes a serious risk with hopes of setting things right. Without telling his comrades the true identity, he makes contact with a highly dangerous and powerful heroin importer. Setting up a small-scale deal to start an amicable relationship with the contact, Sergio can only hope that his risk pays off and he is able to keep his organization afloat. His only worry is that his underlings, a generation of classless amateurs and wannabe gangsters, may cause too much trouble for their unstable position, and one Connecticut-born scumbag named Jimmy "the Weasel" is fated to do just that.
98 minutes in length, with a cast and crew of approximately ninety individuals from both Connecticut and Massachusetts, and shot on Hi-8 for approximately $500, BEANTOWN is a miracle of extreme low-budget filmmaking. Shot between Jan. '04 and May '06, this project has been an great learning experience for all of the core group involved and is an amazing testament to the power of single-minded stubbornness, determination, borrowing things for free, and shooting on locations without permits and then running when the cops come.
The feature is in a semi-completed stage at this point, completely edited with all effects and a preliminary sound mix using a temp score in place. There will be screenings of this work print both in Boston and Connecticut over the summer, and in the meantime further sound work will be done while our incredibly-talented composers go about creating the original score for the film. We are hoping to have BEANTOWN completely finished and prepared for festivals by September.
NEW! BEANTOWN MUSIC VIDEO!
NEW! BEANTOWN PREQUEL COMIC BOOK TRAILER!
CHECK OUT THE SITE FOR LONE KNIGHT PRODUCTIONS' FOLLOW-UP FILM, "THE SUPERMARKET"
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