Our Story

My name is vagabond. i've been working in the film industry for over 20 years... i've worked with the best like Spike Lee and David Lynch and i've worked with the worst who shall remain nameless... Along the way i learned from the best what to do and from the worst what not to do... That experience has led me to become  an award winning filmmaker. My first feature film MACHETERO starred Isaach De Bankole and won awards in South Africa, Wales, England, Thailand, Ireland and New York and has screened at dozens of festivals around the world. MACHETERO is about the violent struggle for Puerto Rican independence from US colonialism. This new film i've written PAWNSHOP DREAM is a companion piece to MACHETERO and it brings back another star of that film Dylcia Pagan. Dylcia Pagan was a US held Puerto Rican political prisoner and prisoner of war. She did 20 years in US prisons for being a part of the resistance movement to decolonize Puerto Rico before being pardoned by President Clinton. The idea for PAWNSHOP DREAM came from Dylcia's idea of freedom and the way in which she has uncompromisingly lived her life...

PAWNSHOP DREAM is a surrealist comedy with its roots planted in the political soil of Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and heavily influenced by the surreal Nuyorican poet and playwright Rev. Pedro Pietri. The film follows a teenage girl (played by Alexis "Flea" Fernandez) who sees a beautiful box of sand in a Pawnshop that she wants to buy. She goes in and asks the owner of the Pawnshop (played by Greco) what it costs but the Pawnshop owner refuses to tell her. He only tells her that she can't afford it. The teenage girl really wants the box of sand so the Pawnshop owner offers to put it on layaway and the teenage girl accepts putting down whatever money she has.

The Teenage girl returns to the Pawnshop several more times to make her layaway payments and each time the Pawnshop owner strings her along telling her she still doesn't have enough to pay for the box of sand. Years pass and the teenage girl grows up to be a young woman (actress is not yet cast) who comes in and makes her layaway payment on the box of sand. More years pass and an older woman (Dylcia Pagan) comes in to finally claim what has always been rightfully hers. The Pawnshop owner refuses to give it to her telling her she won't get the box of sand until she's done paying for it and at the same time refusing to tell her what the final cost actually is.

The older woman comes back into the Pawnshop one last time with a beautifully wrapped box. She tells the Pawnshop owner that she has brought him a gift. The Pawnshop owner is thrilled at first until he hears a ticking noise coming from inside the pretty package. He asks the older woman what it is and she tells him it's his time running out. She tells him that he has very little time to do the right thing but the Pawnshop owner insists on continuing to collect his profits on the box of sand. Before he can tell the older woman to leave the Pawnshop the box stops ticking... and the film ends...

The Impact

PAWNSHOP DREAM is all about simplifying the complex relationship between colonialism and capitalism. With a biting humor and a distilled political sense, the fog of understanding can be lifted to reveal the nakedness of the empire. With the occupation movements sweeping the US and around the world i think that the relationship between colonialism and capitalism is something that can be used to expose the empire. i think the beginnings of the rampant unchecked capitalism wrecking financial havoc around the world can be traced back to colonialism. i also think that the colonial situation of Puerto Rico is a metaphor for how capitalism treats each of us as individuals. It promises and promises and promises a better future if we work hard but never delivers on the promise.

Colonialism is a tool of capitalism and PAWNSHOP DREAM is a surrealist expose on the reality of that relationship. Colonialism and capitalism are historically intertwined. Although the film uses the "nationless nation" (as Rev. Pedro Pietri calls Puerto Rico) as an example of how capitalism uses colonialism to amass financial profits that metaphor can be applied to all the victims of capitalism... Each of us is colonized by capitalism's false prophecy of prosperity...

What We Need & What You Get

$500 will go toward Dylcia Pagan's flight from Puerto Rico to the NYC.

$2000 will go toward the Pawnshop location fee.

$1000 will go toward renting extra equipment for the shoot like a second Canon 5D camera body, camera lenses, and a dolly.

$250 will go towards cast and crew transportation and meals.

$250 will go toward art, props, and wardrobe.

 $1000 will go toward post production, this includes recording and mixing the original score and the final sound mix.

Not a bad way to stretch $5000... is it? Seems impossible you say... Nonsense... i made my feature film MACHETERO for $16K... i'm an expert at making no budget films work creatively, financially and otherwise...

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't donate financially... (times are hard, i know...) then please spread the word... Send out an email, a tweet (#PAWNSHOPDREAM), post it on your blog (Dylcia and i are available for interviews - hint, hint), share it on your Facebook page. Can't DIWO (Do It WIth Others) without you... Spreading the word is the most important thing in crowd funding. The more people who know about PAWNSHOP DREAM the better chance we have of reaching our goal in making this film.