IN OFFICIAL SELECTION "PACO JONES TJ" (Mexico) WRITTEN BY MIGUEL ANGEL VARELA

Bio:

MIGUEL ANGEL VARELA

One of the youngsters from the 1997 James Cameron TITANIC, to a historic SPECIAL MENTION at the Angel Film Awards Monaco back in 2007, with the infamous music band LOS TUCANES DE TIJUANA. A Baja Mexico native, well known for producing & directing a slew of music videos, TV spots and his controversial documentaries.

'PACO JONES TJ’ Screenplay Written by Miguel Angel Varela (Mexico)

LOGLINE: (Genre: ACTION/DRAMA) ‘A TRUE STORY’ (Mexico)

"With an underdog life & in a World of people, worse than coyotes, three kids fight to stay alive along the lawless U.S-MEXICAN border, but only one kid, "PACO" , survives for a period of 10 years of constant danger to tell the story.

His Mother's faith in him and his will to become a boxer will help him get away from the claws of the drug cartel mafia? Or will the streets of Tijuana win the battle?

SYNOPSIS:

A helicopter with a dare cameramen flies over. A 9 year old girl with her homemade kite she runs along the beach. She cleans a car windshield at a stop light. A few young girls with a heart to go, wait at a corner for a client. They turn away to hide when they see our camera. In the most dangerous area of the City, we step into a dark alley of an old building about to collapse, coated with fear and need for love.

Two children walk along a sewer river, one turns and keep walking. Inside a parking lot a homemade shelter, two youngsters sleep in it, on a luxurious mattress, a pizza box, one of them is PACO, a 9 year old boy. He cleans a car windshield at a nearby gas station: “Oh boy! Since I was a small child I knew all the songs from TUCANES de Tijuana”. A 5 year old boy sips a beer can and cheers with a man. TUCANES, a famous local music band record a song at their studio. PACO: “I did not grew up with baby music like other kids”. A poster hanging on the wall of the most famous narco corrido singer ever, THE FALCON OF THE SIERRA, sporting a machine gun, he is 27 years old but looks 41. A white SUV truck stops next to a drug cartel guard who salude the boss.

THE FALCON: “before you went to a movie theater to see a karate film and you came out throwing punches and kicks”. PACO trains punching a condom fill with water as a boxing bag. THE FALCON: ‘but know a days, this kids hear a narco corrido song and all they want is a machine gun, an ak 47”. PACO gets couching, before an amateur fight at the boxing arena. A young woman lift a flower pot with a gigantic marihuana plant.

An outstanding Hollywood production it’s rolling outside the Kodak theater. “THE COWBOY”, 45 years old, an infamous coyote, just working for over 36 years in human trafficking, smuggling people to the USA: “this is not Hollywood or Paris, this is the real life in the city of Tijuana” . . .

An archaic Mexican pyramid just flashed, a group of folks dance and play music. All of the sudden, GUN SHOTS, a couple of cars blast by the bullets are abandoned on the highway. A COWBOY, stabs a heroin syringe in a girls arm. Sirens and police cars are wondering around.

PACO walks into his first professional boxing trial at the arena. A group of armed man with balaclavas, cross the highway shooting bullets in all directions. PACO battle his best at the boxing ring. The police drives hysterically. The red cross passes by and several police armed officers run out of their cars. PACO gets all beat up by a tough boxer. An armed drug cartel man walks courageously into a dark room. Blood stains on the ground. All over the newspapers, we read that the bullets reached and killed THE FALCON of the Sierra. PACO sits down and cries his boxing defeat. A fatal shooting between the Tijuana cartel and the Mexican police, a dark suv gets wrapped up in police yellow tape as a military guard it.

A 9 year old boy with a mickey mouse sweatshirt, haul a homemade metal latter, followed by THE COWBOY and a group of 6 illegal immigrants. They approach the metal wall, where PACO and another kid wait. PACO unfolds the latter and COWBOY place it over the wall, where the immigrants start climbing and jumping the Mexican-USA border boundary. COWBOY: “I was one of this kids, but not all live to grow old”. COWBOY climbs a colossal mountain where he reaches a titanic masterpiece of Christ, with magnificent he knelt down to pray. PACO finally triumph at a pro boxing match. Happily he steps outside the arena with his sidekicks. His Mom awaits for him, he squeeze and kiss her with affection and much love.