Project:
Neighbors
LOGLINE:
A Divided and prejudiced neighborhood turns on each other until a true evil enters their midst.
The story:
Ms. Monson is an old woman, who looks older than she is and never married. She's watched her neighborhood drop in quality as economy changed and homes turned into cheap rentals. Now her neighborhood is diverse and foreign to her.
across the street is a collage of humanity in an alternative family arrangement. Some arguments have ensued over time, and pointlessly as the family speaks only spanish to her and little if any english.
The neighborhood kids make fun of her. She's the grouchy old lady that doesn't let anyone have fun. She squirts water from her hose at them if they are near her property. She refuses to own a cell phone or adapt to the new.
Ms. Monson's bitterness has centered on this family and she is determined to self-righteously find a way to make their lives harder. She orchestrates having CPS ARRIVE AT THEIR HOUSE and sits in her car in the parkinglot to watch it go down. She is careful not to be noticed.
while CPS distractS the family toward the front of the house, Ms. Monson has a view of the back of the house. In the fenceless, grassless backyard, their three-year old is approached by a man with his car. Ms. Monson witnesses as this child is abducted and the car takes off in the alley.
She fears being revealed to the family by stepping out of the car. Compulsively, she throws her car into drive and begins to steer her land-yacht toward the alleyway.
She nervously speaks to herself as she follows the getaway vehicle. She keeps her distance and takes more traffic risks than she's ever taken in her life.
When she is about to lose track of the vehicle as it moves ahead, she runs a red light and hits another car.
She stands up out of her ford granada as others gather around her in the choas - her eyes seek desperately past the traffic and crowd as she sees - the abductor distantly pulls away and turns into a garage. Her efforts weren't in vain. But her predicament now needs explanation.
She plays senile. when her niece visits her and goes over what she needs to do for insurance and the accident, she is too conflicted to tell why she was watching her neighbors and what she was doing.
When she musters courage and humility, She attempts in vain to tell her neighbors what she saw. They cuss her out in spanish and brush her off.
The police are unable to file a missing persons report the same day. The offer she encountered at the crash site thinks she's senile.
Her pride has cornered her and the abducted child.
THe only choice she has left is to case the joint and find a way to help the boy escape herself.
