Image Union episode featuring "Too Late for Me" by William Alvelo.
00:00Copy video clip URL Ending of Kup’s Show, weather reports, station ID.
00:32Copy video clip URL Image Union opening.
01:18Copy video clip URL “Too Late For Me” by William Alvelo. The film was produced, written, shot, acted, and edited entirely by students at Roberto Clemente High School on Chicago’s Northwest side. It is a cautionary tale about street gangs in Humboldt Park, Chicago.
02:05Copy video clip URL “This summer’s been the hottest one I can remember.” A young man walks past neighborhood murals as the opening credits for “Too Late For Me” are displayed.
04:10Copy video clip URL “The surprise, I won’t forget.” The young man is attacked, stabbed, and beaten by a gang of other young men in front of a garage near the elevated train tracks.
05:22Copy video clip URL “It’s like watching from the grandstand, instead of pitching from the mound.” As the young man lies bleeding, he remembers, in flashbacks, playing catch with his brother and talking to his girlfriend.
06:15Copy video clip URL “When you lose your gang t-shirt, you lose your manhood.” The young man wonders what might have happened if he hadn’t moved to “the patch” and tried to fit in with the gangs. “I was looking for trouble, but sometimes you’re better off making the peace before the first shots are fired.”
07:30Copy video clip URL Playing baseball with the gang.
08:15Copy video clip URL A rival gang makes an appearance, and an errant pop-fly hits their car. A melee breaks out between the two gangs. Baseball bats and broken bottles are used as weapons.
11:18Copy video clip URL “It was Us against Them. Nobody’d given me a choice in picking sides.”
12:06Copy video clip URL The young man escapes the brawl with his younger brother.
12:58Copy video clip URL The young man joins the “Zero Boys” for protection from the rival gang, the “In-Saints” whose enforcer is out to get him. “Sure I’d join this gang, sure I would.”
13:53Copy video clip URL “There I was cramming… when some dark shadows fell over my homework and my future.” The young man describes how he liked school, but that he was learning other lessons, bad lessons, from being in a gang. He describes becoming irresponsible at school and work. “It all started innocent enough…”
15:48Copy video clip URL The young man and another gang member steal produce, and then cut the lock on a group of bikes and steal them. They break into the attic of a home and steal a TV.
17:01Copy video clip URL “If you’re lucky, there comes a day of recognition.” The young man’s name, Freddie, gets added to the gang’s wall in the alleyway.
17:45Copy video clip URL “Why is that train creeping along like it’s afraid to get somewhere? Is that me? Where am I going? Am I going to make it?” The flashbacks end, and Freddie, lying under the train tracks, struggles to get up.
18:36Copy video clip URL He remembers the plans he made for the future with his girlfriend. He remembers seeing movies at the Belmont. “They were the seeds, for us, for even further dreams.”
27:23Copy video clip URL Image Union end credits.
28:35Copy video clip URL Advertisements, followed by a weather report, and a beginning segment of Kup’s Show with Irv Kupcinet.
3 Comments
My brother attended this class was with john west when he died. His name is freddie medina.. he did a short film I looking for a,copy called the arsend in 1978 I could try to get more info .. could you tell me if I could get a copy… please it would mean so much to our family
Hi I am Edwin Serrano I attended the of 1978, I love the “Too late for me” by Alvelo.
I Also am look for the student film call ” Corner of the Sky ” also a John C. West Production in 1978.
I hope someone out there know something about it, my email is [email protected]
Hi Sonia I’am Edwin Serrano. I want to high school with you at Clements in John C. West Class.
Hay I’m looking
for a movie that was made at Roberto Clemente called ” Corner of the Sky ” any idea where I could fine this film.my email is [email protected]