Derrick Simmons

An idyllic postcard from the new empire -- or, is it?

A traveller checks into a mysterious motel, has he found a road-side oasis?

13-year-old Ernest Chin lives and works at an hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam, a self-destructive yet charismatic lodger at the motel.

A tribute to graffiti art and the city where it all began. Blest, a 19-year-old graffiti writer, has just graduated from high school. With no ambition toward mainstream goals of work and family, he spends his time bombing the city with graffiti messages until he and his crew become the most wanted bombers by the corrupt NYPD Vandal Squad. He even attracts major media and gallery attention for his tags. Also part of Blest's crew are Buk 50 and his younger brother Lune, whose arrest and beating by the NYPD causes the crew to wage a full-on graffiti war against the city. As they fight with their spray cans and their tags, Blest meets a political activist, Alexandra. Soon after, Blest's relationship with Buk 50 and the crew fragments as Blest ponders his position in life.