Having started life as a graduate film school project that was mostly financed on Kickstarter, Lotfy Nathan’s multiple Cinema Eye Honors-nominated documentary 12 O’Clock Boys, about a young boy named Pug who is immersed in inner-city dirt-biking culture, is an immediate and searing look at a particularly American coming of age on some of the country’s roughest streets. Pug’s mom, an ex-stripper named Coco, tries to steer him on a path of study and professionalism, urging him to consider training to be a veterinarian, but in this combative, crime-ridden stretch of West Baltimore, becoming an animal doctor is a remote dream. […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 30, 2014Sometimes a story is too compelling not to tell, and that certainly was the case when first-time filmmaker Lotfy Nathan came across the 12 O’Clock Boys — a dirt bike street gang which terrorizes the police, who are forbidden to chase them — while a student in Baltimore. Immersing himself in the world of the riders, Nathan found a protagonist for his documentary in the precocious Pug, a 13-year-old self-professed “man” whose dearest dream is to become a member of the gang. Part coming-of-age movie, part gripping, real-life action film, Nathan’s debut — which went through the IFP Documentary Labs […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 9, 2013