A 50 min. digital / 16mm hybrid film Written and Directed by Ricardo Acevedo

Creative Producer, Ali Hobbs of KUBE Creative. Aprox. Release Date Winter 2004

Whole, a story of mystery, obsession & personal deconstruction set against the background of club culture and low rent apartment dwelling, tells the story of "life Beater", a nocturnal Club DJ deep into mix culture, top dog, in his circle of drug induced dance party people. But increasingly the scene no longer holds any meaning and he finds solace only in his head phones, caring less and less about those around him.

And then one night this world Life's built up, disintegrates.

In the midst of a night of deep house groove, the dance floor seething, he looks up from the turn-tables and sees a faceless young woman dropping to the floor. Apathetic, Life initially writes her off as just another casualty of the "wild life". The crowd swells in around her until she disappears, drowning. Only to reappear at nights end, like flotsam in a corner left to OD by a mass too concerned with their own high. Life stumbles upon her, realizes that he too had seen her fall and that he too did nothing…. He snaps.
Jump one week ahead in time.

Ignoring the phone, locking himself away, Life is determined to make sense of how the loss of one person's life could possible bring his to a total stand still. He attempts to regain a normal sleeping pattern, trying to sleep away the darkness in his head and use the light of day to clear his thoughts. For the first time in five year he begins to notice the world around him. Out of his second floor window he watches his neighbors come and go "My God, I actually have neighbors" He finds a deep fascination in their simple day to day.

In the still ness of one afternoon he overhears a phone conversation of the neighbor right below him, an overheated intense exchange about "Letting me just live my life!" Although muffled by the floor/ceiling between them, Life pieces together enough of the conversation to surmise that the woman below is deep in the throes of coming to grips with her life. She then slams down the phone, explodes her stereo with loud raucous music. The level is so loud that everyone left in the complex rushes to her door pounding and yelling, including Life, who by this point is determined to get a glimpse of this woman. After several minutes of her neighbors pounding, she turns the music off…leaving only the muted sounds of her cries. Life is enrapt.

Life has suddenly found a new passion. He questions his neighbors about the mysterious woman and discovers that most have never seen her; she has all the necessary items delivered, her curtains are always drawn and his fascination grows. So he begins to daily sit motionless, listening, silent in his room, waiting for more clues determined to decipher the code which is his downstairs neighbors life, determined to find a way into the secret below him.

Slowly Life gets her rhythm, when she rises, showers, eats, talks on the phone, etc… Keeping all this information in notebook he begins to live his life around hers. "If I could just some how reach her, help her…

He questions his landlord, who tells him her name is Ruth, but little more, "We have a deal, her and me, can't you respect that man?"

Frustrated. How can he find a way into her life? He keeps his vigil, getting even more wrapped in the obsession. If he could just help her would he feel better about the death he sat by and let happen?

And then from an off hand comment by his friend and fellow DJ, Alice, who has come to seek him out and ask why he has vanished off the scene, comes the answer. As he tries to explain his obsession to her, Alice remarks in a flip tone "Why don't ya just drill a damn hole in the floor." Acting nonplused he quickly ends the visit and hatches the plan that will lead into the deconstruction of the "mysterious woman downstairs" and his own need for redemption.

"Whole" Reg.# WGA-84224