BOYLE HEIGHTS 1939 is an historical fiction feature film. Brilliantly using fictional characters to involve facts about NAZIs in America and their Silver Shirt vigilantes before World War II — which reflects the experience of I.C.E. raids in America today — helps patriotic Americans deal with the collective trauma being experienced while enduring the violent I.C.E. raids in Blue cities.

FACT: The Boyle Heights community of Los Angeles in 1939 was a very diversified area because of redlining with strong Mexican, Jewish, and other cultural and ethnic communities. That diversity attracted the hate and ire of the large NAZI presence in Los Angeles, especially the NAZI Silver Shirt vigilantes who violently enforced the national repatriation drives to remove Mexicans, whether citizens or not, from the USA. The Silver Shirts, inspired by Hitler in NAZI Germany at the beginning of the Holocaust, also attacked Jews to remove them from America.

FACT: The NAZIs and their Silver Shirts had a parade through Los Angeles in November 1938 to celebrate Hitler’s Crystal Night attack on German Jews. Los Angeles NAZI leader Hermann Schwinn publicly declared at their parade, “We will see Jews dangling from telephone posts and trees!”

THE STORY: 20-year-old Mexican Juan Ignacio Herrera Martínez, working to send money to his widowed mother and younger siblings in Jalisco MX, was chased by the Silver Shirt surge into Boyle Heights. Terrified and desperate, he dives into an unlocked door to hide. It is the dingy small one-room apartment of 65-year-old Michael Scott Whitney, a white man, a veteran of the Spanish American War.

Michael, armed with his rifle, forcing Juan out of his apartment until he hears a news broadcast on the radio about Jewish refugees being refused asylum in America. He is offended by the news, and recognizes that Juan, too, is a refugee seeking shelter.

He chooses to protect Juan.

The two spend the few days of the NAZI surge together in the cramped apartment, bonding ... which is very unusual for a time when Mexicans and whites never mixed.

Originally, Michael sits watch, protecting Juan.

However, tragedy turns the tables. When Michael has a vicious heart attack, it becomes Juan's turn to protect Michael. Choosing to face possible discovery by the Silver Shirts, Juan seeks help for Michael to keep him alive.

In the end, the heavily-armed Silver Shirts and the lightly-armed Michael and Juan face tragedy.

The feature film screenplay BOYLE HEIGHTS 1939 is a very contained ("two people, one room") and micro-budget (under $10,000) high-production-value movie to be funded by donor crowdfunding.

Development in 1Q26

Fundraising 2Q26

Production & Post-Production 3Q26

Distribution 4Q26