NFB Collection
Cheating Death
200424 min 32 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Eric Geringas
Production: Rosalie BellefontainePeter Starr (National Film Board of Canada)Silva Basmajian (National Film Board of Canada)
Script: Eric Geringas
Produced by Death Defying Productions in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, in association with TVOntario, with the assistance of the Al Waxman Calling Card Program, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and with the participation of DOC Documentary Organization of Canada and Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
At 13, Gyasi Ferdinand was an innocent kid from Trinidad, living with his mom in suburban Toronto.
By 17, everything had changed. Gyasi was pulling in up to $2000 a night selling crack cocaine. The 9mm in his waistband had earned him the street name J9.
At 25, he lost it all. Four bullets from a rival dealer's gun left Gyasi inches from death. The shooting led to a profound spiritual experience, and a personal struggle that Gyasi had never anticipated.
For Gyasi to live, J9 had to die.
Cheating Death takes us inside the mind of a man still struggling with the temptations of the street while at the same time trying to serve God. This documentary is a journey into the world of drugs, gangs and guns - a world much talked about and feared but rarely understood.
Guides
To download study guides for this film, please click on the link below and copy/paste this title in the search box: Cheating death
www.nfb.ca/guides
Availability
Subject categories
- Cultural Diversity and Multiculturalism > African Origins
- Law and Crime > Drug Traffic and Substance AbusePortraitsRehabilitation
Credits
- writer
- Eric Geringas
- director
- Eric Geringas
- director of photography
- John Minh Tran
- editor
- Prem Sooriyakumar
- motion graphics
- Alan Shisko
- original music
- Solitair
- producer
- Rosalie Bellefontaine
- co-producer
- Peter Starr
- commissioning editor
- Rudy Buttignol
- consulting producer
- Barry Greenwald
- director's mentor
- Barry Greenwald
- executive producer
- Silva Basmajian
- manager
- James Weyman
- sound recordist
- Brian Stienburg
- Ian Challis
- sound editor
- Kevin Tokar
- re-recording mixer
- Kevin Tokar
- camera assistant
- Christine Jeoffroy
- research
- Elizabeth Moore
- transcription
- Lia Bellefontaine
- Graydon Donais
- production stills
- Jag Gundu
- participant
- Diego Berry
- Loren Clarke
- Andre Peynado
- Mark Thompson
- Njabulo (J.B.) Tshuma
- Yvonne Brown
- Peggy Byfield
- Cynthia Scott Daley
- Bernadette Ferdinand
- Dorothy Hall
- Sherma Lambert
- Valerie McDonald
- Mark Tucker
- Eva Williams
- Joan Wright
- Leroy Wright
- props
- Hand Props Inc.
- insurance
- Unionville Insurance Brokers
Awards
- Director's Citation AwardBlack Maria Film and Video Festival
- Golden Sheaf Award - Category: Best Documentary Short SubjectYorkton Film Festival
- Award for Documentary ShortInternational Film Festival
- Honorable Mention - Category: Mental Health International Film and Video Festival