Quattro Noza

The dazzling vision and dramatic pyrotechnics of Joey Curti's digital feature, Quattro Noza, literally and figuratively fuel his romantic tale of illegal street racing and love. Mythically structured and carefully cast with a superb ensemble of nonprofessionals, Quattro Noza is perfectly blended aesthetic that seems especially designed for this world of high-octane and raw, immediate life.

This classic story of youth violence and romance set in the volatile subcultures of southern California hip-hop and hot rods begins when Chao, an inner-city "player" just out of lockup, and his Mecian-born princess, Noza (his childhood sweetheart living in an LA barrio), get separated one evening at a neighborhood drag race. Catching the eye of Quattro, an Anglo kid form the high desert with a very hot car, Noza accepts a ride when the LAPD scatters in the racers and ignites a bitter competitions with survival as the ultimate stakes.

This highly stylized and beautifully controlled story merges poetic realism with a scintillating visual urgency that definitively takes digital filmmaking to another level while reworking a familiar genre set in an even more familiar landscape. Energized by the spirit of its creator's and the potency of its storytelling, Quattro Noza is independent filmmaking at its most satisfying.