Joseph B. Vasquez

This young filmmaker worked his way up from freelance cameraman to editor before making "Street Story" (1988), the gang-themed "Bronx Wars" (1989), and the semi-autobiographical "Hangin' With the Homeboys" (1991). An exhilarating, buddies-on-the-town comedy in the tradition of "American Graffiti" and "Diner" and slice-of-life character study of four friends--two black and two Hispanic--the film (made for a modest $2 million) shared the best screenwriter award at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. At the time of his death from complications from AIDS in December 1995, he had completed work on what was to be his final feature, "Manhattan Merengue" about a dancer whose success causes him conflict.