Dear Dealer Joe

A “Lion Alpha Productions” FILM
WRITTEN BY Andrew Fitzsimons

Joe resides in a large, sparsely decorated studio apartment downtown, an apartment he hasn’t left in seven years. Joe’s unusually passive fear for the world outside amplified by the fact he has retrograde amnesia and only recalls memories of his time in the apartment. Joe recalls nothing of his past prior to this, nor the event that caused it but carries with him a blurred photo of a yellow toy that he claims he knows is from his childhood. To subsidise this lifestyle he sells bags of marijuana, sliding them through a green tray in his front door without even meeting the people he sells them to. His only real friend is Maya, a younger girl who when not visiting her unconscious brother Joaquin at the hospital is buying Joe’s groceries, paying his bills and telling him how much she wants him to escape this place and re-establish contact with the world outside.

One night, a knock at the door interrupts Joe’s slumbering existence and leads Joe to meeting Jorge, a mysterious stranger claiming Joe was once his only friend. Jorge also claims that if Joe talks to him, he can fill the gaps of his past and rid Joe of the fear he has for the world outside. After cautious reluctance initially Joe is forced by his own neurotic curiosity to allow Jorge into his world. In turn, both fond and bitter memories of his forgotten past resurface in as both men converse late at night. However when recollections of events more discerning begin to re-materialize from Joe’s past, he becomes suspicious at a growing bond between Maya and Jorge that he feels threatens all three.

Early one morning, the entire composition of Joe’s existence is altered in an instant when a fire alarm rattles through Joes building. Choosing to take it as a sign, Joe makes the conscious decision to leave and rushes outside with only a duffel bag. As Joe makes his passage along the street in no particular direction, towards no particular destination his recollection of conversations with Jorge, prompt Joe to flashbacks of what seems to be another life entirely. Along the way he begins to find mysterious co-incidences in the people he meets and suffer from intriguing and somewhat ironic flashbacks with the sights that he sees.

As Joe’s journey connects him with the city and its people, his fears for the world begin to subside allegorically alongside the cityscape above, Joe appears to be on the verge of some sort of enlightenment. However as Joe finally recalls a sinister but accidental sequence of events that has long linked Maya, Joe and Jorge to one another he is forced to make the ultimate choice between forgiveness and judgement.