Cymarron West and Associates (CWA) develops and produces filmed properties designed to do more than simply entertain. Working in tandem with some of the most innovative professionals in the film industry, Los Angeles-based CWA's ambitious mission is to create films that inspire, provoke thought and challenge how we see the world in which we live.
CWA's founder and driving force is Gerald Ivory, a now retired veteran Los Angeles County probation officer with a lifelong enthusiasm for the visual arts. It was during the three decades he dedicated to redirecting the lives of some of L.A. county's most misguided juveniles that Oklahoma City native Ivory decided to combine his concern for youth and his passion for images and film.
In 1985, Ivory and filmmaker Merrick Morton took to the streets of Los Angeles to document the mores and activities of some of the city's most treacherous gangs.
The two then teamed with Los Angeles television station KHJ Channel 9 (now KCAL 9) to produce the Emmy-Award winning, “Our Children: The Next Generation.” As the first in-depth visual study of L.A. gang culture, the powerful documentary prompted law enforcement, as well as city and county services, to focus on serious issues negatively impacting the youth of Los Angeles.
The success of the documentary brought Ivory to the attention of Orion Pictures and director Dennis Hopper, then preparing to make "Colors." A crime drama set in the gang-infested streets of Los Angeles, the controversial (and now classic) 1988 feature film starred Oscar winning actors Sean Penn and Robert Duvall.
As its consultant, Ivory injected “Colors” with the insight and gritty realism of gang culture that Hopper hoped to capture, including supplying the production with real-life gang members. Because of Ivory's contribution, Los Angeles Times reporter Patrick Goldstein wrote, “Without Gerald Ivory, 'Colors,' the street gang drama, might have lacked much of the controversial punch.”
Ivory likewise lent his acuity to Michael Jackson’s equally controversial 1987 music video for his number one single, “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Jackson, and TV commercial and music video director Joe Pytka, wanting an authentic urban feel for the clip from Jackson's 32 million-selling “Bad” album, turned to Ivory, who brought in real gang members to appear with Jackson in the video's street scenes.
Ivory's talents were also enlisted by noted actor and director Sean Astin for the 1994 film, “Kangaroo Court,” which starred the award-winning Gregory Hines. It was nominated in the best live action short film category at the 67th Annual Academy Awards in 1995.
With the formation of Cymarron West and Associates, Ivory takes his interest in cinematic realism that intrigues to the next plateau. Whether it is a documentary, a short film, television programming, a feature length movie or the burgeoning home video game market, CWA - by developing a production or having integral involvement at its embryonic stage - is forever reaching for Ivory's lofty goal of creating visual content that captures the heart and engages the mind.
CWA . . . where creative vision is unlimited.
CYMARRON WEST AND ASSOCIATES
Post Office Box 12288
Marina del Rey, CA 90295
(310) 621-5109 |
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