Vanessa Marquez was still a Hollywood actress’s on the up and up; she died during a police health check. On August 30, 2018, the police conducted an operation at her apartment in South Pasadena and fatally shot the 49-year-old woman who suffered from mental illness and was almost paralyzed due to her illness and weak health condition. Against her insistence that the men abandon her, Marquez was shot in the back, and it would be confirmed later at the hospital that she had died.
Five years after her death, the UC Irvine law students, filmmakers, and friends have joined to tell the story of the events of that day and the information about her work in the film “Ninety Minutes Later.” During production, one of the major challenges was obtaining crucial police body cam footage that the police tried to suppress, he said.
OC Film Fiesta showing the film was the statement of filmmaker Cyndy Fujikawa; she was so disappointed when she heard they released only a small portion of what they got. Therefore we had to ask for clips more often.”
The documentary reveals several flaws in the treatment of the wellness check, the lack of body camera footage, and UC Irvine law students who insisted that the police make the material public during a city council meeting. What it does is it shows them switching between the body cam footage of the event and a narration of Marquez’s life, his boxing career, and his life with bipolar disorder.
The actual shooting video illustrates the choices made when the police arrived at the wellness check and fatally shot Marquez after she supposedly pointed a BB gun at them. Fujikawa said that the film is a kind of justice for Marquez as it incorporates her interviews, recordings of her childhood, a conversation about her earlier years in Hollywood Actress’s, and her fight with mental health issues.
Marquez, from being an ITP student, successfully transitioned to becoming a live-action TV star; her co-Stand and Deliver stars even describe her as if she were the “youngest” sibling in their acting fraternity. Nevertheless, her life was unfolded with the problems of mental disorders leading up to the terrible conflict with police.
In 2019, UC Irvine law students from the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic asked for the release of any documents having shooting video footage, police reports, and the autopsy report. These students also took the time and visited the city council in Pasadena with the aim of pressing for the release of the footage; see Mackenzie Anderson, a law student.
The trend of getting more footage persists, affording that some of the body cam footage has not been retrieved. However, city officials just recently resolved the case with Marquez’s mother, Delia McElfresh, in 2021 through the wrongful death lawsuit in which McElfresh got $450,000.
Fellow producer Daniel Villarreal, a friend of Marquez since high school and the man responsible for bringing her into Stand and Deliver, discusses his friendship with her up until the present and the lengths he will go to for her. “When Vanessa died, it was three decades since the movie ‘Stand and Deliver’ was made. To recall, we were like a little family,” he said.
Villarreal reported the death shock of Marquez, though he said that the result was not far off from what was expected. He said they accused her of what happened and cleared themselves, “I am telling you illness is not a crime.”.
Hollywood Actress’s Some of the Santa Ana audience during the police brutality, race, and mental health screening about the movie relate to their communities. Media Arts Santa Ana Director Victor Payan, speaking to the canvass of the movie, described it as ‘powerful.’ He said such movies should be made to educate people.
The genre of feature documentary has been on tour in the US festivals this year and has lately been awarded the best domestic feature in the Pembroke Taparelli Arts festival in Los Angeles. It is still a great story of police brutality, mental health issues, and seeking justice after a murder has been committed.