Long before he began his career as a professional boxer, Frank "Notorious" Galarza took a lot of punches.
As a child, his mother succumbed to drug addiction and his father died due to complications from a gunshot wound.
In 2009, Galarza's brother was killed in the apartment they shared in the Red Hook Houses.
A new short film, titled "Dedication," looks into Galarza's life and how he reinvented himself into a champion boxer. It also address the trouble he got into from an early age.
"I did robberies. I was locked up several times," he says in the film, which was released last week. "I wanted attention and used the street as a way to get attention."
The film features shots of Galarza training along Hamilton Avenue, jogging through Red Hook and visiting the New York City Housing Authority building where his brother was killed.
Director Harris Hodovic and Director of Photography Julian Holzwarth met Galarza through a friend at a commercial shoot last year, according to Felix Loechel, who worked on the film's post-production.
"Frank changed his whole life," Loechel said in an email. "Majority of people did not believe in him."
According to the film, the champion Latino boxer, who won the 2010 New York City Golden Gloves, was still undefeated at the time the film was made.
"There's nothing you can do to me that hasn't been done to me already," he says in the film.
DEDICATION from I.M.A.F. on Vimeo.
