Cheating Death

At 13, Gyasi Ferdinand was a sweet kid from Trinidad, living with his mom in suburban Toronto. By 17, everything had changed. Gyasi was pulling in up to $2000 a night selling crack cocaine in Regent Park, one of Toronto's roughest neighbourhoods. He had a roll of bills in his pocket, all the women he could handle, and a 9mm in his waistband that earned him the street name J9. At 25, he lost it all. Four bullets from a rival dealer's gun left Gyasi inches from death. The shooting led to a profound spiritual experience, and a personal struggle that Gyasi had never anticipated. For Gyasi to live, J9 had to die. Cheating Death takes us inside the mind of a man still struggling with the temptations of the street, while at the same time trying to serve God. The documentary is a journey into the world of drugs, gangs and guns - a world much talked about and feared but rarely understood.