Joseph B. Vasquez; Award-Winning Filmmaker

Joseph B. Vasquez, who won the 1991 Sundance Film Festival screenwriting award for his independent film “Hangin’ With the Homeboys,” has died. He was 33.

Vasquez died Saturday in San Diego of the complications of AIDS, according to a statement from Mark II Productions.

A native of the Bronx, N.Y., Vasquez fashioned the award-winning film he also directed on the all-night adventures of a quartet of Bronx buddies. The film, which he wrote in three days and shot in 30 days with a budget of only $2 million, earned what a Times film critic described as “tumultuous appreciation” at its Sundance debut.

In reviewing the film upon its general release, Times critic Kevin Thomas called it “a pure joy, a sweet and funny take on life in the South Bronx that offers quite a contrast to the violent and tragic dramas that are usual for that setting.”

Growing up with his two brothers in the home of their grandmother, Vasquez began shooting with an 8-millimeter camera when he was 12. He later earned a degree in film at the City University of New York.

Vasquez made two low-budget (under $30,000 each) films, “Street Story” and “The Bronx War,” before attempting “Homeboys.”

In addition to his mother, Dolores, of San Diego, and his two grandmothers, Elizabeth Ruiz and Bertha Vasquez, the filmmaker is survived by his two brothers, Tony and Tito, and two stepbrothers, Harriman and Raul Olave.