He is preparing to release his sophomore film, the origin story of The Purge Franchise entitled, The First Purge, on July 4, 2018 through Universal. Gerard is a graduate of Howard University and USC Film School’s MFA program where he won a student DGA Award for his short film Battle Buddy. Gerard was a Producer on the hit indie film Fruitvale Station which won the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. His first film as a Director, the Netflix Original Burning Sands, was in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, and enjoyed a 2017 spring release in theaters before streaming on Netflix.