Stay One Up

“A Father’s Burden” is an emotional drama that addresses the issues of family values, self-reliance, and personal responsibility. 

After losing his wife, Henry, a 28-year-old successful attorney, is faced with balancing his career while raising his 8-year-old daughter Lisa.  Skip, his deadbeat father, decides to re-enter his life despite abandoning him as a child.  Mrs. Johnson, his mother, and Rachel, his older sibling, are left to mediate between the two, complicating matters for the entire family.  During this turmoil, the family re-examines their values and inner feelings.  Through trials and tribulations, everyone learns to mend old grievances and bond together.            

"Country Life School" 

“SYNOPSIS”

Stacy Everson, a 17-year-old Atlanta native, comes to the realization that obtaining an education is the best way to escape his poverty stricken neighborhood, but he refuses to fully avoid the criminal elements of the streets until his best friend is arrested for selling narcotics.  Recently expelled from high school, with all aspirations of attending college in danger, Stacy is approached by Earl Wilson, a janitor and close friend of his grandmother and lone guardian.  Earl introduces Stacy to the idea of attending a historically black boarding school in Mississippi.  Once Stacy arrives in Mississippi, he is quickly introduced to “County Life School’s” strict bylaws and regulations.  Realizing his situation, Stacy has to adjust to the new social changes and strict policies of the institution in order to insure his graduation.  As Stacy settles in, he and his new found classmates reveal themselves and their reasons for attending the school.  Just when things are looking up for Stacy, he is caught by a zealot dorm parent violating school policies, and faces the ultimatum of being expelled, or ‘snitching’ on the individuals who were involved in violating the schools policies along with him.  With a fork in the road decision, Stacy has to decide on following the street code of not snitching, or remaining in school by naming the other individuals involved.  Through this fiasco, Stacy gains a new outlook on setting life priorities and cherishing friendships.  Stacy fulfills his aspirations of graduating from high school and gaining acceptance to college, while experiencing more then he ever had anticipated while attending Country Life School.

Screenplay below