Fisher of Men

MY INSPIRATION: This story is what happens when my lapsed Catholicism collides with both my dark sense of humor and my morbid curiosity. For decades I sat through Catholic masses feeling like the message didn’t quite match my experienced reality. "What if God was one of us?" Well, actually, I think that person would be fucking miserable. Humans are dysfunctional and twisted. We enjoy sex and drugs and screwing around – we’re not benevolent, all-knowing beings (like that nepo-baby Jesus). But humans are also beautiful in their broken love for each other. AC/DC’s tour manager Barry Taylor once said, “God is the name of the blanket we put over mystery to give it shape.” I believe that the shape it takes is love and, if we pay attention to it, it might be enough to save us. WeScreenplay RECOMMEND (Top 1%). "This script hits the gut hard, delivering its message about individuality, guilt and worth in a way that truly reads as a journey, with a conclusion that ties up all the threads in a way that is both commercial and surprising. As a writing sample or as a viable project, the writer successfully articulates their grasp of intergenerational conflict, stoner culture, progressive sexual thought, and drama-comedy balance. Highly commend." PROTAGONIST: When we meet Jess King (32 F, Afro-Latina, Bi), she is a self-loathing addict seeking escapism through drugs, alcohol, and meaningless sex with strangers as a way to cope with deep trauma surrounding the tragic death of her little brother. The incident caused her to lose faith in both God and humanity and thereby drift apart from her deeply religious family. All she wants is to disengage from life entirely. The only thing she has in common with Jesus at this point is that she’s brown-skinned and really hot. THE STORY: Roman (39 M), a calculating loan shark, politely informs Jess (with a jackknife) that she is still on the hook for the massive debt owed by her sardonic fuckboy/drug dealer, Derrick (35 M) who has been slow to pay his half. Jess considers stealing her parents’ jewelry for cash in a moment of weakness, but is caught. Embarrassed and lost, Jess drunkenly attempts suicide. Before she can succeed, a heavy Catholic cross falls off the wall and bonks her head. When Jess wakes, a series of bizarre circumstances convinces her that she’s God. Like, THE God. And honestly? She might be. Jess’s roommate and childhood best friend, Maya (31, trans woman) happily entertains the delusion since it leads to them spending time together again. Meanwhile, Jess’s court-ordered (and dare she say...cute?) therapist Whitney (33 F), doesn’t find this mental disorder quite so funny...though she senses something special in Jess. Jess now believes herself divinely invincible, but there’s a weight to being God that Jess hadn’t expected which deeply upsets her. The stress of being both God and a broken human causes Jess (and Maya) to go on a bender with Derrick’s drug stash, inducing a vision of her dead brother that suggests that maybe she isn’t God...maybe she’s just another traumatized human forced to deal with the burden of empathy. Whitney abandons professionalism to help Jess explore her epiphany, strengthening their relationship while Maya grows jealous. A newly confident Jess reclaims her God-identity with a sexy schtick without Whitney’s knowledge, and becomes a massive hit on a high-end escort website, making money handjob over fist. For a while, the sexily pious trysts solve both her problems at once, until Derrick (this fucking guy...) jealously intervenes to a devastating end, ultimately saving Jess's life but getting himself killed in the process. Jess, broken and vulnerable, seeks comfort from Whitney, resulting in their much anticipated hook-up. With Jess’s guard down, Roman’s thugs rough up Maya and then kidnap Whitney, holding her for ransom. Jess reads Whitney’s journal and realizes that she had truly inspired love in Whitney – something Jess had never thought herself capable of doing. With this self-assurance, she swallows her pride and asks her parents for the remaining cash in order to save Whitney from Roman’s clutches. A string of betrayals and mishaps leads to a climactic standoff between Roman and Jess on the very bridge where her brother died, with the lives of Whitney, Maya, and Jess’s father hanging in the balance. While classic Jess would have bolted to save her own hide, divine Jess may have garnered a new understanding of love along her journey. So...WWJD: What Would Jes(u)s Do? FISHER OF MEN is a darkly comedic story about grief, loss, and, most importantly, the love needed to make the pain of being human worth it.