SYNOPSIS:

I have written a touching drama focused on the struggle for hope and change in a disenfranchised neighborhood in the vein of "MOONLIGHT".

“THE FRENCHMAN” is a sweet, heartbreaking yet uplifting tale of JOEY, a young African American boy who has had to grow up too fast. His loving neighbors make up stories to protect him, the mother says she's a dancer (she's a stripper), they tell him his father is in the Military (he's in prison). The whole neighborhood loves him, as they know he is where they can channel their hope for the lives they don't see possible for themselves.

A local wayward teenaged boy, ANGEL, takes care of him and steers him the best he can while the older ruthless drug dealer, MUHAMMAD, rules the street corners and local crack house.

PHILLIPE, an elegant eccentric black Frenchman, befriends James, Joey’s father, while in prison. Joey’s father is murdered by a racist gang while protecting Phillipe. His final request to Phillipe - watch over his family.

One day Joey, spirit broken by the death of his father, sees that someone has cleaned up the front yard of the crack house across the street. They even planted a single hopeful flower. At first hopeful, Joey is disturbed by this new reality, as it doesn't fit with the darkness around it, or within him. He stomps on the flower and cries "you don't belong here." The little boy we met at the beginning would have loved this flower... but it's a larger symbol for the pain that racism, drugs, and poverty bring. He is that flower.

It is very lucky that Phillipe, the Frenchman, is unfazed, and plants it again the next morning.

Phillipe has his own story, in prison for counterfeit painting. Gifted, he is unable to paint from within. He falls for Joey's mother and she, a promising ballerina in her youth, inspires him to take the risk and paint her - the first original he had ever done.

In a climatic showdown, Muhammad and his henchmen assail Phillipe, with only Joey and Angel at his side. The locals and a most unlikely hero join Phillipe in the fight for Joey and the soul of their neighborhood.