Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace
a feature film screenplay by Bridget Palmer & Win Meyerson

​​Logline: Orphaned by a hurricane, a gutsy young rap artist battles the Gulf Coast plastics industry and discovers a family secret that becomes her most powerful weapon.

SYNOPSIS:
Orphaned by a Gulf Coast hurricane at age five, African American Grace enters foster care where she is underestimated and bullied. At age ten, she meets Fred, a scruffy Vietnam Vet with a big heart, who teaches Grace to respect nature and to recycle for cash. Grace buys a bus ticket with her savings to run away, but her plan is thwarted. Luckily, she’s reassigned to a new foster parent: LaDonna, a marine wildlife rescuer, who is also African-American.

Grace witnesses a sea turtle die from eating plastic trash. Her emotions launch her into a protest against single-use plastics in the school cafeteria. She gets in trouble and almost loses her new home.

In high school, Grace gains confidence and followers as a rap artist and activist. When a local plastics company, Chem Boss, sponsors Earth Day, Grace recognizes the hypocrisy. She defiantly upstages the emcee, Cash, son of CEO Nate Wheaton, who is White. He turns the crowd against Grace and her humiliating experience makes the evening news.

After the confrontation, Grace flees to the beach to clear her head. She almost drowns, but as luck would have it, Cash notices and saves her. Back home, LaDonna yells at Grace and berates her. She runs away and lives on the streets until her friends track her down.

Grace wants to punish Chem Boss for its hypocrisy and her public humiliation. She leads a bunch of teen supporters to infiltrate Chem Boss’s shareholder meeting where she shames the CEO by sabotaging his presentation and overrunning the venue with a hip-hop flash mob. Nate Wheaton attacks Grace. Up close, he is stunned to recognize her as the girl he rescued in a hurricane ten years earlier. Nate is hurt in the altercation. Grace is arrested.

Chem Boss stock tanks when the news gets out that the CEO attacked an African-American teen. Hoping to restore his reputation, Nate reveals his role as Grace’s savior. Cash reveals a secret that unites the three of them in a way no one had imagined. They decide that the best way forward is together.
Inspired by Grace’s passion, Nate retools Chem Boss, creating a green business with sustainable products and hope is restored for a better future for them and their Gulf Coast community.

CONTACT: bridgetpalmer@me.com, win9393@me.com