Trans Carolina

A transgender man with OCD is thrown into an all-female psych ward when he gets into legal trouble for using the men's restroom at work. His idealistic lawyer sets out to use this case to set a precedent that being transgender and having a psychological disorder are two very different things.

  • Jannette Bloom
    Writer
    Mahjong and the West, The Fenêtre
  • John Henry Singleton
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Television Script
  • Number of Pages:
    57
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Jannette Bloom, John Henry Singleton

Jannette Bloom loves filmmaking as an art form and has been writing screenplays religiously for more than seven years. She studied Film at Emerson College and has directed several short films as well as writing and self-producing her first feature film, Mahjong and the West. She is also an actress and studied for five years with Gregory Berger-Sobeck of the Yale School of Drama. Her scripts have received a variety of honors including: Participant in Tribeca Film Institute's Sloan Series Workshop, Winner of Best Screenplay at the Green Bay Film Festival, Top 10 Finalist in the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist, Screencraft Film Fund Semifinalist.

John Henry Singleton is a poet, a book lover, a musician and a film geek. He has been writing poetry since he was seven years old and loves to play with words. Music is incredibly important to him, and he plays the bass and drums. His favorite author is Stephen King, and he’d like to someday thank him for sharing his writing with the world. One of the best experiences in his life was working as 2nd Assistant Director on the film Mahjong and the West. He is currently studying American Sign Language. He appreciates beauty and strives to create it.

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Writer Statement

John Henry and I have been best friends since the first day of freshman year at our all girls Catholic high school. Picture the movie Lady Bird and that was us. Skirts and all. Except John Henry hadn't yet realized he was a guy, even though he was born biologically female. About three years ago John Henry came out as transgender and started living as his true self. I had never seen him so happy and comfortable in his body, and it is still a joy to witness. We had always talked about collaborating on a script and suddenly we were flooded with ideas that could bring John Henry's unique perspective to the page.

As is, this script is a writing sample as the circumstances of North Carolina's bathroom laws have changed. If selected for the HBO Writing Fellowship, we would use the workshop to either rework this project with a different legal angle, or workshop a new series that we are developing that is more personal and focuses on our high school days.

Thank you very much for reading our work.

-Jannette