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13

ETOILE ENTERTAINMENT LLC - as PROD

Drama - Development 2025

Struggling with grief, a 15-year-old girl turns to music after her best friend dies by suicide.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Drama, Musical, Family
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Writer(s)
- Michael ROSE
- Synopsis
- It's just another weekend at home for 15-year-old Samantha. Sam is a strong, spirited seventh-grade girl. An only child, she is a tomboy who loves 80’s music and hamburgers, just not in that order. Having few friends of her own, Sam has a good relationship with her parents and takes their basset hound Dudley for walks in the nearby forest. It is there where she meets 16-year-old Derek, and her life changes.
  
  Derek is her opposite. He comes from the nice part of town, is well-dressed and well-mannered, and shares her love of music, but not the same genre. In testing each other’s music knowledge, they become friends and discover that Sam can sing. Derek invites her to audition at his school, North Middle School.
  
  Sam joins their small jazz band as a vocalist and can’t believe how happy she has become. A new best friend, a band, a shuttle bus to another school, life is good.
  
  Then, unexpectedly, Derek dies by suicide. Devastated, Sam experiences the trauma and denial of discovering his lifeless body, and then anger at him and at God. She fights against giving up and giving in to a “Romeo & Juliet” style ending. At the suggestion of her father, she looks to faith for answers but ends up scolding God in her church for letting this happen.
  
  Sam leans on her new band friends for support, and helps them broaden their music by bringing Latin and Gospel musicians over from her school, South Middle School. A large concert showcasing the two school’s individual strengths and their unity is planned.
  
  The day before their big concert, Sam leaves Derek a message on his locker. A teacher witnesses her marking up a locker, and reports her, putting her participation in the concert in jeopardy. On the day of the concert, Sam ends up in the Principal’s Office in front of the teacher and her Dad. Luckily, she perseveres. And the concert is big!
  
  Although very young, Sam proves her character by regaining control of her life after it spins out of control. Through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl, we experience joy, love, loss, grief, despair, faith-questioning, and finally, redemption.