Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned is an original screenplay written by Kalima Y. Young and produced by Kubla Khan Productions. Set in Baltimore, Lessons Learned explores a rash of serials killings in the gay community of Mt. Vernon. Each victim is left with a numbered “lesson” carved into his flesh, a familiar calling card for a number of players in the tale.  The protagonist, Justin Bishop (Lamont Bryant) is a young journalist with a tragic past. Justin is the only survivor of deceased serial kidnapper, Leland Sparks also known as The Professor. Sparks was an English teacher at several east coast private schools who had a penchant for kidnapping young boys he believed to be troubled and teaching them the art of serial killing. His teaching days were cut short when Justin Bishop murdered him in self-defense.  After five years abroad, Justin Bishop has returned to his hometown in an attempt to start a new life. His efforts at normalcy come to a screeching halt once people he has seen in the community begin to die. Suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, Justin’s tenuous grasp on reality begins to slip.  Seeing the world through a camera’s lens, Justin’s artistic and journalistic obsession with the macabre sends him on a dangerous path where black outs and hallucinations are as common as brushing his teeth in the morning.  His intuitions about the killer’s next targets compound with mysterious warnings and half remembered dreams that lead Justin to wonder if he himself is the killer or the next victim.

Lessons Learned is shaped by a myriad of characters with a stake in ending the murders and bringing the killer to justice.

The Editor-in Chief of the City Bulletin, Janet Bishop (Belinda Fademola), is Justin’s mother. She works hard to shield her son from the harsh realities of reporting the crime-beat in a city where forty murders occur on a daily basis.

Louie Pompanio (Aj Hyde) is a sports writer and Justin’s love interest. Their budding romance is colored by Justin’ slow descent into paranoia and Louie’s own motives for staying close to Justin- no matter the cost. 

Lt. Raymond Ahmad (Bus Howard) is Janet’s ex husband and primary investigator of the killings. Working all of the angles, Lt. Ahmad walks a tight rope between his need for justice and his love for his family.

Ambitious and fast-tracked through the police department, Det. Eugene Sands (Wade Tyree) is Lt. Ahmad’s new partner.  Sands knows Ahmad is keeping him out of the loop so he decides to create his own leads by teaming up with City Bulletin crime reporter, Chuck Burke (Frank B. Moorman). 

With a murder occurring every weekend, the detectives of the 13^th precinct and the journalists of the City Bulletin work against time to end the killing spree.