Best Short Screenplay
Los Angeles
Film Awards
2022
Finalist
Independent Shorts Awards
2022
Finalist
International Screenwriting Competition
2022
Best Script
Chicago Indie Film Festival
2022
Quarter-Finalist
NYC International Screenplay Awards
2023
Official Selection
LA Under the Stars Festival
2023
Official Selection
Script Awards
Los Angeles
2023
Official Selection
Golden State Film Festival
2023
Official Selection
NYC International Screenplay Awards
2022
A SCREENPLAY WITH A MISSION
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In 2023
too many vets are still denied access
to needed care and benefits
Our project is an exploration
into the ongoing battle they fight with PTSD
often without any help
OUR HEROES NEED US
DISCOVER YOUR PATH
WHERE WILL YOU GO?
(Click any button to visit)
FUNDRAISING
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Opportunities to donate or invest to help us bring everything to life.
ABOUT THE 22
01
Learn more about The 22 project as a whole.
THE
FILM
02
THE SERIES
03
Learn more about how 'The 22' is also a series proof of concept.
THE
MISSION
04
THE
CREW
05
Check out '22 x o' our official impact campaign vehicle
WRITER'S STATEMENT
The 22 is a story near and dear to my heart. It’s a short script that examines PTSD through a very intimate lens; a subject I feel is ill-handled in movies & television. Not only does this story hyper-zoom into the impact of PTSD on an individual; but how it affects those closest to them.
Every life lost is someone that was cared for. That was someone's brother. Someone's child. Someone's love. The film offers audiences a window to the trauma of war, while igniting hope to vets & others who are struggling.
AMANDA GECEWICZ–DIRECTOR, WRITER
LOGLINE
Haunted by the Combat of World War II, a veteran soldier is triggered to fight the darkness within him for a chance to live another day, tragically knowing that only the dead have seen the end of war.
STORY
In 1968, a World War II veteran named Peter leans over his typewriter on the brink of a mental collapse. Too long has he endured all the horrors of war and another evening approaches with the assurance of that nightmarish nostalgia.
Peter types out what appears to be the “Great American Novel” a story about heroes and triumphant battles, but he is surrounded by the artifacts of the loss he has suffered forcing him to relive his trauma.
STORY (cont.)
His focused typing is interrupted by the radio playing the bulletin for the American Draft, calling all the young men up for the fight in Vietnam. Those words and promises lead his mind back to the days of him joining the war, and his friends that would become his brothers, especially his best friend Marty.
As day turns to night Peter’s thoughts turn darker, as do his memories. His typing becomes more frantic and keeps pace with his increased heart rate. He remembers the ambush in which his superiors were killed, giving him the heavy burden of leadership.
Being the highest ranking soldier he had to give orders to the surviving men which included his close friends. The sounds of machine gun fire, and the heat from the explosions become so real to him as he types them out in vivid detail.
STORY (cont.)
Without warning, as the conflict reaches its climax, Peter can no longer discern memory from reality as the two merge into a moment where he faces the younger worn torn version of himself demanding–
Why didn’t he do more?
Why can’t he tell himself to heal and move past these tragedies?
Young Peter stares at him blankly as Old Peter weeps with rage. Young Peter raises his pistol, and–
a shot is fired.
No more memories, no more flashbacks, in 1968 Old Peter is found at the typewriter dead from suicide.