Liberal> Connie Schultz> 17 Year Old Screenwriter There Are A Lot Of Kids Like Me In The Inner City

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17-Year-Old Screenwriter: There Are a Lot of Kids Like Me in the Inner City

Screenwriter Earlaina Kemp turned from the swarm of relatives and well-wishers, blinked her eyes a few times and said, "Why am I crying?"

I had just met her, but I shared my guesses:

Because you're only 17?

Because you're about to sit in the dark with a sold-out crowd that came to watch your first film?

Because this is a bigger deal than even you could have imagined?

The high-school senior in the sparkling tiara with shoes to match looked down at the floor and nodded, and then her shoulders started to shake. She smiled, but the tears wouldn't stop.

"I just want people to know there are a whole lot of kids just like me in the inner city of Cleveland, like inner cities everywhere," she said in a whisper. "I want them to know I'm not the only one."

Monday night, Earlaina ushered in a new chapter in her already wildly successful life by attending the local debut of her 17-minute feature, "MANchild," at the Cleveland International Film Festival (http://www.ClevelandFilm.org). It is the story of a young black man on the cusp of adulthood who comes to terms with both his past and his future. (Watch the film at http://www.scenariosusa.org/watchfilms/films/2009/01/manchild.html.)

Just before the show, the people in the audience rose to their feet at the sight of Earlaina, hooting and hollering as if they'd just spotted Spielberg. Afterward, Rik York, her English teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, stood by her side as she answered questions. One by one, family members and total strangers stood up to thank her for making them proud.

"I am overwhelmed to know this young lady," one woman from Earlaina's church said. "And I just want everyone to know that there are good people in the inner city of Cleveland, and we are producing good people."

She paused. "We are from the inner city ," she said, emphasizing every syllable. "And I'm so proud of that."

When Earlaina's mother, Charlotte Kemp-Jones, rose to her feet, the audience hushed.

"I have never said this to Earlaina," she began, her voice breaking. "Seventeen years ago, I had to make a choice to have her out of wedlock, and that was the best decision I have ever made.

… I haven't accomplished a lot in my life, but she is at the top of the list."

Earlaina was a premature baby and was named after her Uncle Early, who shares not only her birthday but also her birth weight — 2 pounds, 4 ounces. She was born by emergency cesarean section to save her life and that of her mother, who has lymphedema, which causes abnormal fluid retention in her legs.

"Doctors warned me that she might be a little behind her peers," her mother said.

They didn't say that for long.

By the time Earlaina was 3, she was sitting on the lap of her grandfather, Frank Kemp Sr., and working hard to sound out words in the bulletins mailed by Ford Motor Co., where he worked on the assembly line for 36 years.

"She was his first grandchild and my only child," Jones said. "She was his heart, and he was hers." He died in 2005, and Earlaina teared up yet again when a woman in the audience told her, "I knew your grandfather well, and you are just like him."

Earlaina's opportunity to make the film came after she won a national writing competition sponsored by the national nonprofit Scenarios USA, which uses writing and filmmaking to foster leadership among teens who are often disadvantaged. Winners are partnered with veteran film directors and sponsored by numerous local organizations to turn their stories into short films that are distributed nationally. Rawson Marshall Thurber directed "MANchild," which was cast and filmed in Cleveland.

York and Jones encouraged Earlaina to enter the contest. Earlaina was certain that she would never win. There's a lesson there, she told the kids in the audience. "Learn from me."

In the fall, Earlaina plans to attend Cleveland State University, where she'll major in political science. She also wants to go to law school. On Tuesday, she had to catch a flight to California, where she was scheduled to speak to the Directors Guild of America.

"I'm so aware of how many people are counting on me not to let them down," she told me Monday night. "And I won't. I won't."

What do people not know about her yet? I asked.

She smiled shyly but answered without hesitation:

"I've got bigger plans."

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.