Lessons Learned

My second feature-lengthed film was produced by my former company, Kubla Khan Productions. It premiered in 2010 in Baltimore and screened across the state from 2010-2012.

Set in Baltimore, Lessons Learned explores a rash of serial 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 the 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 blackouts 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.