Grace Swee

My first ten pages are attached in PDF format.

Title / Logline: “Penn Station En Route Home” is the story of a woman fighting against the Kafkaesque New York City landscape in pursuit of housing. CAMILLE believes she is able to provide a home for her 10-year-old daughter. But with the odds stacked against her, she discovers she’s really on a journey to stay human.

TREATMENT

One night, after Lee abuses her again, Camille calls her 10-year-old daughter, LISA, whom Camille’s estranged mother is caring for. She promises they will live together in the summer. They are excited at the prospect of reuniting.

Camille leaves her abusive partner, LEE. She spends the night in a bathroom cubicle at Penn Station. She returns to work at the department store, remaining hopeful. Lee comes looking for her. She tries to hide but he chases after her. She escapes. Camille continues to stay out at Penn Station and is robbed of everything her luggage and documents.

Camille reconsiders her next steps. She gets offered a bed by an outreach team member, MICHELLE, and enters the shelter system. Camille speaks to an older lady who tells her to mind her own business and trust no one. Camille laughs in surprise. But upon entering, she learns it is true. The poor standards are shocking. SAM, a seasoned alpha-turned bully, extorts from Camille, demanding to be paid a fee for the bed. Camille realised nobody would help her. In the middle of the night, Camille walks to the bathroom. She witnesses a woman high on drugs getting sexually assaulted by a male guard. Frozen in fear and triggered, Camille runs back to her bed, shaking.

The next morning, she makes a police report. Seeing that not much is being done to bring justice, Camille is deeply frustrated. At work, she finds her manager present. Due to the strict shelter curfews, Camille requests for a more flexible schedule. Her manager icily gives her a week to sort things out. Her colleague, LEILA apologises for being unable to house her. Camille understands. She wills herself to persevere with the current mantra: Every woman for herself.

Camille waits for the shelter bus at the pick-up. A transgender woman, SASHA, gaudy with a childlike innocence, enters the scene in four-inch red heels. Camille avoids her when they first meet. In the shelter, Camille minds her own business, but overhears Sasha getting bullied by Sam and her lackeys. Camille finally enters to help. They trap SAM inside the dorm and escape from the guards.

They later find themselves shelter-less, sitting on a deserted street. Camille maintains her distance. Sasha insists on repaying Camille for her help. Camille has an idea. They go to a supermarket and Sasha helps her steal some necessities. She gets questioned but manages to smart-ass her way out. They watch the sunrise before sneaking back to take the bus. In Manhattan, Camille tries to shake Sasha off. Sasha leaves, hurt and angry.

Later, Camille gets fired for making a mistake at work. She hides her last paycheck in her bra. She calls Lisa and placates her daughter that she’s preparing her room. Camille makes some calls but nothing seems to be working out. She heads to the bus pick-up point, but decides she wasn’t going back to that hellhole. She wanders the streets, feeling completely invisible. The busy city and crowds swallow her up.

It’s evening time. Camille picks cardboards off the streets. A man runs and molests her. He punches her down. In the midst of this, Sasha attacks him and yells at a police patrol car. The man flees with Camille’s bag. Camille decides to stick together with Sasha. They form an unlikely friendship. In the middle of the night, an outreach team comes. She refuses the shelter bed. But was told, “You need to enter the shelters to get assigned a case worker.” She asks what her options are if she stays out. They give her a “sightings” card. She needs to be sighted five times at the same spot to affirm she is homeless. Camille is bewildered by this but has to comply.

The next day, believing that she’s saving her last paycheck for her daughter and potential rent, Camille and Sasha panhandle to get money. While on the streets, RAY, a tough-looking man, chats with them. Camille doesn’t trust his slick speech about helping them. Sasha flirts with him. He leaves calling them “beautiful, and more beautiful, not telling you who so you can fight it out.” His words affect Sasha.

Camille and Sasha are in the subway on cardboards. Sasha has a full face of makeup and questions Ray’s last words. She wonders if she is beautiful. Camille affirms that she is. As Sasha cries, another homeless man, MARTIE (60s), asks if they’re all right. Camille is brusque with him and he apologises. Seeing his gentle demeanour, Camille gives him a cheeseburger. He returns the kindness with an orange. She finds out he has been homeless for 5 years. He shows her his United Nations ID, which reads “porter”. Martie says, “When I show people this, they know I’m not a bad person.”

That night, an outreach team awakens Camille again. She remembers the “sightings” card and asks them to sign it. The outreach officer tells her it’s from a different organisation and she can’t sign it. The team leaves. Camille falls into a panic. She assures herself she will get help soon. The next day, Camille sees Sasha being friendly with Ray. She doesn’t like it but can’t stop her. After much internal struggle, Camille guiltily cashes her check. She returns at night with new clothes and a gift for Sasha - a pair of sandals. Camille holds onto her “sightings” card like it’s the golden ticket.

Sasha returns, drinking from a liquor bottle. She boasts that Ray gave it to her. Camille stops her from drinking but fails. Sasha walks around in raving. It starts out playful, but things take a sudden turn when she climbs down onto the train tracks. She questions if anyone loves her. Camille tries to help, but Sasha doesn’t want to be saved. Camille watches helplessly as the train rushes into the station, killing her. At this moment, Camille’s phone rings. Her mother angrily yells, “Why do I always have to deal with her tantrums after you speak to her.” She insists Camille pacifies her daughter. Lisa comes on the phone. As she calls out to her mother, Camille brings the phone away from her and finally hangs up. She turns off her phone and looks at the liquor bottle Sasha had left behind. We watch Camille wander around the city, mourning the things she has lost.

Five years later. A voice calls out to Camille. We open on a subway station. A caseworker, WANDA (40s) wakes Camille up. She shares the good news that Camille has gotten a safe haven room. Camille moves in. Her initial happiness is interrupted when she sees the reality. The room is in poor conditions and it’s in an all-male building. She meets with Wanda and asks for a room where she would feel safe in, but there isn’t any other vacancy. Wanda advises her to take it. She would be one step closer to getting permanent housing. Camille complies.

Camille spends her days with Martie. They now have a father-daughter bond. Camille travels with Martie to a homeless encampment, “Anarchy Row”. She helps Martie get settled. He has given up waiting for housing and realizes this is as good as it will get for him. Camille bonds with some of the homeless people at Anarchy Row. They ask if she has family. Martie jokes that she does because he has adopted her. This moves Camille. On the train ride back, she tries to recall a phone number and writes it down. Camille searches for a public pay phone. She calls the number… Lisa, now a teenager, answers it. Unable to speak to her, Camille hangs up.

In the day, Camille panhandles but is drawn by the “Help Wanted” sign on a pizzeria. Camille wanders around her old workplace. She looks at herself and the people around her on their technology. She realises she has been left behind. Camille fights the urge to drink but fails. That night, someone tries to enter her room. Terrified, Camille yells to scare the perpetrator. In the morning, she goes to her caseworker’s office and is told Wanda has left. She insists on meeting her new caseworker and sits on the ground in the lobby to wait.

Finally, she meets her new caseworker––Michelle (the same lady who was an enthusiastic outreach worker but now jaded). Michelle, pregnant and pokerfaced doesn’t offer much sympathy or help. There aren’t any other options and the processes are cumbersome. Camille is frustrated that she has reached an impasse. She tells Michelle she’s in her ivory tower and can never understand. Michelle offers her a solution: Camille can take a psyche test to appeal for a better housing situation.

Camille goes to the doctor’s office. The psychologist asks her personal questions about her past. Despite hints at childhood trauma, she rejects Camille’s request to move from her current SRO, indicating that she did not have serious enough mental issues. Camille decides not to go back to her room. She stays out and drinks the night away. The next day, she wakes up in a park and finds her pants missing. She has been raped. Michelle arrives to pick her up from the police station. They sit in a diner and talk. Michelle shares that if her child was a girl, she’d name her Lisa. This coincidence surprises Camille. Camille acknowledges that she isn’t cut out to be a parent. Michelle disagrees and tells her, “Something tells me you’d make a great Mom though, because you’d try and try hard.” Camille despondently says that might not make a difference.

Back at her office, Michelle reflects on her initial hopes for engaging in social work. She rekindles that past passion and reassesses Camille’s case file.

Camille visits Martie at Anarchy Row. It’s Christmas and Camille decorates the tree with Martie and MIN. They sit around an outdoor stove fire. Martie has his new pet, BETH, a rescue pigeon. While everyone jokes about pigeons being the rats of the sky and not worth saving, Martie disagrees. He shares, “I’ve lost so much of life out here… when you get the chance, you just want to give life…” It’s his truth and it affects Camille. As people from a nearby church come to give them a Christmas meal, Camille notices the expensive homes around them in East Village. She watches their tenants celebrating and is dispirited by the stark differences.

Michelle pays a visit to Camille in her dorm. She goes through all the many necessary documents and steps that Camille still needs to take. One of them is that Camille needs to have a consistent income. Camille realizes the odds are stacked against her. She is overwhelmed and tells Michelle she can’t do it. Michelle picks up an empty bottle and tells her to start here. Camille is furious. She tells Michelle “Don’t you come in here and judge me. Don’t you come in here and think you know how to fix my life. When I’ve been holding it all together just doing my best!” She asks Michelle to leave.

Camille panhandles distractedly. Later in the night, she is on the subway drinking. She starts to feel unwell and collapses in the train. She wakes up to find herself in the hospital. The doctor tells her not to drink because she is pregnant. Camille is shocked. She walks on the streets telling herself this isn’t her baby. Flashbacks of her past flood her memories–when her stepfather abused her as a child, when Lisa came into her life, when she attempted to drown Lisa during a bath… and the moment she walked out on her child.

Camille waits at the abortion clinic. She watches the TV screen and sees a news story about a shooter murdering a homeless man at Anarchy Row. Camille races off to the encampment. She arrives and sees a body bag near Martie’s tent. She begs the cops, “Please sir! That's my family over there!” But Camille isn’t allowed to enter. She sees a news crew and walks over distraughtly. She delivers an impassioned speech, asking people to remember homeless being human too. She shares how she has tried hard to get her live back again. That evening, Camille and friends hold a vigil to remember Martie. She takes Martie’s pet, Beth, home. As she reflects on Martie’s life, she touches her belly and decides to keep the baby.

In the morning, Camille visits Michelle in her office. They make amends and Michelle shares that Camille’s case will be her last. She has her resignation letter ready citing it was time she moved on from things she can’t change. Camille encourages Michelle that she has made a lot more change than she knows. They agree to work together and get Camille the housing she deserves.

Camille starts taking small steps. They work on documents; Camille cleans out her room of the alcohol bottles; she finds work as a janitor at the local church that helps the residents of Anarchy Row. After facing a few rejections of her housing voucher, Camille finally gets a landlord to sign a lease with her.

Camille enters her new apartment. She walks around the home and imagines how the space would be in a retelling of her own story—how her friends––Sasha and Martie would still be around, how she would have a baby crib for the one coming. She enters the bedroom and sees a little girl––Lisa––playing under the sunlight. Camille lies in the same spot. The girl isn’t there anymore, but Camille picks up her phone. She calls a number and we hear Lisa, now with a more mature teen voice, answering the phone.

Close on Camille’s face looking hopeful.