The Girl With Naked Eyes

[From the freedom of the clouds the camera descends upon a cold, sterile prison. Then we pass through the walls to a man clutching iron bars in his cell. His face is wrought with pain and dismay. He has an urgent message!]

"Tell me what I've done that's so wrong! I don't belong here. I should be as free as anyone else. Why can't you people see that? Are you insane? You think this is some sort of joke? I'm here to tell you this is as serious as it gets!

"I want to speak to you today of man's inhumanity to man. Of injustice. Of jailing a man without just cause. Of a day of reckoning coming to us all. I want to speak of the future we must create as opposed to the one we have chosen. I want to speak of the one thing driving every soul in this world today: salvation.

"When I look around I see a people who've forbidden freedom to themselves. They claim there is no other to live in order to justify their criminal behavior. But no matter how passionate or persuasive their arguments, they fall on deaf ears at the end of day. We will never stop crying out for freedom, in this we are inseparably bound whether we face it or not.

"From behind these bars I plead guilty for love. The sun does not shine for me, institutions hold heads under water in godless terror; hearts without eyes. How much longer can this go on? It is NOT an infinite time! Imprisonment is not a solution, it simply embraces a defeat that need never happen. The paradise we've lost is out there waiting to be had.

"Only the truth can save us. Anything else is a tragedy in the making. When a heart has no more tears left it dries up, the universe reacts in sorrow and woe. I must speak my mind on these things killing me, trapped in hell's nightmare a framed man. What is the recourse for iron bars? Where is a prisoner's hope?

"Each night I cry out for the Girl With Naked Eyes who sees the truth of me, her face  unreachable as a rainbow. I want to see the sun again, not die alone unheard in the dark. Can no one understand me? I make my case to the heavens but nothing ever changes. I ask you: Is death my only freedom? [Eyes turn inward] Madness! It's madness, I tell you!"

[Camera holds steady with same frame as we see him retreat and fade into a blurry background, swallowed whole. Then it pulls slowly back, giving us the full picture. Very clearly we see the cell door wide open. He is his own jailer.]

NOTE: Scene is to be filmed with door closed and actor should not be told it will be edited later to show the door had been open all along. Keep him cooped up as long as possible to put him on edge. Feed only one paragraph at a time to the actor so each one stands on its own. Tell him he has to make his case for justice and if we don't believe him he'll be left there to rot forever - or through lunch anyway. No matter how well he does, say it won't do - especially if he's trying hard. Let him feel the sting of blind injustice.

[After credits roll we seem him sitting on the call's bed, hands on head, slumped over. He looks up to see open door. Camera cuts to door. Camera cuts to close up of his face, eyes hurt and trapped, unable to leave.]

NOTE: Consider doing whole scene as a voice-over, viewing his anguish while hearing his thoughts. Only at the "madness" line do we see him speaking out loud.