Jayden, a 12-year-old boy, questions Amaziah, an elderly man, about the inevitability of death. They have a philosophical discussion about mortality while going about their daily activities. Jayden stages a protest against the passage of time by sitting in the middle of the road. Amaziah joins him, and through their time together Jayden gains a new perspective - he learns to appreciate life's beauty rather than dwell on its brevity.

1. PAPER BOATS
Written by
Anna Kriegel
Based on Woodkid's song "Brooklyn"
annakriegel@msn.com
917-716-3913

2. BLACK SCREEN
JAYDEN (V.O.)
Shh.
Nothing.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
Listen.
(A beat.)
The silence.
EXT. GARDEN - DAY
A small hand holds a bunch of flowers.
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
A cat stretches on the floor.
EXT. BEACH - DAY
A wave rolls on the sand.
INT. ROOM - DAY
A woman in a large dress turns round and round.
EXT. RIVER - DAY
Several paper boats float on the water.
EXT. GARDEN - DAY
A cloud flies in the sky.
JAYDEN (12), a white kid, looks at the sky.
He turns towards the camera and smiles.
INT. BEDROOM - DAY
Jayden holds a wooden panel that reads “ONCE UPON A”.
He carves in “TIME”.
INT. KITCHEN - DAY
It’s a small and cute kitchen - colored, clean.

3. Jayden sits on the tiny kitchen table. Facing him, on a
chair, is AMAZIAH (70), a black old man.
He looks down, as Jayden runs his fingers on Amaziah’s head,
checking for possible injuries.
AMAZIAH
You gotta admit, a horse that eats
a clown fish, that’d distract
anyone.
Jayden shakes his head. He sits back and crosses his arms.
JAYDEN
Next time you endanger yourself, we
will have to find a punishment for
you.
Amaziah doesn’t answer.
Jayden cocks his head to one side and frowns.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
Do you understand?
AMAZIAH
The clown fish jumped out of the
horse’s mouth once. But it couldn’t
escape fast enough.
Amaziah’s eyes narrow. He moves his chair back.
Jayden extends his hands towards Amaziah but they’re too far
from each other. Amaziah doesn’t reach out.
JAYDEN
(louder)
Do you understand?
Jayden hears MURMURS and shivers.
The kitchen seems normal, until shadows appear on the wall -
human silhouettes.
Jayden shakes his head quickly and runs away.
As soon as he disappears, the shadows and the murmurs fade
away.
Amaziah looks up.
AMAZIAH
Jayden?
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
Jayden is on his knees.
2.

4. He takes a picture of the wall.
AMAZIAH (O.S.)
Walls can’t breathe.
Jayden turns around. Amaziah stands at the threshold.
JAYDEN
And yet, they are not immortal.
Amaziah shrugs his shoulders.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
Tsunami, fire, earthquake.
Amaziah nods. Point taken.
Jayden nods. He knows he’s right.
Jayden points towards Amaziah.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
You.
He takes a picture of Amaziah.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
(counting on his fingers)
Sickness, accident-
(a beat; then, angry:)
Like falling on the street because
of a stupid clown fish.
Amaziah sighs.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
-heart attack, murder...
AMAZIAH
Got it.
Jayden gets closer to Amaziah and he aims the camera at his
face.
In the end, though, he moves the camera and takes instead a
picture of the wrinkles on Amaziah’s neck.
Jayden walks out.
EXT. AVENUE - DAY
Amaziah strides towards an open air market. He holds a
basket.
Jayden follows him. He’s a few steps behind.
3.

5. JAYDEN
So, basically, what you’re saying
is that there’s no way out of it?
AMAZIAH
Yup.
JAYDEN
We’re all cursed. Damned.
Jayden spots, on the sidewalk, a YOUNG WOMAN helping her
GRANDMOTHER to walk.
He turns back towards Amaziah.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
Jesus did it.
AMAZIAH
What?
JAYDEN
He came back.
AMAZIAH
He got a special pass from his
daddy.
(snorts)
Spoiled kid.
JAYDEN
A Jewish man was buried alive five
days ago. Ran out of oxygen.
Amaziah doesn’t answer.
Jayden kicks a rock.
JAYDEN (CONT’D)
What if we become astronauts and
live on Mars? Or in a spaceship?
What if we put our bodies in
massive freezers?
AMAZIAH
Wouldn’t change nothing. There’d
still be a time.
Jayden stops. He watches Amaziah getting further and further
away.
JAYDEN
Will it look like this?
EXT. STREET - DAY
Jayden wears pants, a dark jacket and a backpack.
4.

6. He holds a paper board glued to a wooden stick, face down.
He walks on the street.
It looks like he’s running away.
But instead he sits down in the middle of the street. He puts
the board on the floor, still face down.
A car approaches.
Will it hit him?
No, the driver hits the brakes and the car stops brutally.
Jayden hears the driver SHOUTING angrily at him.
Jayden lifts the board up.
He’s just a boy sitting on a road with a school backpack and
a board that reads:
“IF YOU DON’T STOP, YOU’LL GO TO JAIL
THAT’S WHAT A POLICEMAN TOLD ME AND POLICEMEN NEVER LIE”
EXT. AMAZIAH’S HOUSE - DAY
A 30 year-old man knocks on Amaziah’s front door.
Amaziah opens.
AMAZIAH
Yes?
EXT. ROAD - DAY
Amaziah stares at Jayden.
AMAZIAH
What are you doin’?
JAYDEN
I’m on strike.
AMAZIAH
Against what?
JAYDEN
Time.
Amaziah looks around him.
A DRIVER tilts his head up.
The sun is low in the sky.
5.

7. A WOMAN closes her shop.
Amaziah sits down a few steps away from Jayden.
AMAZIAH
Me too.
EXT. ROAD - NIGHT
The crowd has left.
They’re alone.
Amaziah stares towards the end of the road.
Jayden sleeps in a foetal position.
EXT. ROAD - EARLY MORNING
Jayden slowly sits up.
AMAZIAH
It’s time.
Jayden turns his back on Amaziah.
He puts his knees against his chest.
He presses his fingers against his temples.
JAYDEN
The world’s a merry-go-round.
His hands, his temples, his eyes.
INT. SWIMMING POOL - DAY
A 20 year-old young woman sobs.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
Can’t you hear them drowning in the
foam of sorrow?
EXT. STREET - NIGHT
A 30 year-old man at a crossroads. He reads the signs, looks
right, looks left. Where’s the good path?
JAYDEN (V.O.)
They built mazes in the shape of
their loss-
6.

8. INT. ELEVATOR - DAY
A 40 year-old man screams, shouts, hits the walls with his
fists.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
- and cubicles to imprison madness.
EXT. CAFE - DAY
A man and a woman - 50 years old.
They sit at different tables.
The man stares hopelessly at the woman. She doesn’t look at
him.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
They long for ideals that laugh at
their faces.
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
The images of the TV fill the screen.
They are extracts from tv shows about gags, about people
falling and others mocking them, etc.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
The laughter.
The extracts are shorter and shorter.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
The cruelty.
BLACK SCREEN
JAYDEN (V.O.)
(murmur)
And what about death?
EXT. CEMENTERY - DAY
A woman kneels down on a tomb and prays.
INT. BEDROOM - DAY
A man closes the eyes of his wife.
JAYDEN (V.O.)
NO!
7.

9. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT
Jayden is still shouting.
Then, he becomes silent. Neither him nor Amaziah move.
Two silhouettes on a road in the early morning.
Jayden stares at the ground. Amaziah stares at Jayden.
Amaziah steps forward and sits down behind Jayden.
He puts his hands on Jayden’s hands.
AMAZIAH
I wish you could see what I see.
INT. ROOM - DAY
Close-up on computer. The screen fills the frame.
Extracts of Youtube videos of gay weddings.
AMAZIAH
The freedom.
EXT. BEACH - DAY
Jayden eats an ice cream.
AMAZIAH
The sweetness.
The ice cream falls and Jayden laughs out loud.
It’s the first time we see him as a joyful kid, without
preoccupations, without questions.
AMAZIAH (CONT’D)
The innocence.
FADE TO WHITE.
The cries of a newborn.
AMAZIAH (CONT’D)
The beginnings.
EXT. CAFE - DAY
The 50 year-old man and woman sit at the same table.
They just look into each other’s eyes.
8.

10. INT. PSYCHATRIST’S CABINET - DAY
The 40 year-old man that was screaming in the elevator sits
on a sofa, facing the psychiatrist.
He sighs and runs his hands through his hair.
AMAZIAH (V.O.)
The second chances.
EXT. BEACH - DAY
The ocean. Infinite. Lit by the sun.
AMAZIAH
The beauty of it all.
EXT. ROAD - DAY
Amaziah takes his hands off Jayden’s.
Jayden smiles and frowns at the same time, processing.
He feels better.
Amaziah wraps his arms around Jayden and puts his head on his
shoulder.
Two faces next to each other: an old black man and a young
white kid. They both look at the end of the road - and
everything that’s in between.
And they both smile.
INT. ROOM - DAY
A wall.
Jayden and Amaziah sit next to each other on the floor, back
against the wall.
In the middle of the wall, there’s a vertical line with a
list. It reads:
GIVE
SMELL
SEE
HEAR
TOUCH
TASTE
9.

11. TRY
DISCOVER
EXPLORE
TRAVEL
LOVE
RECEIVE
OFFER
EAT
DRINK
SWIM
WALK
RUN
FLY
SHARE
CREATE
Around the list, they drew a bird, a starfish, a family.
They glued leaves of trees.
And they taped large, bright photographs.
Of a rainbow.
Of a Saint-Valentine’s box of chocolate.
Of a white wall.
Of the road in the early morning.
Of Amaziah’s wrinkles.
In an aquarium, next to them, there’s a paper boat.
Jayden and Amaziah just sit there.
In spite of everything scary and harmful, they choose life.
They choose to enjoy the present. Together.
10.