>> My name is Jamairais Hendy
and I am from Northeast Washington D.C.
I'm an actor and a first time screenwriter.
I am also a Sickle-Cell fellow survivor.
Is actually my journey with sickle cell
that led me to write my screenplay "Hemat."
I struggled with sickle cell through my life
and in college my sickle cell got worse
and only three months after graduating from college
I ended up with a three month stint in the hospital that.
Almost cost me my life and put a pause on my acting goals.
I had to move back home and my life became a tug of war
between pursuing my goals as an artist and my health.
Many surgeries and hospitalizations later
I ended up working with the National Institute of Health.
And in July of 2015
I had a bone marrow transplant
and was cured of sickle cell.
>> After having my transplant and being cured of sickle cell
my world just opened up.
I mean it's.
Hard to even put into words.
The feeling of..
You know you're sick your whole life
you're in and out of hospitals
and you have people telling you that you know.
You won't live to be 30 or you know
you must make it through this surgery
or you can't do this or you can't do that.
And then all of a sudden you're cured and.
The world is you know at your beck
and call you can do whatever you know
you can pursue any dreams that you have.
And so all I knew was after the transplant
that I had to share I wanted the world to know that.
>> This transplant was out there.
I wanted sickle cell patients to know
that there were doctors and scientists
and you know people that were working to find a cure.
And I felt like if more attention was placed
on sickle cell
than there could be more miracle stories like mine.
And so I wrote "Hemat" which is inspired by true events
dealing with my transplant.
And it's about a college student who is in the fight for her life
and she has to pay.
She has to deal with past family trauma
in order to win this battle.
I believe that BET and Paramount
should make my movie
because it's a story that.
I feel like hasn't been told.
We don't hear about sickle cell
and and on the radio that of TV and movies
and so I think that if we get more eyes on it
that it could really help.
It's a film that can inspire and uplift and educate
so many people filmmaking and storytelling is important to me
because it's it's a form of therapy.
It is a form of self-expression.
It's an instant pick me up for me
and being someone that was a sick child
I was left and in my room a lot.
And I had to use my imagination you know
and my imagination just soared
and the world of make believe became my friend.
And I loved the world of make believe.
I loved it and I love it now
and I feel like with storytelling
and filmmaking you can change people
and that is a beautiful beautiful thing.
As for the great debate on the greatest black film ever made.
Oh my god that is a tough one.
I mean there are so many great filmmakers.
Ryan Coogler Ava DuVernay John Singleton.
I would have to say that my favorite would be Crooklyn, Spike Lee.
I love Spike Lee. I love Brooklyn.
I'm Jamairais Hendy and Project Create
means to me an opportunity for dreamers like me to dream.
If you want to follow my journey 81 00:04:31,872 --> 00:00:00,000 check out the hash tag hash tag #projectcre