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Skyler Edge watches the camera monitors and the shooting of the film in a house on Cleveland's West Side. The Cleveland teen's story about a transgender youth has been turned into a screenplay for a film called "House, Not Home."

(John Petkovic/The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It was just year ago that Skyler Edge was struggling with a secret, trying to figure out how to come out and say it, what to tell family and friends and classmates.

Saturday, the Cleveland teen watched with excitement as his once-difficult secret was being turned into a movie for the world to see – with a Hollywood director, a crew and actors; with film festivals and Showtime already signed on to show it.

Edge, a junior at Facing History New Tech High School, is the screenwriter for "House, Not Home," the story of a transgender youth that he based on his own experiences being born one gender, female, but identifying with another, male.

The film is being shot in Cleveland Saturday and Sunday, as part of a program by Scenarios USA, a non-profit organization that uses film and writing to teach students across the country about timely issues.

"Scenarios USA makes three movies a year and this year we chose Cleveland, Chicago and New York," said Rob York, producer of "House, Not Home." "We try to find something unique to each city, something that reflects issues that kids are dealing with."

Edge, now 16, never imagined the seven-page story would make much of impression, let alone be picked as the top out of submissions in the Scenarios USA contest.

"I never had any formal training and never thought that I was much of a writer," said Edge, standing on the porch of a wood-frame house on the near West Side that was being used as a location. "Plus, I didn't think people would like it because of the subject matter."

But it precisely the subject matter that caught the eye of Scenarios USA.

"It was a very unique story for a 15-year-old to write," said York. "And it was also told in a way that anyone that has ever felt loneliness could understand."

Upon selection, Edge was paired with Joshua Butler, a Los Angeles director known for film and TV work, including The CW network show, "The Vampire Diaries."

"We worked to turn a short story into a screenplay and a movie that would appeal to high school kids," said Butler.

Cleveland teen Skyler Edge's story about a transgender youth has been turned into a screenplay for a film called "House, Not Home." The film is being shot in Cleveland this weekend, as part of a program by Scenerios USA. The non-profit organization that uses film and writing to teach students across the country about timely issues.

Once completed, the "House, Not Home" and the other two films will premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival. They will also air on the Showtime network.

Not exactly what you'd expect out of student educational films. But there's something adults can also learn from the films, adds Butler.

"We get a look at what kids think and worry about," he says. "When the program starting in 1999, there was a fear of teen pregnancy. Then we saw AIDS, then coming out issues in the mid-2000s, along with bullying."

Gun violence, intolerance and gender identity issues are the most recent concerns.

"In Skyler's case, you have someone who was born female and came out as transgender and then trying to find a way to deal with people not accepting him," says Butler.

In January, Edge addressed the student body upon being named winner of the short-story award.

"Winning helped me do that," says Edge. "And I hope this film can help open up the discussion about gender and address people's fears so we can understand one another better."

Suddenly, Edge shut up. This time, it wasn't because he was carrying around a secret.

The director yelled action and the filming started up again. A secret no more.