Synopsis

The year is 1973 and it's a typical school day for twelve-year-old Eric, but Eric is not a typical boy. With hearing aids, glasses and the status of 'outcast', he's a perpetual loner at the back of the class at a school for the hearing.

His escape: drawing Tarzan and Jane cartoons – inspired by his crush, Lizzie. But when the day's lesson turns to Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest, Eric's attention shifts. Is he the weak gazelle in the science video... the one that dies in the jaws of the lion? His bully, Brad, thinks so – and he's about to let Eric know it. As class ends, Lizzie slips a note into Eric’s hand, and Eric realizes he has choices. Armed with his Tarzan drawings, Eric prepares to face Brad and win Lizzie's heart. 

But first he must decide: is he a lion, a gazelle, or the king of the jungle?

Told from Eric's sound perspective, this story casts an authentic light on what it takes to navigate the world as an outsider, showing us that survival of the fittest is ultimately more about choice than ability.