Film

Joplin Tornado, May 22nd 2011. (Image credit: Chris Spannagle/NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.)

Ode to Joplin

Ode to Joplin is a full-length feature film script based on the true severe weather events of May 22nd, 2011.

Meteorologist and Joplin native Maggie Guthrie returns home to survey the damage of the 2011 Joplin tornado with the National Weather Service. Even without knowing if her estranged family survived the tornado, she hopes the survey will bring hope and closure to the community of Joplin. However, when her mother, Ruth, reaches out for help, Maggie finds herself caught in a vicious battle for closure on a personal level as her job brings her a little too close to home. Maggie must help settle the loss of her childhood home and attempt to reconnect with her grieving brother, whose son is in critical condition with a debris-related head injury. Can a brush with death bring new perspective, and save the relationship of a southern evangelical family and their queer daughter?

Second Place winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Script Competition at Carnegie Mellon University 2024-2025.

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In Development/Coming Soon

‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ by Paula Rego

Wretched Shepherd

Wretched Shepherd is a 60-minute gothic/eldritch horror-drama.

In a primitive community in a world not quite our own, Jozie, a grieving young mother must evade her possessive husband and village chief, Garryson while communing with an ominous other-worldly creature hidden underneath the Shepherds’ barn. The shepherds, Zechariah and Sadelle begin to operate a healing practice out of their home, made possible in secret by this creature.

As people in the village begin to pry into the Shepherds’ mysterious healing practice, the town is thrust into an environment of distrust, suspicion and holy disagreement. With the Festival of Strengths rapidly approaching, Garryson must prepare the village to host their neighbors, only Jozie’s midnight wanderings and the town’s tension distracts him from his duties. During the festival, religious guide, Yubegi stumbles upon the creature. Unsure of the creature’s intentions, he notifies Garryson of it’s presence, arguing to invite the creature to explain itself, but Garryson will have none of it. He arms the festival-goers and readies them for battle with a ‘purgatoric evil'.

Jozie, however begins to feel a new home within the ominous power she’s befriended. Supported by her best friend, Trissanne, and stablehand Sahm, the three must create an elaborate escape plan from Garryson and his mob. Will they be able to save the creature, and are they sure the creature is worth saving?