Script Club: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
About this Live Online Event
Are you interested in meeting other Sundance Collab members in a casual, moderated space? Join Sundance Collab for Script Club, a virtual event series designed to spark conversations with screenwriters, filmmakers, and cinephiles from across the world.
For our April Script Club, we will discuss the award-winning screenplay for the fantasy-drama coming of age film Beasts of the Southern Wild, written by Behn Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar and directed by Behn Zeitlin. In honor of Earth Month, the event will start with a special conversation with the writers on climate storytelling, location as character, and crafting emotionally rich protagonists who feel both true to the story’s world and deeply human. This is a rare chance to hear firsthand how the film evolved from the play Juicy and Delicious by Alibar to the big screen, and how its themes remain urgently relevant today.
Beasts of the Southern Wild premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize. It went on to win the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. The script won the 2012 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
An allegory for Hurricane Katrina, this magical-realist fable follows precocious 6-year-old Hushpuppy (Oscar-nominated Quvenzhané Wallis), who lives with her sickly father Wink (Dwight Henry) in an isolated Louisiana bayou named “the Bathtub.” When their homes flood after a terrible storm, Hushpuppy and Wink gather the survivors of their community, all accustomed to living on the fringe of society, to rebuild over the waters.
In preparation for the event, we recommend you first read the script, then watch the film.
How Script Club Works:
- Read the script in advance, watch the film if you can, then join us on Zoom for a lively discussion led by one of Sundance Collab’s Community Leaders
- The event will last approximately two hours and will start off with a moderated conversation and Q&A with special guests, co-writers Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar
- We'll watch clips from the film, then break into interactive groups led by a Sundance Collab Community Leader to discuss the script and the film
- We encourage joining our Community Forum on Discord to get prompts ahead of the event and continue the discussion with your peers afterwards
Live event registration for Script Club Events is free of charge. This event will be recorded for archival only and will not be posted to the Video Library or emailed to registered participants. A free Sundance Collab account and advanced registration are required in order to receive the Zoom link for the event. You can attend as many events as you like as long as you abide by our Community Agreement.
Live Online EventTeam
Lucy Alibar
Writer
Lucy Alibar’s writing has been published in Zoetrope, the Oxford American, and the Wall Street Journal. Her plays have been workshopped/performed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, National Theatre Studio, Joe’s Pub, Ojai, Berkeley Rep, and Williamstown. Her first movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild, written with Benh Zeitlin received the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Film Festival Camera D’Or. The screenplay for Beasts was nominated for the Scripter, BAFTA, and Academy Award. Winner of the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award, the Humanitas Prize, and the Nantucket Film Festival New Voices in Screenwriting Award.
She wrote and produced Troop Zero for Amazon and wrote the screenplay for Where the Crawdads Sing for Sony. She recently performed her solo play, Burnpile, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and always wants to see a picture of your dog.
Benh Zeitlin
Writer/Director/Composer
Benh Zeitlin is a writer, director, and composer who began his career as an animator working under Jan Svakmajer’s team in Prague. In 2006 he relocated to New Orleans to make his first live-action short Glory at Sea which grew into the four-time Academy Award-nominated, Camera D’or winner Beasts of the Southern Wild. His second feature Wendy was created with a pack of wild children on a remote volcanic island in the Caribbean. His credits as a composer include Mediterranea, A Chiara, Brimstone & Glory. He is also the founder of Court 13 Arts, a non-profit devoted to supporting daring cinema, which produced films such as Burning Cane, Give Me Liberty, and No Kings.
Erica Elson
Moderator
Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN.
Elson joined the Sundance Collab team in October 2021 and produces courses, Master Classes, and events in the areas of screenwriting, television writing, directing, producing, and documentary filmmaking. She has moderated conversations with Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Susannah Grant, among others.
Prior to Sundance, Elson was the Thesis Production Supervisor at the American Film Institute for five years. She oversaw several award-winning graduate thesis films, notably the 2021 BAFTA student film winner APART, TOGETHER and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival short WE WERE MEANT TO. While at AFI, Elson developed a passion for sustainable production and created the Green Film School Alliance, which includes forty schools on four continents. She holds a BA in Communication and Film Studies from Concordia University and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.