Work starts on climate change TV drama PhDs

Two talented screenwriters will create TV dramas inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as part of their PhDs at GCU.

Jess Moore and Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt will spend three years working on the projects which will produce two commercially credible television scripts based on the themes of climate change and the SDGs.

Both were recruited following an international search for writers with industry experience.

Jess Moore is a director, playwright and scriptwriter, who has written a romantic comedy series for Audible and had short films screened at festivals in Cannes and Montreal. Her debut play, Gin for Breakfast, received an Off West End Theatre Award nomination for Best New Play.

She said: "Everything I have written so far has had a social purpose underpinning it and I'm hoping this script will lend itself well to that.

"I'm particularly interested in the disproportionate impact of the climate emergency on women.

"The temptation, as a scriptwriter, is to start writing straight away but I'm excited about doing the research."

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt is based in New York and directed ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium, an Emmy-nominated film about the death of Chilean musician Victor Jara. A former UNICEF correspondent, he lecturers in documentary film-making at Princeton University.

He said: "A good story is a good story - that's the hardest part about writing any screenplay.

"The bedrock of the project has to be inherently a good story, the climate SDGs have to work in the service of whatever that story is.

"I watch a lot of films and TV. The Wire is a great example, a real character-driven TV show with significant themes.

"Climate change is affecting us so profoundly in so many different ways, it doesn't have to be front and centre."

Professor Catriona Miller, of GCU's Department of Media and Journalism, said: "The response to the call for proposals was far beyond our expectations.

"GCU’s commitment to the SDGs made us think hard about a research project that could be forward-thinking and create change.

"The very high calibre of our two successful candidates indicates the importance of these issues to the media industry. We can’t wait to see where their creativity takes them."