April 5–6, 2025

Too often, climate change is framed solely as a science story, but it’s much more than that—it’s an interdisciplinary story. It’s a story about our relationship to nature and the interconnected systems impacted by global warming, such as food security, water scarcity, and human migration due to climate displacement. We are artists and educators whose work examines the role of narrative as a climate solution in popular culture and mainstream media. We design curricula that ignite and inspire imaginations toward new storytelling.

In this two-day workshop for writers, directors, and producers across media, we will reframe and deepen the definition of climate storytelling. We will look at the role stories play in fostering empathy, shifting mindsets, and creating a culture of care. We will examine the interdisciplinary role of science and the humanities and focus on crafting rich climate narratives that interrogate systemic thinking, petroculture, and empower citizens toward collective action. Through assigned readings, discussions, dynamic exercises, and collaborative learning, you will acquire tools and strategies to create narratives that can take on the complex, the thorny, and even the beautiful--ideas that, through knowledge and awareness, can inspire a sense of radical hope.

This workshop goes beyond teaching techniques—it’s a regenerative, creative community for climate storytellers. Together, we’ll build new narratives—narratives that challenge complacency, embrace complexity, and empower humanity to act with urgency and hope in the face of a rapidly changing world.

Key topics include:

• Climate Science Literacy: Develop a foundational understanding of climate science, based on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other resources
• The Climate Storytelling Landscape: Analyze current climate stories and gaps; identify audiences and explore perceived risk across cultures
• Systems Thinking: Examine the interconnectedness of earth systems as well as political and economic systems and discuss how expanded perspectives can shape dramatic storytelling
• Eco-Criticism & Biodiversity: Learn about the study of different cultures’ relationship to the natural world through world literature, and reflect upon the complex relationship between humans, non-human species, and the environment
• Deep Research & Critical Thinking: Develop skills to define burning questions, challenge assumptions, and research climate stories
• Screen Craft & Story Structure: Analyze genres, characters, and story structures, with a climate lens
• New Paradigms of Storytelling: Explore narrative structures that pull away from capitalist, colonialist tendencies e.g., hero- driven, linear stories, with clear, concrete goals toward more nuanced paradigms that reflect the complexity of climate change
• Multicultural Storytelling: Explore world-building and inclusive narratives that resonate with diverse audiences and reflect the globalized nature of the climate crisis
• Audience & Impact: Understand how to engage audiences in meaningful dialogue that drives action, spotlighting climate adaptation, collective approaches, and the role of democracy in creating an equitable future.

FACILITATOR BIOS

Lydia Dean Pilcher is a cultural strategist, educator, two-time Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated producer of over 40 feature films and series with many auteur directors. Founder of NYC production company Cine Mosaic, Pilcher’s movie experience spans an international landscape with work in the US, India, Uganda, South Africa, UK, Hong Kong, Budapest, and Istanbul. Director credits include the WWII female spy thriller, A CALL TO SPY, and the climate narratives RADIUM GIRLS, and HOMING INSTINCT, a science fiction multi-screen film installation (based on a story from Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements).

Pilcher has an extensive track record creating innovative cross industry, multi-stakeholder collaborations to drive narrative change. She co-founded the Producers Guild of America’s Sustainability Task Force, co-leads the WGA/PGA Inter-guild Climate Storytelling Working Group, and co-Chairs the Directors Guild of America Sustainable Future Committee (prioritizing the transition to clean energy and climate storytelling). Pilcher co-convenes Roll Call, a network of 60 companies and organizations working in climate storytelling in the entertainment industry. She has taught cultural strategy at NYU Tisch Graduate Film in a course she designed: The Audience is in Revolt; and currently teaches Climatic Change: Storytelling Arts, Zeitgeist, and our Future, a graduate-level interdisciplinary course at the Climate School of Columbia University. Pilcher was appointed to the Film & TV Steering Committee of UNFCCC’s initiative, Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA). She holds a BA in Political Science and Communications from Antioch College and an MFA in Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Abby Rabinowitz directs the writing program at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Abby’s research interests focus on climate-change narratives and technology, and her courses include "Climate Fiction and the City," an advanced seminar that invites students to engage with the climate crisis empathetically through storytelling. A journalist, Abby has written on climate-change policy, technology, and narratives for Wired, The Columbia Journalism Review, Grist and The New Republic, and her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Vice, and the journal, Science, among other publications. Prior to joining NYU, Abby taught writing at Columbia University, where she helped found Neuwrite, Columbia’s association of writers and scientists. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Grant and has won residencies at the Ucross Foundation and Jentel Artist Residency Program. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BA in History from Brown University.

Jessie Keyt is a writer and consultant for writers, filmmakers, and production companies in the US, UK, Europe, and India. She co-authored Alternative Scriptwriting: Contemporary Storytelling for the Screen, and co-wrote the award-winning feature film, SKIN, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received worldwide theatrical release. Her screenwriting has received development support and/or recognition from Euroscript/MEDIA II, the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab, the Chesterfield/Writers’ Film Project, the Nicholl Fellowship, and the Austin Film Festival. Her plays have been produced at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City and Manhattan Theater Source. Her nonfiction and fiction have been published widely and awarded a Byrdcliffe residency, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, and a Columbia Writing Program Fellowship.

Jessie holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia’s School of the Arts, an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a BA in Literature and Drama from Dartmouth College. She is the Area Head of Screenwriting and an Associate Arts Professor in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU, where she teaches a graduate-level master class on “Writing the Climate Change Script.” She has taught screenwriting at Columbia University, Sundance, and La Fémis, the French national film school. Her research interests include climate-change storytelling and alternative scriptwriting, and her creative work often explores alienation, loss, nature, motherhood, and the American myth.