The mission of IN THE MOMENT is to provide filmmaking opportunities behind the camera as well as in front of the camera for women and to make films on socially significant topics, and to tell stories featuring women.
We are seeking funds to adapt Susan Thurston’s stunning epic fantasy novel “Sister of Grendel” into a limited series.
In October 2022, “Sister of Grendel” was the recipient of the award for “Best Literary Work” with the prestigious (formerly out of Los Angeles) Catalyst Content Festival which takes place in Duluth, Minnesota.
We envision this will be a six- to eight-part story, with each episode running approximately 45-60 minutes. The cost for research, outlining, character refinement, adding (and in some cases deleting or combining scenes from the book,) first and second drafts, editing, and critique fees total approximately $2,000 for the pilot and $1,500 for each subsequent episode. This includes the cost to create a top-quality pitch deck, submission fees, and expenses for the Catalyst Content Festival—one of the top events in which to showcase a project and receive important feedback.
Screenwriting for the project’s pilot script is anticipated to begin in earnest starting in November 2022, and the writing of subsequent episodes will continue through the winter and spring. As indicated, the team will also be preparing a pitch deck for the project and submitting it to festivals in order to garner attention and funding for production.
“Sister of Grendel is a marvel of storytelling, as well as a haunting miracle of reimagination of every preconception not just of Beowulf, but of the possibilities of fiction. Astonishing in its originality, one ultimately can only repeat the final words of the fictional interlocutor who transmutes the tale: ‘I whispered,’ she says of Rehsotis, Grendel‘s sister, ‘I will never forget you.’”
~~Neal Karlen, New York Times contributor, author of This Thing Called Life.
THE NOVEL
In the ancient epic, Grendel and his mother are monsters slain by the hero warrior Beowulf. In Sister of Grendel, we learn a different truth, told by the lone witness to their brutal deaths. In this powerful and poignant reimagining, Grendel has a sister, Rehsotis. She and her brother are not monsters, but Anathians, who possess refined language and intelligence, great physical strength, and longevity. They live close to the natural and spiritual world, are skilled in herbal medicine, music, and magic, and can enter the dreams of sleeping humans. Rehsotis and Grendel are among the last of their race. Ultimately, Rehsotis must bridge the dangerous divide with humankind—the Smallheaded—with the help of her few allies, including a forsaken monk, a grieving lover, and a trusting child.
THE WRITING TEAM
Cynthia M. Uhrich is the owner and director of In The Moment Films, a fiscally-sponsored non-profit that provides filmmaking opportunities for women in front of, and behind the camera and tells primarily women’s stories. She is a screenwriter and playwright. She writes, produces and directs short films and has collaborated on several projects. Her work has been selected and won awards in both film and screenwriting categories in festivals across the U.S. and Canada.
Cynthia co-authored the novel “My Life in the Purple Kingdom” about Brown Mark’s life and time with Prince’s band The Revolution (University of Minnesota Press, Sept. 2020.) Her plays have been published by Smith & Kraus and Freshwater Press. She taught acting in Minnesota’s Twin Cities for 15 years, facilitated a Women’s Writing Retreat for 10 years and served as a casting director on numerous films. Prior to her time in Minnesota, she worked in Los Angeles as SAG & AFTRA talent. IN THE MOMENT has been making films, writing and producing screenplays since 2012.
Susan Thurston is a seasoned non-profit communicator. Most recently, she was the assistant director of alumni and donor communications for the UMN College of Liberal Arts. An adjunct instructor for the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Susan is a long-time board member of Illusion Theater.
Susan is also an award-winning writer and educator whose work can be found in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Los Angeles Review, Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, Minnesota Monthly, Fox Cry Review, Rag Mag; several anthologies including Open to Interpretation: At Water’s Edge (Taylor & O’Neill, 2012), Low Down and Coming On (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010), Tremors Vibrations Enough to Rearrange the World (Heywood Press, 1995); the chapbook Wild Bone Season (Heywood Press, 1996); and the novel Sister of Grendel (Calumet Press, 2022; The Black Hat Press, first edition 2016). She coauthored Cooking-Up the Good Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2012) with local-food movement leader Chef Jenny Breen.
Visit www.InTheMomentProductions.org to see Cynthia Uhrich’s directing reel and to learn more about her work as a writer, director, and actress.