As a hurricane bears down on coastal Louisiana, the first female supervisor at a local refinery must choose whether to fight for a disappearing way of life or relocate to give her daughter a future beyond their dying town
It’s hurricane season in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Recently divorced Luce Guidry has just been made the first female supervising operator at the local oil refinery. She is trying hard to hold it all together, working long hours in a male-dominated world, in order to give her two children a good life and better future, but often relying on her fishermen father, Emil, to take care of them. Whenever she can be home, Luce finds herself fighting with her volatile 15-year-old daughter, Ava who was traumatized during Hurricane Isaac and is now more on edge than usual because it’s hurricane season again. Then FEMA offers to buy their home as part of a new relocation plan for families living in high-risk flood zones, and a tropical wave forms off the coast of Africa. Luce cannot imagine leaving the home three generations of her family have been raised in and only clings harder to it as others choose to leave. But Ava begins to realize that the sinking land, rising tides, and ever more frequent storms climate change have brought to coastal Louisiana will never amount to a better future, no matter how beautiful their way of life or how much money her mother can earn at the refinery.As the tropical wave grows to become Hurricane Miranda, the threat to the refinery, Ava’s rebelliousness, and the tension between Luce and Ava grow with it. As Luce delays evacuating, trying to get her manager to shut the refinery down, to lessen the likely environmental cost, Ava and her new boyfriend make the rash decision to leave on their own, heading for Texas on Emil’s fishing boat. Luce searches desperately for Ava as the hurricane grows, and she starts to awaken to the threats both her daughter and her community are facing, both now and in the future. As the storm comes closer, Luce starts shutting her own unit down without authorization, and the other refinery workers follow her lead. Then she learns that the coastguard has rescued Ava, who is now alone in the impending storm. Luce leaves to find her daughter before she is released from work, knowingly forfeiting her job. Luce finally finds Ava, walking in the street, dragging her suitcase behind her, as the water rises. As the outer bands of Miranda hit, mother and daughter find forgiveness and drive away from the only home they have ever known, before the water can engulf them.
Stowe Story Labs 2023 - Tangerine Fellowship
Academy Nicholls Fellowship 2023 - Quarterfinalist
Writer's Lab 2023 - Finalist
Producer - Gina Resnick
