THE SKID is episodic drama set in New York and beyond a young dejected journalist investigating everyday acts of American bravery for a civilian Hero Fund Foundation.
In THE SKID we meet Sylvia Munoz, an older administrator at a hedge fund in a New York City office. Sylvia banters with an irreverent young broker, Alex Vincent, for whom she has brought birthday doughnuts. In moments, something else becomes clear: it’s 8:45am on the 88th floor of the South Tower on September 11th, 2001, and no one knows what’s coming next.
Jump forward, and we meet Anna, the heart of the series. Anna is tough, smart, funny and cut to the core after losing her job as a journalist at a tiny New York newspaper that has recently folded. Now at a professional crossroads and living with her partner, Shawn Mores, an administrator in the Mayor’s Office, Anna reluctantly takes a job at the Provan Hero’s Fund, a subset of the larger Foundation non-profit, which gives annual awards and a cash honorarium to Civilian American Heroes.
Anna meets her co-workers who take on the hard emotional and academic labor of interviewing “hero” nominees (if they are living), their families, witnesses to the event, and others. When Anna arrives, she joins Beal in investigating the case of a teacher, Marissa Thompson, who has been nominated as a “Hero” for talking a teenager out of a school shooting. As Anna and Beal investigate, interviewing Marissa’s family, boss, and even the shooter, they confront the kindness, fear, and unwitting bravery that caused Marissa to “turn into the skid” and upend her own life. The case ends with Anna and Beal affirming Marissa’s status as “Hero” in the eyes of the Provan Fund.
In the course of the episode, we also learn from Anna’s comings and goings, that a mysterious man in her hallway knocking on the door of her neighbor, is actually an older Alex, and the door he has been knocking on belongs to Sylvia. We learn that on September 11th Sylvia convinced a skeptical Alex, who imagined that the first plane to hit was an accident, to get into the last elevator to the midpoint of the South Tower, saving his life. For the last twenty years he has spent that day with Sylvia, bringing her flowers. They discover that Sylvia died peacefully in her apartment. Alex is set free to love her in his memory, and Anna understands that heroes are everywhere, even in the old lady she never knew who lived down the hall.
Julie Sharbutt is a writer, director and actor who uses Genre and Comedy to tell character-driven contemporary stories. Her most recent work includes writing, directing and producing the award winning horror short film SCAM, which screened across the world at Fantaspoa, Woodstock, Final Girls Berlin, Cannes Film Festival American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and more, and writing the short film BOTTLECAP optioned and produced by Director Barbara Brown. She co-wrote the short film CUPIDS which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award. Her short horror film 3 DAYS is on ALTER with over a million views, and her debut comedy feature film MOVED is on Apple. Other recent works include feature screenplays EXCELLENT FANCY (2023 Writers Lab Finalist, 2022 WScripted Cannes Screenplay List), CROW FLIES (2023 Austin Film Festival SemiFinalist), and original pilots SPORTS BRA, SALVAGED, SECRETARY OF ARTS, PLAYERS and others. Julie is a 2018 Warner Bros Discovery OneFifty New Storytellers alumni, where she developed her feature comedy screenplay COOL NEW TOWN as an episodic series. Prior to directing, Julie was a TV, film and theater actor in New York. She also performed improv at UCB and The PIT, and her humor writing can be seen in The New Yorker and McSweeneys. MFA in Acting from NYU, BA from Vanderbilt, member of Film Fatales, Women in Film, and Alliance of Women Directors. Current mentor in Vanderbilt University’s Vandy In Hollywood summer program, and longtime West Coast Board Member of the NYU Grad Acting Alumni Association. She loves hiking, volunteering, and ghost stories.
