Macdaleine St.Remy, Director, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, NYU, $100k Feature Film Prize Semi-Finalist

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Drama

Length: 120 pages 

Field of Science: Climate Change, Engineering

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

It’s late September, and a heat dome has parked itself over New York City. Familiar with these annual summer heat waves, officials again implement the city’s extreme heat Emergency Action Plan thinking that these measures will be sufficient: cooling centers are opened; thousands of free ACs have been distributed; service on certain train lines has been cut to prevent track overheating; rolling blackouts have been instituted for some to reduce the strain on the power grid; employees are encouraged to work from home and heat warnings have been issued for the hottest part of the day. Though for most, with minimal options available to them, their daily habits must continue as normal as the extremity of the heat dome begins to break down the city around them.

Samira (21), on indefinite leave from college to care for her younger brother, Ellis (16), attends a picnic at Central Park with the family for whom she nannies. Though she wants to finish her degree, rather than risk Ellis becoming a ward of the state, Samira does what she knows her recently deceased grandmother would have expected of her. Though Samira and the wealthy family are able to cloister themselves from the furnace brewing outside, they soon find that their wealth can’t fully insulate them from the impact of the heat.
Meanwhile, as Ellis skips school with his friends that day, they come across a developing situation. A train has derailed injuring many passengers; it’s suspected that the extreme temperatures underground warped the tracks. An unexpected Ellis is propelled into a caretaker role for the most vulnerable in his community when the city fails to do so. With each individual that Ellis helps, he comes one step closer to confronting his grief over the loss of the only parent that he’s ever known.

By the time the heat wave passes, replaced by a thunderstorm that provides the citizenry with much needed relief, Samira and Ellis will have discovered a deeper understanding of who they are to each other and who they can be in the future.