Where Is Home When Everything’s Been Washed Away?
A Submission to the Sundance Episodic Lab
This past month, I submitted The French Broad Revival to the Sundance Episodic Lab — a program that champions bold, personal storytelling and supports emerging writers in developing original television series. The application process asked a series of thoughtful, deeply reflective questions — not only about the project itself, but about the writer behind it: Why this story? Why you? Why now?
Answering those questions became an act of clarity and gratitude — a chance to articulate how my life, my creative path, and my community have converged in this series. Below are excerpts from my Sundance application — my responses to questions that challenged me to define the emotional heartbeat of The French Broad Revival and the experiences that shaped it. Whether or not the project advances, the process itself was profoundly affirming. It reminded me that storytelling, at its best, is an act of service — a way to translate lived experience into something that connects us all.
Series Logline:
After a record-breaking flood devastates the Blue Ridge Mountains, a fractured circle of artists, neighbors, and elders must rebuild what was lost — and face the question: where is home, when everything has been washed away?
Akin to HBO's Treme (2010-2013) set in post-Katrina New Orleans, The French Broad Revival channels the raw, creative spirit of Appalachia.
Writer/Creator Bio:
Originally from North Carolina, I began my career in Hollywood as a Producer’s Assistant at Universal Pictures, where I worked alongside numerous industry veterans, including the late Italian movie mogul Dino DeLaurentiis. I later served as an on-location Executive Producer’s Assistant on the movie Hannibal, produced by Dino and directed by Ridley Scott — an experience that deepened my understanding of cinematic storytelling at the highest level.
During my time working for Dino, I once asked him what advice he would give me for my career going forward. He paused, then said with that unmistakable Italian conviction: “If you want to really make it in this industry — and be happy — you must be a writer.” I’ve never forgotten those words. Many years later, they have become both a challenge and a compass, guiding me back to the creative core of why I fell in love with film in the first place. Over the past decade, I’ve studied the craft of screenwriting with deep intention, exploring how stories can help us make sense of who we are, both individually and collectively.
Personal Statement:
Life has offered me its share of heartbreak, loss, and detours, but I’ve always met those challenges with optimism rather than cynicism. I’ve made mistakes, walked through my own dark night of the soul, and found the strength to fall upward and begin again. You might say I’m a story that took its time — one that had to live a few hard chapters before finding her way in the second half of life. My path has never been linear, but every experience — love, motherhood, grief, reinvention — became part of the compost from which my writing now grows.
Today, I write from a place of gratitude and purpose. I’m drawn to dramas, dramedies, and comedies that are of service to the world — works that help move humankind closer to interconnectedness. I am dedicated to developing content that entertains and inspires, fostering a deeper appreciation of our shared humanity and the universal truths that unite us.
What is your personal connection to the material? Why are you the best person to tell this story? Why tell this story now?
I’m honored to introduce you to The French Broad Revival, a drama series set in my home city of Asheville, North Carolina.
On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene brought historic flooding and devastation to Asheville. The city was unprepared — most residents, myself included, dismissed the warnings, believing a hurricane could never cause such sustained damage in a mountain town. When the storm hit, power and clean water were cut off for nearly a month, homes and landmarks were destroyed, and hundreds of lives were lost. During that time, my husband was hospitalized in critical condition (although unrelated to the storm), and for the next four weeks I witnessed firsthand a hospital operating under Code Triage — the exhaustion, compassion, and quiet heroism of ordinary people doing their best to hold everything together. (My husband has since made a full recovery.)
The French Broad Revival was born from that experience — from grief and gratitude, from the haunting beauty of a community learning to rebuild. Though fictional, its characters reflect the humanity, resilience, and faith I witnessed.
I’m the best person to tell this story because it lives at the intersection of everything that has shaped me — my Southern roots, lifelong compassion for artists, and firsthand experience surviving Helene in the city I call home.
And now is the time to tell it — as the world faces intensifying climate disasters and a growing need for stories of hope, renewal, and belonging.
Community Connection: Do you have any personal connection to the unique communities featured in your story?
I have a personal connection to every community represented in The French Broad Revival. My mother was a painter, and I grew up immersed in the world of art and artists. Additionally, the flamboyant character Romy is an amalgamation of the colorful personalities I befriended during my years performing as a child actress in regional theater. Those early experiences gave me a deep sensitivity to artists of every kind — their courage and their vulnerability.
Raised in the rural South, I spent Sundays in both white and Black churches with my grandmother, absorbing the cadence of the sermons, the music, and the sense of belonging in those communities. Those memories inspired characters like Reverend Lenny Samuels and Reverend Amos Sturghill — voices of faith.
As a teenager, I visited Cherokee, North Carolina, an experience that left a lasting imprint. The deep spirituality and reverence for nature I encountered there continues to influence my life today. The characters Ama-li and Elias Catawnee were born from that connection — a reflection of ancestral wisdom and the sacred relationship between land and spirit.
And as for Tallulah, my protagonist — her fear of repeating the generational traps of her Southern past is my own. In truth, each character carries a piece of me woven together into one shared story.
What is the theme of your series? That is, what is the central idea or big question you are exploring? And how is this thematic question explored on an episode-to-episode basis in your series?
At its core, The French Broad Revival asks: How do we rebuild — not just our homes, but our hearts — when everything else is lost? This work examines how individuals and communities find meaning, beauty, and belonging when the foundations of their lives have been (literally) washed away. Guided by the Melville quote, “It’s not down on any map; true places never are,” the show suggests that home isn’t a fixed location, but something we create through connection.
Each character embodies a different facet of recovery — physical, emotional, spiritual, and creative, which can be explored as growth throughout each episode. Through the perspectives of Tallulah, Colt, Roshanda, Romy, and others, we see how healing rarely follows a straight path. Some must first heal physically, while others rebuild with art, faith, or by facing the ghosts of their past. Together, their stories form a mosaic of collective renewal, of finding our 'true home' in the face of ruin.
How does your theme inform each of your characters over the course of the series? How does the theme connect emotionally to what your characters are going through? How do your lead characters explore the theme from their own unique points of view?
The central theme of The French Broad Revival — finding our true home — is embodied through each and every character. Both Colt and Tallulah are products of the Southern/Appalachian cycle of generational trauma — poverty, addiction, and fractured family ties. Tallulah ran from her past and rarely speaks of it. Colt stayed close, trying to make peace with his roots, though not successfully. When Hurricane Helene strikes, they are both forced to confront the patterns they’ve long tried to escape. They must first become whole in order to discover a sense of home within themselves.
For Tallulah, the aftermath is the nightmare she never wanted: a wounded partner, a child depending on her, and a return to the very kind of life she once fled. But within that crucible lies the possibility of transformation, healing, and unexpected belonging. Together, they explore whether two wounded people can build something lasting without repeating the cycles that broke them.
Surrounding them is a chorus of characters whose lives echo the same question in different ways. Romy embraces her chosen family in the storm’s aftermath, discovering that the artists who surround her are, in truth, her home. Rev. Lenny Samuels leads his community not only through the logistics of recovery but through the deeper spiritual reckoning that follows. Elias Catawnee and his grandmother Ama-li lose their home entirely, finding temporary refuge in a shelter. Camille Redding, having lost her entire body of work to the flood, must summon the courage to begin painting again. Camille's husband, Hank, discovers that rebuilding isn't always about structure. And Jesse and Claire, welcome new life — a baby born on the night all was lost.
Episodic Vision: Please tell us if this is imagined as a limited series or ongoing? Why does your story need to be told across multiple episodes and/or seasons?
The French Broad Revival was conceived as an ongoing series because healing — whether personal or communal — unfolds in layers, setbacks, and small victories over time. The story of Asheville’s recovery after Hurricane Helene mirrors that truth.
A two-part pilot ends in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but the series grows far beyond it. Over the course of the first season, the focus shifts from survival to rebuilding. The community’s revival becomes a reflection of its people: messy, resilient, and deeply human.
In later seasons, the show can evolve into a portrait of a thriving but forever changed Asheville. One year later, the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway has just reopened, and studios along the River Arts District are slowly coming back to life — yet many artists remain displaced. Future seasons move beyond the hurricane into a living, breathing community where new relationships form, old wounds resurface, and the creative spirit of Appalachia continues to rise from the floodwaters.
Writing these answers reminded me why I began this journey in the first place — to tell stories that come from my lived experience and from my heart. However the path unfolds, I’m grateful to be walking it.
