admin GREENPORT: The North Fork TV Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today that Maxwell Pitagno’s script ‘Distemper’ is the winner of the inaugural Science + Tech Script Competition. The North Fork TV Festival will turn his script into a pilot to premiere at the festival on October 4–5, 2019, in Greenport, NY.
“We are excited to make this competition a reality because we want the world to enjoy more stories about the wonderful reality of science and technology,” said festival Founder Noah Doyle. “We are especially grateful to collaborate with the Sloan Foundation to mentor emerging creators like Maxwell.”
“We are thrilled to make this inaugural award with the North Fork TV Festival to support a promising young filmmaker telling a remarkable story about an under-appreciated woman in science,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We have long been supporting episodic development with our film partners, but this is our first grant dedicated solely to television, a creative medium for dramatizing science and technology that is exploding in popularity.”
‘Distemper’ tells the true story of pathologist and LGBT icon Louise Pearce as she works to find a cure for African Trypanosomiasis as it infects millions across the Belgian Congo. Directing and producing the pilot will be award-winning director Elias Plagianos, the festival’s Director of Programming.
“We received many excellent scripts, but none had the social, historical, and scientific relevance that ‘Distemper’ has,” said Plagianos. “As a century-old story that takes place in the Belgian Congo and New York City, its production is highly ambitious. But we are inspired to find creative solutions because we are honored to tell Louis Pearce’s historic story and to share her pioneering significance.”
Maxwell Pitagno is an emerging writer from the south shore of Long Island. He graduated cum laude from Stony Brook University in 2018 with a degree in biology and works in a fungal genetics lab. His focus is biographical stories where he is able to channel his love of science and history.
“I’m ecstatic to be selected,” said Pitagno. “I’m hugely thankful to the Sloan Foundation and the North Fork TV Festival for the opportunity to bring this story about an amazing woman and scientist to life.”
The Science + Tech Pilot Script Competition aims to encourage screenwriters to create realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. The winner was selected by a panel of independent judges, including accomplished television professionals as well as noted scientists and technologists.
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