When Andie Tursi (MLA `09, MPhil `19) wrote a young girl’s coming of age story in a fiction workshop at Penn, she didn’t envision seeing her characters come to life on film. But after adapting her short story into a screenplay in a subsequent workshop with filmmaker Scott Burkhardt, followed by a fundraising campaign and a few days of filming in Philadelphia, that is exactly what happened.
“It's been surreal to see the characters, settings, and scenes I imagined come to life as real people, places, and situations. That has been a writer's dream come true,” said Andie. “We’re so grateful for the amount of support it’s received.” Andie attributes some of that support to the Rittenhouse Writers Group, which provided feedback and encouragement, and Kathryn Watterson, who mentored Andie as a graduate student at Penn and critiqued the short story that became Exuvia.
Exuvia tells the story of a teenage girl who finds her growing maturity an increasing obstacle to her closest friendship the summer before high school.
“The story was deeply personal and inherently universal, and it just stuck with me over the years,” says Scott. “I thought it would make a great short film because it feels like a throwback to the classic shorts of Lynne Ramsey and Jane Campion.”
The production of Exuvia ended in September. From here, the film will go into post-production as its crew prepares to distribute the film and submit it to festivals. “Exuvia,” the short story on which the short film is based, is forthcoming in The Bryant Literary Review.
Andie Tursi is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Cesium. She completed the Master of Liberal Arts and Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts with a concentration in creative writing. To learn more about how the MPhil program positioned Andie to fulfill her professional and creative writing ambitions, read Andie’s MPhil story.
Scott Burkhardt is a screenwriter and director. His short film Girls Are Strong Here won the 2021 Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short @ IFF Boston as well as the 2022 Humanitas Prize for Short Film. His next short film, We Buy Houses, is currently in post production and scheduled to play festivals in 2023. Learn more about his work in film and television at smallmotorskills.com. At Penn, he teaches Introduction to Screenwriting and Writing for Television as well as CRWR 3200: Screenwriting, a course in the Penn LPS Online Certificate in Creative Writing.
