With Anna Jane Joyner, Founder and VP of Story Consulting at Good Energy Stories
11:00 am – Storytelling with a Climate Lens presentation
2:00 pm – Conversation with student panel
Open to all; no registration required
Climate change is happening now, all around us, not elsewhere or in the future. Climate intersects with every issue we care about, every topic under the sun. So, as screenwriter and producer Dorothy Fortenberry says, “If climate isn’t in your story, it’s science fiction.” Including climate in your story doesn’t mean being didactic, boring, or forced. It doesn’t have to mean conjuring shame or doom. In fact, climate change is a generative lens through which to imagine any aspect of a story. It can be a tool you use to add conflict and reveal complexities in character and setting. The result is rich, authentic, relevant stories that touch on something we’re all seeing and feeling. Join us to learn from climate storytelling expert Anna Jane Joyner about how to tell better stories using a climate lens.
This program is co-hosted with the Climate Stories Collaborative and is made possible by support from the University Forum Lecture Series. It also serves as part of our university’s participation in Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Month.
SPEAKER BIO
Anna Jane Joyner is a story consultant and the founder and director of Good Energy Stories, a nonprofit consultancy that supports TV and film creators in telling wildly entertaining stories that honestly reflect the world we live in now—a world in which climate disruption is pervasive. Why is this work important? Good Energy worked with university research partners to analyze 37,453 scripted TV episodes and films released between 2016 and 2020, and determined that less than 3% of them included any kind of climate connection. Good Energy aims to make it as easy as possible to portray the climate crisis on-screen in entertaining and artful ways, in any storyline, across every genre.
Known as “Hollywood’s Climate Advisor,” Anna Jane has more than twenty years of experience in climate communications and storytelling. She is driven by a passion for TV and film —and for helping people find courage in the face of climate change. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Glamour, Deadline, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, and more.
