news / European Showrunner Think Tank 2024
The European Showrunner Think Tank »Social Impact Storytelling & Showrunning« took place on 8 April 2024 – with a panel discussion followed by the screening of the pilot episode of »The Handmaid's Tale«.
Guests:
Matthew Hastings | writer, director, and executive producer (»The Handmaid's Tale«, »Smilla’s Sense of Snow«, »Fallen«, USA/UK)
Tyron Ricketts | actor, writer, and executive producer (»Sam – A Saxon«, »Dogs of Berlin«, Austria)
Moderator: Fitore Muzaqi | Director & Writer, Germany
In recent years, series have become central pillars of social narratives – precisely because they have often found new ways of highlighting existing social issues in their fictionally differentiated narrative worlds.
Because of the large amount of time audiences spend with characters and stories that are told in serial formats, series writers have a great influence – and responsibility – in this regard.
The showrunners amongst these writers are able to extend this influence to the production side of their work. As lead creatives overseeing the entire creation and production process of a drama series, they can have a lasting impact on cast, crew, and audience.
With »The Handmaid's Tale« and »Sam – A Saxon«, two outstanding series were at the center of this first joint session of our two event series »ifs encounters« and »European Showrunner Think Tank«. Both shows have shown an almost prophetic visionary power in their countries of origin and seem to be disturbingly ahead of their time. Against this backdrop, Matthew Hastings (USA) and Tyron Ricketts (Austria) discussed the power of serialised fictional storytelling and production, and the social responsibility that comes with it.