ENVIRONMENTAL Fest Best Scene: POLAR BREAK, by Thomas M. DiGiacinto (interview)
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4m 8s
Set in Churchill, Manitoba—The Polar Bear Capital of the World—Polar Break is a survival thriller where climate change isn’t exposition, but existential pressure. As the ice-free season pushes past record limits, starving bears flood the town. What begins as a containment mission spirals into a siege, forcing unlikely allies to face ecological truth, institutional failure, and their own breaking points. The Polar Break screenplay was recently selected for participattion in the 2025 Enviromental Film And Screenplay Awards.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Cnn Anchor: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Jimmy: Geoff Mays
Get to know the filmmaker:
1. What is your screenplay about?
POLAR BREAK is a survival thriller set in a remote Canadian town besieged by starving polar bears after the sea ice fails to return.
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Survival Thriller / Eco-Thriller
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Polar Break tells a thrilling, deeply human story grounded in one of the most urgent ecological crises of our time.
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Arctic reckoning
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
MEAN STREETS
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
Two and a half years.
7. How many stories have you written?
Dozen or so.
8. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
I wrote Polar Break because I was haunted by the quiet violence of climate change—how it doesn't arrive with fanfare, but as hunger, stillness, and systems failing one by one. The image that sparked it was a starving polar bear wandering into Churchill, not out of aggression, but desperation.
9. What obstacles did you face in finishing this screenplay?
None, just time and effort.
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
My family, friends, nature, sports, my dog, and life in general.
11. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I was drawn to the Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival because it champions stories that matter—ones that don't shy away from ecological truth but also honor cinematic craft.
The initial feedback I received was both validating and motivating. Knowing that the story's tension, urgency, and emotional weight resonated with the festival gave me confidence that the script could connect with broader audiences—and that its environmental themes are being heard in the right places.
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