Howling Susan

Genre: Coming of Age Drama inspired by a true story

Script Status: Written by Mark Stouffer. Screenplay complete

Storyline: Susan lives deep in Alaska, three hundred miles from the nearest road. Born to a Minnesota father who rejected civilization, and Tlingit Indian mother who taught her to subsist from the land, Susan’s closest companion is a Timber Wolf she rescued from a trap. But when the wolf shuns Susan, showing loyalty to its pack, Susan feels the need to discover her own peers. Human peers.

Her father expects Susan and her brother to carry on the bush life he created for them. Susan’s mother encourages her growth, and secretly helps her leave the bush. In a harrowing, three-day trek, Susan braves perils of the wild, arriving Fairbanks spent and hungry, where everything she knows about survival is useless.

Her dream is to attend college, and to learn. But blundering into unfamiliar campus life, she makes a spectacle of herself. When taunted by a jock, she slams him to a classroom floor with deft combat moves learned from her father. Word of her fighting skill reaches the coach, who recruits her to join the wrestling team. Susan prepares for a fight that will make or break the future of her team, and the coach’s job. Under great pressure, with mounting feelings of having deceived and abandoned her father, Susan loses all confidence and strength. Her dampened spirit leads to her near defeat in the critical match. But at the crucial moment, Susan’s brother, mother and father unexpectedly appear in the crowd, cheering her on. With renewed inspiration, she defeats her opponent. But her greatest triumph is the discovery of her own self-identity and pride.

Status: In development