Following a heart-wrenching personal tragedy, a Black female sharecropper in 1930s Virginia sets out on a mission of personal revenge, all while fighting the exploitation of the town’s wealthy landowners and the violent harassment of the local sheriff and his posse of unlawful men. Inspired by true events.
See Synopsis, Series Overview & Awards >
Type: Pilot (60 pps)
Genre: Historical
Subgenre(s): Western, Suspense, Mystery
Time Period: 1930s
Location: Virginia
Status: Unproduced
Comps: Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, Damnation
Series Overview
PINEY RIDGE is an hour-long dramatic series set in 1930s Virginia in a fictional town called Piney Ridge, Virginia. Inspired by real events, the series follows the formation of the Southern Tenants Farmers' Union and their attempts to unionize during the Great Depression. In the purest sense, PINEY RIDGE is an usversus-them story, a series about greed, power, violence and corruption in a small, Southern town and how the poor, working-class fought and resisted Big Money, Big Government and the special interests of the town’s ruling elite. Part history, part fiction, PINEY RIDGE will offer viewers a rare and under-explored slice of American history from the period of 1934 to 1938 in the context of local and world politics when Adolph Hitler was in power and had conquered most of Europe.
SERIES BIBLE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Awards & Honors
Winner - Best TV Concept, Queen Palm International Film Festival, 2020
Winner, The Script Lab Screenwriting Contest, 2019
Top 1%, The Red List, 2022
Top 10, Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay Competition (Historical/Bio Category), 2020
Top 20, Creative World Awards (TV Drama Category), 2021
Top 100, Table Read My Screenplay Genre Screenplay Competition, 2021
Second Round, ISA Fast Track Fellowship, 2022
Second Round, Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab, 2021
Second Round, Launch Pad Pilot Competition, 2021
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, 2019
Second Round, MACRO Episodic Lab powered by The Black List, 2018
Finalist, SAGIndie Fellowship, 2019
Finalist, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Fellowship, 2019
Finalist, Film Empire Diversity Screenplay Contest, 2018 & 2019
Finalist - Best TV Drama Pilot, FutureFemme Screenwriters Competition, 2018
Finalist, The Breakk Screenwriting Competition, 2018
"PINEY RIDGE is a devastating parable that crescendos a family's injustice to a full-on tale of personal revenge and redemption. Equipped with a dynamic cast and plotting that excites and pushes all of the emotional buttons, this is a pilot that's worth tracking."
"PINEY RIDGE is a very sturdy execution of a truly compelling premise that — in spite of being set in the 1930s — holds a magnifying glass to many concepts that we're still sociopolitically grappling with today; racism, economic equality, political conspiracies, etc."
"This pilot has a story that unfolds at an unforgettably heart-pumping pace -- and reveals how the series will tackle poignant themes, casting a spotlight on a brave and bold single mother who stands up against the injustice, corruption, and hatred in her time."