Mercury Exhibition Manager, Ryder Grindle, will lead this Script Club focusing on the 2025 Academy Award nominated Original Screenplay for the docudrama thriller “September 5”; which he will be guiding us through the challenges of writing a screenplay based on actual events and exploring this film’s historical context. We’ll dissect its use of genre, analyse its structure, and examine how the film manages to maintain tension despite most audiences already knowing how events played out. We’ll compare the film with Kevin McDonald’s Academy Award winning 1999 documentary “One Day In September” and with Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film “Munich”, seeing how each film approaches the events in a different way and essentially tells a different story. We’ll also look at the power of an opening page in defining the themes and audience expectations of a film.

Ryder Grindle, while probably best known to Mercury subscribers as the cinema program curator, has a long history in the film industry as a screenwriter and director. He wrote the award winning children’s series “Figaro Pho” and has worked writing and developing multiple screenplays for various producers. He has directed a slew of music videos, as well as a pair of shorts that played at multiple international film festivals.

See link to the September 5 screenplay here. Please read the script prior to the Script Club to allow a deep-dive with Ryder on the night.