Homing Instinct
Letting Go of The Shore
Jan 30-Aug 2, 2026
Homing Instinct: Letting Go of The Shore is a 26-minute multi-screen film installation by New York-based filmmaker Lydia Dean Pilcher. It is based on a short story of the same name by Cincinnati-based author Dani McClain, published in the anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Presented on a continuous loop, this immersive story focuses on human resilience in the face of climate crises. Set in a near-future world of rising sea levels, it follows two friends, Raven and Paloma, as they decide how to respond to a federal order to evacuate coastal regions within 30 days and permanently relocate elsewhere.
For Pilcher and McClain, confronting fossil-fuel dependence and resource depletion requires not just policy change, but new narrative approaches to inspire connection and transformation. Weaving together reality, dreams, and the metaphysical, Homing Instinct draws upon science fiction and Afrofuturist concepts and integrates dance, poetry, and striking visual design (shaped by art director Syou Nam Thai) to convey the emotional weight of facing change and trusting the unknown. It also reminds us that we are not part of nature, but nature itself.
About the Artists
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Dani McClain |
DANI McCLAINMcClain reports on race, parenting and reproductive health. Her writing has appeared in outlets including "The New York Times," "TIME," "The Atlantic" and "Harper's Bazaar."
Her work has been recognized by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and she has received a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.
McClain is a contributing writer at "The Nation." She was a staff reporter at the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" and has worked as a strategist with organizations including Color of Change and the Drug Policy Alliance.
Her book, "We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood," was published in 2019 by Bold Type Books and was shortlisted in 2020 for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She was the Cincinnati Public Library's writer-in-residence in 2020 and 2021. |
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Lydia Dean Pilcher |
LYDIA DEAN PILCHERPilcher is a two-time Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated producer. She is founder of the New York-based production company Cine Mosaic, working in the international landscape of cinema and multicultural storytelling.
Before transitioning to writing and directing, she produced more than 40 feature films and series working with directors including Mira Nair, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Wes Anderson, Barry Levinson, George C. Wolfe and Kathryn Bigelow.
Her director credits include the World War II female spy thriller "A Call to Spy" and the climate narratives "Radium Girls" and "Homing Instinct." She works with the UNFCCC initiative Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action and is a leader in the film and television industry promoting climate storytelling in entertainment and media.
Pilcher teaches Climatic Change: Storytelling Arts, Zeitgeist and Our Future as an interdisciplinary course at the Columbia University Climate School in collaboration with the School of the Arts. |
