Shaping Global Cultures through Screenwriting
Shaping Global Cultures through Screenwriting (Book)
Women Who Write Our Worlds
This international collection on female screenwriters celebrates the many ways their screen stories challenge and raise awareness to heal families, communities, and in the end, the world. The book suits readers in areas of screenwriting, filmmaking, women’s studies, race, gender, history, sociology, among others. 40 illus.
Edition
This book tells inspirational stories of women who have worked with and within communities to bring stories to life through screenwriting. As such the book evidences that women’s work is important; that ‘films can change lives’. The collection divides the chapters according to worlds, in recognition of the fact that though we live on one planet, the conditions of existence are vastly different between first and third worlds; between the wealthiest and the poorest.
Each chapter shows how attitudes have shifted, policies have been rewritten, and life experiences and horizons have been altered for specific communities through these instances of screenwriting. The themes touched upon include gender, race, disability, culture, war, colonization, labour relations, political ideologies, to name a few. The parallels found amongst these themes across national, religious and cultural divides, are also telling. The book is wide in its scope, considering screenwriting a skill which can apply to games, social media, music videos, virtual reality … in fact, any of the burgeoning formats alive on our devices and through constantly evolving platforms. All are considered screenwriting.
The book is a celebration of the female writers who have told screen stories that educate and heal.
The book suits readers across disciplines, including screenwriting, filmmaking, women’s studies, history, sociology, and many other areas.
Rose Ferrell is a writer-filmmaker and researcher with experience both as a technician on long-form drama and documentary, and as a lecturer-trainer with students of all ages. Her work can be found in the Palgrave Handbooks, the Journal of Screenwriting, and assorted other publications.
Rosanne Welch is a television writer and university professor of Humanities in the IGE Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA; and is the Executive Director of the MFA in TV and Screenwriting for Stephens College.
Introduction
Rose Ferrell
AFRICAN WORLDS
African Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
Differently abled and Definitely able: Resilience and inspiration in the Films and Life of Zambia’s Musola Catherine Kaseketi
Elastus Mambwe
We Aren’t All Cis Straight White Men: Expanding Depictions of Autism
Karen Jeynes
Challenges of female rap artists in North-West Nigeria
Ummee Muhammad Hassan
AMERICAN WORLDS
American Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
The First Female Filmmaker in Costa Rica: Patricia Howell, On a Life Of Defending Women’s Rights and Pioneering National Cinema in Central America
Aaron Acuna
Marta Rodriguez: Documentary Films with Social Impact
Sara Duque Garcia
Tatiana Huezo (Prayers for the Stolen, 2021, Mexico) and Claudia Huaiquimilla (My Brothers Dream Awake, 2021, Chile): indigenous roots, fire, and violence in Latin American women's cinema
Sebastian Gonzalez
Juan Carlos Carrillo
How Nice To See Us Alive: Memory, trauma and resistance in How Nice to See You Alive (1989, Brasil)
Lara Caravalho
Screenwriting practices to write the world: Anna Muylaert's creation process in search of another ending for the female characters in The Second Mother (2015, Brasil)
Patricia Dourado
Mirian Tavares
ASIAN WORLDS
Asian Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
Afia Nathaniel and Pakistani Minor Cinema: Amazon of the Screen
Azar Sarwar
The ‘Invisible’ in The Way We Are (2008, Hong Kong): The Scriptwriter, the Script, the Everyday, and the Audience
Ian Fong
Young-Ah Yoo’s Controversial Adaptation of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2019, South Korea): A Response to the South Korean MeToo Movement
Thomas Carter
ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLDS
English-speaking Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
“This is a true story”: Women Artists and Narratives of Disability in Ida Lupino’s Never Fear (1950, USA)
Gabrielle Stecher
How to perceive Cassie Thornton?: the translation of blindness in Perception (2017, USA)
Polly Goodwin
Exploring homelessness in virtual reality documentary: the scripting of Rose Troche’s We Live Here (2020, USA)
Kath Dooley
Catherine Hill,: screenwriter, dramaturg, homelessness crisis worker: a woman who changes the world
Joanne Tindale
Rewriting Australia’s Colonial Mythologies – Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021, Aust)
Andrew Couzens
The Prevalence Of Women in the Making of the Worlds of the Beloved Bluey (2018 – , Aust)
Andi Spark
Miranda July’s Kajillionaire (2020, USA) and queer utopias
Angie Black
Anna Dzenis
Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019, USA): An very personal and intimate inspiration for a worldwide success
Armando Fumagalli
Browning the Screen: pan-Asian representation on New Zealand Screens in the works of Shuchi Kothari
Ghazaleh Gol
Shuchi Kothari
EUROPEAN WORLDS
European Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
Resilient Femininity and Trauma: Healing from War in Jasmila Zbanic’s Film Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020, Bosnia-Herzogovina)
Bruno Lovric
Miriam Hernandez
Desire-driven Filmmaking: Celine Sciamma and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, France)
Philippa Burne
Angie Black
Processso per stupor (A Trial for rape 1979, Italy): The transformative power of the female gaze.
Milly Buonanno
ISLAND WORLDS
Island Worlds
Section Introduction
Rose Ferrell
Pasifika Tatau/Tattoos: Culture/ Malu Represented
Agapetos Aia-Faʻaleava
Vaoiva Natapu-Ponton Marquart
Island Time
Rose Ferrell
Island Women Screen Write In Music Videos For Global-Level Climate Action
Rosanne Welch
