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.
List of Figures
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
Voicing Our Opinion: Challenges of female rap artists in north-west Nigeria
Ummi 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
Aarón Acuña Cordero
Marta Rodriguez: Documentary films with social impact
Sara Manuela Duque García
Violence and Fire in Latin American Women’s Scripts: Tatiana Huezo (Prayers for the Stolen, 2021, Mexico) and Claudia Huaiquimilla (My Brothers Dream Awake, 2021, Chile)
Juan Carlos Carrillo, Sebastian Gonzalez
How Nice To See Us Alive: Memory, trauma and resistance in How Nice to See You Alive (1989, Brazil)
Lara Caravalho
The Screenwriting Process of Anna Muylaert’s Film The Second Mother over 20 years: In search of a different ending for the female characters
Patricia Dourado, Mirian Tavares
ASIAN WORLDS
Asian Worlds: Section introduction
Rose Ferrell
Afia Nathaniel and Pakistani Minor Cinema: The Amazon of the screen
Azam 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 Ellen Goodwin
Exploring Homelessness in Virtual Reality Documentary: The scripting of Rose Troche’s We Live Here (2020, USA)
Kath Dooley
Catherine Hill: Women who write our worlds – shaping global screen culture with Some Happy Day
Joanne Tindale
Rewriting Australia’s Colonial Mythologies: Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021, Aust)
Andrew James Couzens
Bluey Worlds (2018 – , Aust)
Andi Spark
Miranda July’s Kajillionaire (2020, USA) and Queer Utopias
Angie Black, Anna Dzenis
Young Women Who Write: Little Women (2019)
Armando Fumagalli
Pan- Asian Storytelling for Aotearoa New Zealand Screens
Ghazaleh Gol, Shuchi Kothari
EUROPEAN WORLDS
European Worlds: Section introduction
Rose Ferrell
Exploring War’s Trauma Through a Feminist Lens: Resilient women in the films of Jasmila Žbanić
Miriam Hernandez, Bruno Lovric
Desire-driven Filmmaking: Celine Sciamma and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, France)
Philippa Burne, Angie Black
A Trial for Rape: The transformative power of the female gaze
Milly Buonanno
ISLAND WORLDS
Island Worlds: Section introduction
Rose Ferrell
Pasifika Tatau/Tattoos: Culture/mal represented
Agapetos Aia-Faʻaleava, Vaoiva Natapu-Ponton
Island Time: Cultural revival in the Mariana Islands
Rose Ferrell
Island Women Use Screenwriting in Music Videos to Lead the Campaign for Global- level Climate Action
Rosanne Welch
Notes on Contributors
Index
