The voices of women changing the world one script at a time speak to how screenwriting is more than a craft—it’s activism, education, and revolution.
Shaping Global Culture through Screenwriting is a powerful testament to the undeniable impact of an international collection of female screenwriters. Spanning film, television, virtual reality, games, and digital media, these case studies showcase instances when women filmmakers used screenwriting to challenge injustice and give voice to communities around the world.
Divided into sections that seek to overcome global disparities in wealth and power, the book views screenwriting as activism, shifting attitudes, and altering lived experiences. Whether about gender and race or war and colonization, each chapter exposes the deep connections between storytelling and social change. More than just a study of the craft, this book is a celebration of the women writers who use their artistic lens to educate and empower others. Geared toward readers interested in screenwriting, media studies, sociology, women’s studies, and a wide range of humanities subjects, including history and population studies, Shaping Global Culture through Screenwriting brings long-overdue attention to the vital role women take in shaping the global cultural landscape.
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 Zambias Musola Catherine Kaseketi
Elastus Mambwe
We Arent 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 womens 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 Womens 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 Muylaerts 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 Yoos 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
Lupinos 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
Troches 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 Australias Colonial Mythologies: Leah Purcells The Drovers Wife:
The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021, Aust)
Andrew James Couzens
Bluey Worlds (2018 , Aust)
Andi Spark
Miranda Julys 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 Wars Trauma Through a Feminist Lens: Resilient women in the films
of Jasmila bani
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-Faaleava, 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
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.
