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
SECTION ONE: AFRICAN WORLDS
African Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
1. Differently abled and definitely able: Resilience and inspiration in the
films and life of Zambias Musola Catherine Kaseketi Elastus Mambwe
2. We arent all cis straight white men: Expanding depictions of
autism Karen Jeynes
3. Voicing our opinion: Challenges of female rap artists in north-west
Nigeria Ummi Muhammad Hassan
SECTION TWO: AMERICAN WORLDS
American Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
4. The first female filmmaker in Central America: Patricia Howell, on a life
of defending womens rights and pioneering national cinema in Costa Rica
Aarón Acuña Cordero
5. Marta Rodriguez: Documentary films with social impact Sara Manuela Duque
García
6. 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
7. How nice to see us alive: Memory, trauma and resistance in scripting How
Nice to See You Alive (1989, Brazil) Lara Caravalho
8. The screenwriting process of Anna Muylaerts film The Second Mother (2015,
Brazil) over 20 years: In search of a different ending for the female
characters Patricia Dourado, Mirian Tavares
SECTION THREE: ASIAN WORLDS
Asian Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
9. Afia Nathaniel and Pakistani minor cinema: The Amazon of the screen Azam
Sarwar
10. The invisible in The Way We Are (2008, Hong Kong): The scriptwriter,
the script, the everyday, and the audience Ian Fong
11. Young-Ah Yoos controversial adaptation of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2019,
South Korea): A response to the South Korean #MeToo movement Thomas Carter
SECTION FOUR: ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLDS
English-speaking Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
12. 'This is a true story': Women artists and narratives of disability in Ida
Lupinos Never Fear (1950, USA) Gabrielle Stecher
13. How to perceive Cassie Thornton? The translation of blindness in
Perception (2017, USA) Polly Ellen Goodwin
14. Exploring homelessness in virtual reality documentary: The scripting of
Rose Troches We Live Here (2020, USA) Kath Dooley
15. Catherine Hill: Women who write our worlds shaping global screen
culture with Some Happy Day (2021, Australia) Joanne Tindale
16. Rewriting Australias colonial mythologies: Leah Purcells The Drovers
Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021, Australia) Andrew James Couzens
17. Bluey worlds (2018 23, Australia) Andi Spark
18. Miranda Julys Kajillionaire (2020, USA) and queer utopias Angie Black
and Anna Dzenis
19. Young women who write: Little Women (2019) Armando Fumagalli
20. Pan-Asian storytelling for Aotearoa New Zealand screens Ghazaleh Gol,
Shuchi Kothari
SECTION FIVE: EUROPEAN WORLDS
European Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
21. Exploring wars trauma through a feminist lens: Resilient women in the
films of Jasmila bani Bruno Lovric and Miriam Hernandez
22. Desire-driven filmmaking: Celine Sciamma and Portrait of a Lady on Fire
(2019, France) Philippa Burne and Angie Black
23. A Trial for Rape (1979, Italy): The transformative power of the female
gaze Milly Buonanno
SECTION SIX: ISLAND WORLDS
Island Worlds: Section introduction Rose Ferrell
24. Malu tatau: Rite of passage for womens empowerment Agapetos
Aia-Faaleava and Vaoiva Natapu-Ponton
25. Island Time (2022): Cultural revival in the Mariana Islands Rose
Ferrell
26. 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.
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