Photos – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Welch Interviewed for New Documentary on Gene Stratton Porter

On Tuesday, April 14th, our backyard became a studio with lights, a camera, and the action being me being interviewed about what work was like for women in early Hollywood.

Emmy award-winning documentarian Todd Gould, whose other PBS documentaries involve Indiana-based stories of people and events that influenced the world, including Ernie Pyle and Gennett Records,

is working on a new documentary covering the life of environmentalist, novelist, and filmmaker Gene Stratton Porter. Gould is hoping to shed light on this early female film pioneer, who was also an extremely successful author of fiction and nonfiction works, nature photographer, environmental activist and feminist who worked with the suffrage movement.

By Gspmemorial – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

When he contacted me, it was maddening to learn there was yet another woman from the early 1900s whose name I had never seen in history books, yet she had the prescience to recognize that making movies of her books would increase their value so she built a film studio in Hollywood to do exactly that. At the same time, she was calling for caring for our environment long before Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962. Gene was out photographing birds and nature, and drawing attention to our effect on the planet 50 years earlier.

Gould and his local crew set up in our plant-filled backyard as he wanted a natural setting for as many of his interviews as possible. Then we chatted about the many ways women helped found Hollywood, how tough that work was, and how the studio system mitigated women’s progress in the industry, which is one explanation for why so many people don’t know women like Gene Stratton Porter. Thanks to Todd’s documentary, soon they will, and I’m very proud to play a small part in bringing her work – and the work of many other early female screenwriters to greater audiences.

The documentary is slated to premiere in November 2026 (probably sometime around Thanksgiving time)

Rosanne Presents on Shaping Global Cultures Through Screenwriting – Stephens College [Video]

Recently, I was asked to make a short presentation to the faculty of Stephens College about the newest book I edited alongside my dear friend and Screenwriting Research colleague Rose Ferrell. Shaping Global Cultures Through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds.

I was happy to discuss the inspiration for the book, which came from a conversation Rose and I had during a conference. That’s one of the best things about gathering for conferences – the casual conversations that create new collaborations.

I was also happy to discuss the way we arranged the book in “Worlds” because continents are the easiest classification. I give a quick thumbnail of one chapter in each of those Worlds to highlight what type of social or legal advocacy the screenwriter in discussion addressed. It was lovely to be reminded of all the interesting stories told by the writers of each chapter and to appreciate the cultural diversity of storytelling around the world that Intellect made possible by publishing the book.

Chapters cover a spectrum of storytelling from artists offering a window into how women around the world use the screen to advocate for social or legal change. For example, the Samoan performance artist Angela Tiatia, known for her 2014 work, ‘Walking the Wall.” Tiatia displays her Malu Tatau tattoo, which symbolizes the preservation and documentation of cultural practice and identity in online spaces.

One chapter focuses on a junior Pacific Islander lawyer who created a music video calling on the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on climate change, a matter of concern as rising sea levels threaten the homes and histories of island communities. Other readings in the book examine the film “Kajillionaire” by Miranda July as a platform for imagining queer utopias, the transformative power of the female gaze in the Italian documentary “Trial for Rape,” and the frequently ignored creative roles and contributions that women make behind the scenes of the beloved children’s television show “Bluey.”

It was a pleasure to make this presentation for my colleagues. I hope you enjoy it, too.

BEA Panels Prove Fun For Everyone

Thanks to my friend and colleague, Ed Fink I was invited to join a couple of panels at this year’s BEA (Broadcast Education Association) conference in Las Vegas last weekend.

BEA Panels Prove Fun For Everyone

One panel involved giving feedback on student pitches for TV shows or films and the other was more of a Q&A about careers in screenwriting. On both I was joined by other friends and colleagues from the writing world and the world of academia – David Morgasen (CSUF) and Jon Vandergriff (who teaches at a couple of colleges and happily one of them is the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting).

BEA Panels Prove Fun For Everyone

The stories we heard in the pitches were lively and several were quite unique, as were the questions about how to gain – and then maintain – a career in writing.

Afterward, the panels ended we three stood in the hallway so long continuing to answer questions such that we invited a few of the stragglers to dinner with us. Since we landed at Benihana we were joined by a father and son from Trinidad and Tobago who were in town for the father’s 30th NAB conference. During our conversation when they heard us mention Ted Lasso they had to ask how a country that doesn’t understand soccer/futbol watches a show set in that world. The film students with us were able to explain that from their generation forward, many, many young American children play on soccer teams – largely because they are co-ed in the younger years whereas baseball and softball segregate the sexes. Amazing the way a conversation ebbs and flows over flame-grilled shrimp and steak.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web