star wars – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

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This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne

Transcript:

What’s really cool about her is that the series survives into a couple of generations later and now, of course, she gets to be a general. That’s huge. That is a huge step that people didn’t necessarily foresee and, of course, in the new versions we’re surrounded by women in power. However, you have probably seen online much controversy over the fact that when she, who’s a general, didn’t tell dude who has got no rank what she was up to — oh no, it’s all her fault. Trouble happened. She should have told the boy. He’s way lower than her rank. She had no business telling him anything that was being planned at the higher levels, but there was so much discussion about how it was all her fault that things went bad because she should have told the boy and he would have saved the day. He’s not in charge. They are. Right? But our biases — our ideas are that they have to let the boy take over. So I think it’s really, really fascinated where we’re going with this series.

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Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

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Transcript:

Then we have this lady who I think is fascinating if you’re a Star Wars fan. Leigh Brackett. She’s mostly did all these kinds of space operas they called them right but she got hired to write the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back because George Lucas wanted her sci-fi brain on his property. The problem is she wrote the script — which there you are — and she died of cancer. So Lawrence Kasdan who I adore was hired to do the next draft in the next draft and Lawrence Kasdan becomes the writer we know from Star Wars but when you think about the Han Solo character, Leigh Brackett made him the cowboy that he is because she did cowboy movies and space operas. That’s the perfect blending of Han Solo. So she gave us that character in the incarnation that we know him in — which i think is cool.

Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses the women in her new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which covers female screenwriters from the Silents through the early 1940s when women wrote over 50% of films and Frances Marion was the highest paid screenwriter (male or female) and the first to win 2 Oscars. Yet, she fails to appear in film history books, which continue to regurgitate the myth that male directors did it all – even though it’s been proven that the only profitable movies Cecil B. de Mille ever directed were all written by Jeannie Macpherson film ever won for Best Picture was written by Robert E. Sherwood (who people have heard of, mostly due to his connection to Dorothy Parker) and Joan Harrison.

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

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Tag: star wars

35 Princess Leia – Part 3 from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (58 seconds)

36 Leigh Brackett from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (47 seconds)