ACADEMIA

It was that fateful interview with Mari Okada that inspired me to start my degree,  so it was only fitting that it would end with her as well.

 

​I have been fascinated by how creators use aspects of their lives to inspire even fictional works, and think that is nowhere more evident than across Mari Okada's years of screenwriting work. However, the current definition in "auteur" is too rigid - dictating that directors are the sole author of a film. That definition even initially threatened my dissertation proposal, but ultimately inspired it. I wanted to prove that screenwriters can be the source of creative meaning as well - and ultimately, in time, auteurs

 

.​I wrote an essay analysing the depictions of motherhood in Mari Okada's directorial debut Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Once I had established that as a key thematic thread in the film, the essay shifted focus to The Anthem of the Heart, a film that Mari Okada wrote the screenplay for, to argue that Okada could be considered a key author of that film despite not being its director.​

 

My dissertation was awarded the BA Honours Major Project in Writing and Film Studies Prize. ​I am currently working on expanding an expanded revision of my original essay, with the intention of seeking publication.