Wellywood Woman scores a first

Marian Evans has recently become the first person to be awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from Victoria University, where she studied at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML). Her thesis: “Development: Opening space for New Zealand women’s participation in scriptwriting for feature films?”

Marian found that New Zealand women writers‘ and directors’ participation in feature filmmaking is very low. She is now using her thesis screenplay – Development – to test an alternative feature film production pathway. She hopes that this project, when completed, will provide a useful model for other women storytellers.

In her superbly written blog Wellywood Woman, Marian lauds her supervisor Ken Duncum and the IIML for providing a programme and context in which, she says, “women writers flourish”.  Marian will be one of the guests in the annual Writers on Mondays series at the IIML (starts on 12 July, full details to be announced next month).