How can you adapt a short story as a play, a novel, and a film, and keep it fresh every time? Leah Purcell will tell you. Writer/director/actor Leah Purcell seems to have a relentless work ethic, especially with the amount of writing she apparently does. She adapted Henry Lawson's short story "The Drover's Wife" as a play and a novel. While starring in the play, she wrote the screenplay version. The Western tale follows a lone woman in 1893 who is raising her children in the Snowy Mountains while her husband is away. When an Indigenous escaped prisoner shows up on her doorstep, she's forced to examine her past and her origins. The film is now complete, which Purcell starred in and directed. It will have its world premiere at this year's SXSW. Purcell is a Goa-Gungarri-Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland, Australia, and she brings an exciting new voice and perspective to the Western genre. Her work intentionally examines the racism, sexism, and violence that colors Australia's past. Read More...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Friday, 19 March, 2021