Rachel Ellis Adams
This has been a central question of my work - well, of my life, really - for more than 30 years. I don't have a definitive answer, but I have some favorite ideas, and I'd love be in conversation with other artist-activist-type folk about it.
The struggle, itself, has existed here from the first moment of resistance to colonization by the peoples already living on this land. It was also in the hearts of some of the early occupiers who fled persecution and tyranny. It was on the minds of the enslaved women and men as they devised ways to escape their abuse and captivity. It grew as the country grew, developing and expanding as more and more people mustered the collective courage to demand that society honor them and their stories. It has always been present - everywhere - in both daring acts of compassion and quiet witness for truth.
These days, the struggle sometimes feels too broad even to name properly. The 21st century has been a challenge, let's say, for anyone who has believed or wants to believe that love and creativity remain strong forces in a moral arc that’s bending towards justice. Even the soil beneath our feet and the air that fills our lungs are weary and suffering from the effects of human “civilization."
AND… amidst all of the struggle, there has always been art and artmaking: relief in emotional connection, satisfaction from successful effort, delight in beauty or humor. These lifelines have kept and will keep us afloat when the work of justice-making might otherwise sink us. "Movies" can be a part of this! I want my movies to be a part of this.
Writer, Director, Teacher, Student, Quaker, Animal Lover, Occasional Pain in the Ass
What is the role of 'independent film' in the American struggle for peace and justice?
Independent film has a place in the struggle -- if we put it there.
This Website
...is still "under construction," so if you click a link and it goes nowhere, come back soon and try again! (have pity - my creative eyes are often bigger than my temporal stomach). It is mostly about Writer-Director me, leaning to the film side of things -- but film is not all; it is not food nor drink nor slumber nor a roof against the rain -- oh, sorry, just channeling a little Edna St. Vincent Millay there (as one will) -- so it doesn't feel right to have a website solely focussed on that. You'd get a rather warped view of who I am, which seems contrary to why you're probably here.
If you poke around through the links at the top of this page, you'll find some of my writing (script as well as prose -- fiction and non), a video or two. I'll be continuing to post pieces of writing about various things, e.g., what the "independence" in "independent film" means to me in this crazy world, and the connection between Quakerism and my ideals as an artist in the coming [insert clump of time].
There's a bio and a C.V., and periodically I just throw in some links to cool stuff I like because -- what the heck? It's the internet.
Here's me, probably wondering where I put my glasses.
Recent Posts
There will be more here before too long (ojalá).
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