Following a screening of the 2017 documentary “I am Evidence” at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts Monday, Oct. 30, Director Trish Adelsic spoke with Georgia State Representative Scott Holcomb about the making of the film, as well as how the issues presented in the documentary are currently being handled in the state of Georgia.
Adelsic said she first got involved with the project after working on the television show “Law and Order” for over fifteen years with actress Mariska Hargitay. After getting to know one another, Hargitay approached Adelsic about a film she wanted to produce centered on the topic of untested rape kits.
The film focuses specifically on four rape victims. When it came to interviewing them in a sensitive, mindful manner, Adelsic said she had help from therapeutic experts.
“It took time to build trust,” Adelsic said. “We spent a lot of time in Detroit and Cleveland and having guidance from people who worked in this field for many many years. A lot of survivors haven’t never had that kind of consideration. I was very careful about how many people were in the room. We took the time we needed. We were never in a rush and we also offered therapeutic support for them, and that’s something that’s being done now for some films. I have to say that so many of them were so enthusiastic just to be heard.”
In 2016, Holcomb helped pass House Bill 827, The Pursuing Justice for Rape Victims Act, which ensures the timely processing of rape kits and seeks to end the rape kit backlog in Georgia. Holcomb said Georgia is making progress on the issue of untested kits but there is still work to be done.
“We understand and accept that it’s an issue, but we have so much more work to do,” Holcomb said. “One of the reasons I worked so hard to pass it was because I knew we had a really bad problem. It was just something no one was paying attention to. I had hospitals call me and say, ‘We have these kits. We know the crimes that have been committed but we can’t get anything to happen.’ Now what I really want to happen are the prosecutions, and we need to take the kits and take the evidence and do something with them. It’s an imperative and I think that’s the calling we need to address now.”
The film took three-and-a-half years to make, and developments were made in some of the personal narratives along the way, according to Adelsic. Though she could only feature four victims in the film, she went on the road and showed each of the people she interviewed a cut of the film. She said she let the victims who were not in the film know their story still mattered as much as the ones that made it into the final cut.
Adelsic also pointed out that there over 10,000 untested rape kits accounted for in Georgia alone.
“What kept me going was these kits are people, and they’ve had these horrible things happen to them,” Adelsic said. “Where we are now is that I think there is greater awareness, which is why we ask you to please talk about this film.”
Written by Emilie Kefalas.
Find our review of “I am Evidence” here.
