Frances Causey

I had the pleasure of meeting Frances Causey and seeing her excellent film “The Long Shadow” at the 2018 Oxford Film Festival.  She joined the panel of women who direct after a screening of the one hour version of “Seeing is Believing: Women Direct,” and I knew right away I had to learn more about her and her work.

“The Long Shadow” takes on both the history of racism and Frances’ personal family history of growing up in the South. The post-film conversation was nothing if not riveting. I wasn’t the only person in the room who was moved by her honesty and the care she took in tracing how deep the roots of racism are in American law and lore. I think it’s fair to say everyone in the audience left a little more open, a little more aware. If that isn’t a successful documentary I don’t know what is!

I was restless after 14 years as a producer at CNN telling “short form” non-fiction stories. CNN had been bought out twice by corporations and each time, the fearlessness on the part of the company to tell important stories with integrity was waning.  So I left CNN in 2000 to form my company, Adhara Media. Adhara is one of the brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere but is not very well known so it seemed like a perfect fit for me! (ha) It was a risky move and at times, I questioned my sanity. But I always knew that making documentaries was my calling in life, to tell important stories, taking on the toughest subjects almost as a public service. Documentaries are more important than ever because the journalism profession has been so compromised.
 

On location shooting “Is Your Story Making You Sick?”

On location for “Is Your Story Making You Sick?”