Rachel Is

Description

Best Documentary
Thin Line Film Festival

Official Selection
True/False Film Festival

“Compelling…important and unique…surprises in its brutal honesty” -Paste Magazine

Synopsis

In her feature directorial debut, Charlotte Glynn moves home to chronicle her sister Rachel’s last year in school. Rachel is developmentally disabled, and the resulting film, Rachel is, moves past the safety of political correctness and into the most intimate and honest moments in their family’s life. Rachel is mysterious, funny, difficult and full of contradictions but she wants what most people her age want – to move out of her mother’s house. This dream of independence seems impossible. Rachel can’t be left alone and the social services needed for her to live an “adult life” are unavailable.

Jane, Rachel’s mother is at her breaking point. Rachel is a difficult person and the relationship between mother and daughter is full of fighting and frustrations, both want independence from each other but at what cost? What is Jane willing to sacrifice for Rachel to be independent? What happens to a parent when they don’t have the support they need to give their child a good life. Rachel is is an observational style documentary capturing the rawest and most revealing moments of Rachel and her mother’s relationship. Charlotte dives into her family’s life in order to understand how Rachel sees the world and how the world sees her.

Rachel is – an honest, heartbreaking and funny film about parenthood, disability, and the universal struggle for happiness.

Director

Charlotte Glynn

Charlotte Glynn is the director and producer of Rachel Is and is also Rachel’s sister. While attending SUNY Purchase for a BFA in Film, she began a film portrait of her sister, Rachel, who is developmentally disabled. In August 2008, she finished that portrait, which had grown into a feature film. She has received a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Award, a Heinz Endowment grant, and residencies with The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among others. She lives in Brooklyn where she is working on her next film and on experimental installations with the Circuit 3 Collective which she co-founded in 2007.