Today we’d like to introduce you to Bella Gadsby.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My first love was theatre. I started acting in LA after graduating college but found the existent opportunities both limited and limiting. I was so discouraged by the blatant sexism that I began screenwriting. I could see there were stories and narratives that were clearly missing and I wanted to start telling them. Just before the pandemic, I began working for a production company as a screenwriter. At the start of COVID, production completely stopped.
Unsure of what to do next, a friend and I moved from Los Angeles to Bend, Oregon. We had both lost our jobs so we packed everything we owned into our respective cars and left. We’d decided we were going to shoot a short film. It was the height of covid and neither of us had any production experience. It was us, in a house, with an iPhone.
“It’s The Future, Baby!” is a story of queer love. While we had no intention for this film to “get” us anywhere, it ended up opening new doors. I moved back to LA and started to work with a variety of artists as a director, photographer, and writer.
I currently have three main branches of my creative life. I’m a narrative filmmaker, a photographer, and a producer of documentary work.
In every aspect of my creative work, I try to find that untold narrative and bring forth the strange, the wonderful, and the true.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creative work is challenging. Making art is expensive, labor-intensive, and takes time. This is particularly challenging when you don’t come from a family of artists or have outside financial support. Production work is still an extremely male-dominated field. Sexism is ever-present.
Which is not said to discourage anyone reading this. In fact, this truth should ignite that flame.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I care deeply about humans and about the human experience. Since I was a kid, I was endlessly fascinated by what people were up to. I think of this particular story from my childhood when I was in a restaurant with my mum. There was a group of teenagers and I was so interested in what they were doing, saying, wearing that I literally fell backward out of my chair trying to observe and absorb the scene.
Films, songs, paintings, poems… art moves me. It allows me to feel intensely human. There are so many experiences that have yet to be told. I like to identify these glimmers, these bursting moments of connection, despair, isolation, exuberance, tease them out and put them on display.
As a filmmaker, I lean into the “real” with room for magic.
As a poet, I try to uproot a certain tenderness and hold it in my palm for all to see.
As a photographer, I like to connect to people, invite them to feel comfortable and find moments of truth.
As a writer, I like to be in a constant state of observation, appreciation, and awe.
As a queer person, I try to authentically tell, identify, and share queer experiences and narratives.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I would say serendipity and luck feel intensely correlated in my life. I feel incredibly grateful to have met the people who have inspired, encouraged, and allowed me to make art.
I’ve had many bouts of bad luck and many bouts of good.
I think of this Mary Oliver quote: “I tell you this/ to break your heart, /by which I mean only/ that it break open and never close again/ to the rest of the world.”
I suppose it is a matter of inviting variety into your life and, much like a monstera or other type of climbing plant, leaning and growing towards the light.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bellagadsby.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellagadsby/
- Other: https://www.gadgodstudios.com/
Image Credits
Photos by Bella Gadsby
Film Stills by Bella Gadsby & Julia Friedland
Photo of Bella Gadsby taken by Rebecca Roland
