271 - Rachel Elizabeth Seed

Rachel Elizabeth Seed is a Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based nonfiction storyteller working in film, photography, and writing. In 2025, she won the Truer Than Fiction Spirit Award for her debut feature film, A Photographic Memory, which is also a New York Times Critics Pick. Rachel’s work has received support from the Sundance Institute, Chicken + Egg Films, the Jewish Film Institute, the California Film Institute, Jewish Story Partners, NYFA, Field of Vision, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, the Maine Media Workshops, the Roy W. Dean grant, the National Arts Club, IFP, and many others. Formerly a photo editor at New York Magazine, her photography has been exhibited worldwide, including at the International Center of Photography, and she was a cameraperson on several award-winning feature documentaries. Rachel’s writing has been published by No Film School, the Sundance Institute, and Talkhouse and she is Executive Director / Co-founder of the Brooklyn Documentary Club, a NYC-based filmmaker collective with 250+ members. In episode 271, Rachel discusses, among other things: A summary of her mum’s character nature vs. nurture Her mum’s Images of Man interviews for ICP/Scholastic What inspired her to make a film How her own story became interwined with her mum’s Discovering a family archive of super 8 footage How she recreated the interviews using actors The importance of working with good editors The challenge of funding and financing Key advice for anyone wanting to make a personal documentary The fine balance between collaboration and having the courage of your convitions as director Writing for narration as opposed to for reading Sharing her personal stories as the film evolved over a ten year period - How to balance life and art ‘Selling the film’ and what that means in practice The Brooklyn Documentary Club Moving to L.A. Projects she has in development Website | Instagram Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £4 per month. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides. Follow me on Instagram here. Need a new website? I will build you one with Squarespace. Details here.