Documentary filmmaker with local roots

  • [Photo by Jacob Gordon and Kadlec family]

    [Photo by Jacob Gordon and Kadlec family]

In Possible Selves, Shaun Kadlec follows two foster care teens beating the odds.

—Patric Hedlund, TME

Documentary filmmaker Shaun Kadlec grew up in the Frazier Mountain Community—in Frazier Park—attending local schools. Kadlec is a longtime subscriber to The Mountain Enterprise, so this week as he put the final polish on his feature length documentary Possible Selves, he took a moment to tell us about his latest adventure.

The film’s national premiere is part of the February 2–8 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. The premier will be streamed online. Ticket information is at the end of this story. Here’s Kadlec’s letter.


By Shaun Kaudlec, Film director and Frazier Park native

The greatest lesson I have learned while directing and producing Possible Selves, my new documentary about young people growing up in foster care, is that kids need love and support to grow into self-sufficient and successful adults. The more unconditional that love is, the better.

My family moved to Frazier Park when I was eight months old. I grew up with an ideal balance of freedom and support. My mom, Fay, glows with kindness. Caring about others is as natural to her as breathing. Leo, my dad, is one of the most creative people I know—an uncompromising individualist who taught me to use my imagination and to explore our forests.

My brother Craig modeled strength, and is one of the most generous people I know. Of course there were ups and downs, but from a very early age I knew that I was loved and supported and that I was free to explore and to make mistakes.

This  kind of support extended across the Mountain Communities. Devoted teachers like Ms. Carter, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Lockhart at Frazier Park School opened the world of reading and learning.
I shot up to a gangly six feet tall while I was in junior high at El Tejon School, but karate classes with Jim and Diane Biehl taught me balance, strength and belonging.

The iconic Shelly Mason, who served as principal at El Tejon and then as superintendent of El Tejon Unified School District, taught me that absolutely everything is possible.

These foundations gave me the courage to leap from our Mountain Community to explore the world—first to Bakersfield High School (as a 1996 graduate, I was two years too early for Frazier Mountain High School), then to Carleton College in Minnesota and on to study in Sri Lanka, where I made my first documentary.

This reliable and unconditional support is what so many foster youth do not get.

Too often they are moved from home to home, their mental health needs go unaddressed and they change schools many times a year. They aren’t able to form the lasting bonds that provide confidence to children and young adults as they grow into their true and most healthy selves.

Possible Selves follows two teenagers pursuing college dreams while struggling with lives in foster care.

First Major Documentary To Show Inside Story

It is the first major documentary to focus on the lived experience of foster kids themselves rather than on the foster care system in general.

One reason that the stories of foster youth are so often overlooked is that…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Caring about others is as natural to my mom, Fay, as breathing. Leo, my dad…taught me to use my imagination and to explore our forests.

Shaun Kadlec at 5, near his childhood home in the wilds of Frazier Park, on a hunt with his trusty partner, Duke. His film Possible Selves premiers at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival February 2-8. He learned to seek adventure here, he says.

Shaun Kadlec one day after his first birthday, just four months after his family moved to Frazier Park. This photo was taken at the same house his parents live in 42 years later.

Shaun Kadlec as a Frazier Park School first-grader with one of the teachers he remembers being devoted and supportive, Ms. Carter.

As a ‘gangly’ 6-foot-tall middle school student, Kadlec learned ‘balance, strength and belonging’ in local karate class.

The late ETUSD Superintendent Shelly Mason was one of Shaun Kadlec’s mentors.

Possible Selves shares intimate portraits of the journeys of Alex and Mia as they strive to attain a goal that only 3% of adults who grow up in foster care reach: graduating from college.
The stories of several other foster youth are woven into the film, such as that of Karly, pictured at right.

The film’s director grew up in Frazier Park. The national premier will be February 2-8, through the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, streamed online.

Making the transition from (left) high school graduate in 1996 (with Mountain Communities friend Anna Johnson) to (right) successful working filmmaker today required the kinds of unwavering support and love that many take for granted. While making Possible Selves, filmmaker Shaun Kadlec came to recognize that many youth in foster care lack the support and confidence provided by that kind of love.

Kadlec in 2012 working on his film Born This Way, which tells the story of the LGBTQ+ community in Cameroon, Central Africa. He was on location there for two and a half months.

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This is part of the January 28, 2022 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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