27 August 1965 – 16 May 2020
The
Actor, writer and director on a film-maker with a generosity of spirit and love for her performers that elevated indie movies and big-budget TV alikeJonathan Sacks remembered by Rowan WilliamsRead the Observer’s obituaries of 2020 in fullI met Lynn Shelton in 2007, on the set of a small Seattle independent film I was acting in called True Adolescents. At that point in her career, she had already directed two feature films but, true to Lynn’s deep sense of community, she was volunteering her time as an on-set photographer because the film’s tiny budget could not afford one.
We struck up an immediate friendship. We talked about film-making. About our different processes. She was very open about what she liked about her previous films and what she didn’t like. I was introduced to her signature high-pitched cackle. The one that said: “All of this is hard but that hard is also funny and there is also a ton of light in the hard so I am going to laugh, laugh, laugh.” Needless to say, I, like everyone who was lucky enough to meet her, was taken by her life force and indomitable spirit.