Amelia Evans is working on a controversial nonfiction film, Minor Attraction. The film documents the lives of men who are struggling with the consequences of having an enduring attraction to children (pedophilia), which they have committed to never to act upon.
After spending several years developing trust in an online community of “law-abiding pedophiles,” Evans spent a summer alone living in the homes of three men who claim not to have sexually interacted with children since entering adulthood. The film is driven by a desire to reduce sexual offending against children, and questions why there is such little preventative support for individuals to help them manage their attractions.
Committed to social activism, Evans repressed her lifelong fascination with film aesthetics until very recently. Instead, she trained and worked as a human rights lawyer in New Zealand, moving to the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2010 to study – and later work – at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. While there, she indulged her infatuation with the visual arts by studying filmmaking under Ross McElwee and Alfred Guzzetti. Owing in large part to their encouragement, filmmaking is now her life. Minor Attraction is her first feature film.
