When AJ Adams was 14, he learned his mom had cancer. Not sure how to process the emotional toll that comes with the diagnosis, he said all he wanted was to learn as much as he could about cancer and other people affected.
“I didn’t really know what was going on. I didn’t know how to take it,” he said. “That’s when I learned that there are so many positive people, and they made me realize that I shouldn’t really be too afraid of it.”
So he decided to make a documentary.
Now a senior at Glenwood Springs High School, Adams has spent the past two years interviewing subjects and learning how to edit the content to make a 17 minute documentary as his capstone project.
The film is called Connections A Deeper Meaning of Cancer. In the documentary, he talks to survivors, people who were diagnosed as young kids and some currently fighting to survive. He said all of them show that there is a deeper meaning beyond just being a cancer patient.
“I want to have [the documentary] be a kind of a gateway for people to look into the positive light,” Adams said. “And to realize ‘yeah I do have cancer and that’s bad, but I got to live my life and continue to live in the positive.’”
He said interviewing the subjects helped him further understand the connection he had with cancer through his mom’s diagnosis.
“I brought them a positive light while they brought me into the positive light,” Adams said.
A public screening of Adam’s documentary Connections A Deeper Meaning of Cancer, will start at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 17 at the Orchard in Carbondale. There will also be a panel discussion with some of the subjects in the film after the screening.