I'm Not Ashamed

The film covers the last years of Rachel Joy Scott, killed in the Columbine High School attack in 1999. Her journals, her circle of friends, her return to faith and the money troubles at home are shown in turn. The film is not interested in the attack. It is interested in a portrait of belief: the production puts Rachel's Christianity at the centre, and that is where it starts from. The attack sequence is brief and the attackers are barely explained. The form is flat and direct: school scenes, journal voiceover, conversations at home. It opens no argument; it presents a thesis. Brian Baugh directed. The film came out within the wave of Christian cinema of the period and had a narrow release. Rachel's journals are also the basis of Rachel's Challenge, the programme founded by her family. Masey McLain plays Rachel. Who it is for: viewers looking for faith-based drama and youth stories drawn from real events. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a whole view of what happened. The film is tied entirely to one perspective, does not go into the causes of the attack, and leaves most of the real event's complexity outside.