Marina Rice Bader


Marina Rice Bader is a writer, director, and film producer. She is known for the films Anatomy of a Love Seen, Raven's Touch, and Ava's Impossible Things. She was executive producer for Elena Undone and A Perfect Ending . She started the Soul Kiss Films production company in 2009. She champions the LGBTQ+ community, saying "We could use more films with well-rounded LGBTQ+ characters, and I hope in some way I’m helping to address that issue."

Moviemaking

Until Bader was in her 50s, she had never been "in love with a woman before, never even kissed a woman. So, when you are walking into an entirely new world, you do your research by watching movies," she said. That was when she saw the need for good lesbian movies: "I rented so many lesbian movies that I noticed there were some really good ones but also some terrible ones because of the lack of chemistry between the actors." The first movie she made was with film director Nicole Conn, based loosely on their love story and remade into Elena Undone. On promoting the LGBTQ+ community, she says, "We can’t all be Shonda Rhimes, but we can sure as heck do our best to serve the communities we’re part of to make a difference that begins a ripple that will become a full-blown wave of change."
She considers as allies people like Joss Whedon, who create "vibrant, well-rounded female characters" — and companies like Vimeo, which launched its "Share the Screen" initiative at Sundance in 2013 to support emerging female voices in film. Another ally is Outfest Los Angeles, she says, an LGBT festival that programmed dozens female-directed projects in 2013.
Bader has attempted to crowdfund her movies, but without much success. "As a filmmaker who’s giving so much time and energy to the whole thing, you want that to be your investment. You don’t want to have to freaking cash out your IRA to make a lesbian movie when there’s so many lesbians who are wanting content." Nonetheless, she says, "I don’t understand why all lesbians don’t donate $10 for me to make a movie. But they don’t, so I’ve kind of come to the realization that I’m not going to be able to create film for my community based on support from my community, and it’s really heartbreaking."

Personal life

Marina has four children, two cats, one dog and currently resides in Los Angeles.