Filmmaker Elena Rue tells Decorah high school students to 'explore what you are curious about'

Decorah High School graduate and director of the Lewis Hine Documentary Film Fellowship Program at Duke University Elena Rue returned to her alma mater to talk film, creativity and pursuing what matters in life.
 
Rue, in town for the Oneota Film Festival, addressed sophomore, junior and senior students in Elizabeth Lorentzen's art class last Monday.
 
"A professor of mine once told me that everything interesting in life happens before you are ten," Rue said. "The rest of life is exploring those foundational experiences. In determining what films I make and what stories I tell, I explore what I am curious about."
 
Rue said the impetus for her film "Shared Origins," a heart-felt story of a same-sex American couple who adopt two Ethiopian children, stemmed from her interest in adoptions, a topic that flowed from her own family experience. Her brother, born in Thailand, was adopted before she was born.
 
Decorah High School, where she learned photography at 15, was where Rue first got "hooked" on the power of images. "I have always been interested in real life stories," she told the students. "Still photography and film can bring these alive...if you are good at watching, waiting and observing."
 
Besides her work at Duke, Rue is cofounder of StoryMineMedia (www.storyminemedia.com), a film company specializing in documentary storytelling. Rue told the class she is currently working on a full-length documentary on coal mining in West Virginia.
 
Rue has degrees from Kenyon College and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the daughter of Loyal and Marilyn Rue of Decorah.

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Picture: Filmmaker Elena Rue at Decorah High School speaks to a class last Monday about documentary filmmaking and pursuing one's passion.