Trish Adlesic's leap from on-the-ground television location work to hard-hitting documentary filmmaker began on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she met Mariska Hargitay. When Hargitay decided to turn her public profile toward investigative filmmaking, she tapped Adlesic to co-direct a film about the staggering backlog of untested rape kits in the United States. Released in 2017 as I Am Evidence, the documentary followed survivors, advocates, and the often opaque municipal systems that allowed evidence to sit untested for years or decades. The film was notable in Adlesic's career not only for its subject matter—an institutional scandal that sits at the intersection of policing, public health, and victim advocacy—but also for cementing her collaborative relationship with Hargitay. Drawing directly on Adlesic’s experience on procedural sets and her ability to navigate sensitive material, the film presented survivors’ stories to mainstream documentary audiences and positioned Adlesic as an Oscar‑nominated filmmaker who could turn newsroom‑style investigation into compassionate cinematic storytelling.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
From Location Manager to Co-Director: The Making of I Am Evidence and a National Scandal
I Am Evidence / 2010s
Trish Adlesic's leap from on-the-ground television location work to hard-hitting documentary filmmaker began on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she met Mariska Hargitay. When Hargitay decided to turn her public profile toward investigative filmmaking, she tapped Adlesic to co-direct a film about the staggering backlog of untested rape kits in the United States. Released in 2017 as I Am Evidence, the documentary followed survivors, advocates, and the often opaque municipal systems that allowed evidence to sit untested for years or decades. The film was notable in Adlesic's career not only for its subject matter—an institutional scandal that sits at the intersection of policing, public health, and victim advocacy—but also for cementing her collaborative relationship with Hargitay. Drawing directly on Adlesic’s experience on procedural sets and her ability to navigate sensitive material, the film presented survivors’ stories to mainstream documentary audiences and positioned Adlesic as an Oscar‑nominated filmmaker who could turn newsroom‑style investigation into compassionate cinematic storytelling.
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