You learn a lot from behind the lens 📷

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Hi John,

My degree in engineering and product design at Stanford included a course called “Designing Your Life". Students were asked to role-play our five year reunion and introduce our future self to the rest of the class.

At the time, running for Congress and challenging Nancy Pelosi weren’t on my horizon. I had focused most of my class projects and summer internships on social impact and international development, but politics...I didn't think that was for me. I didn't know then that I would spend the next five years working closely with Indigenous Peoples, the incarcerated and paroled, asylum seekers, and the undocumented. My work as a documentary filmmaker for the social justice organization Emerson Collective brought me in close proximity to the people least-served by our democracy.

There, behind the lens, I got to know inspiring change-makers, but I also witnessed a great deal of unnecessary suffering and injustice caused by the policies written by establishment politicians. Over time, I felt a moral imperative to run for office and change how things are done.

Pictured here: Me filming at the Women's March, on the US-Mexico border, and in Kenya.
A job that makes you cry on the regular would be a nonstarter for most people, but I considered it an honor to be constantly exposed to people like Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative ([link removed]) and author of the book Just Mercy ([link removed]) (now a major motion picture). Bryan's philosophy - that when we take steps to be proximate to the excluded and the disfavored, "you learn things that you need to understand if we’re going to change the world" - is a foundational value of this campaign.
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As an immigrant myself, ([link removed]) born in the country home to much of the Amazon Rainforest, I've been an activist for immigrant and climate justice from an early age. My time in documentary filmmaking demonstrated to me that effecting social change has many levers, including direct service, grant-giving, lobbying, investing for profit, and especially, creating art.
It makes so much sense for journalists and documentary filmmakers to become politicians. They engage and get close to issues, know how to listen and ask questions of anyone, and are thoughtful about communication and bridging gaps in understanding.
Legislative change is key, but to succeed, we need cultural change. In projects like Inside Out/Vote, ([link removed]) in which newly registered voters were celebrated on a giant portrait wall, the power of art to surprise and delight was key to winning hearts and minds. It's a value that is key to this campaign.

I stepped out from behind the camera to run for Congress because our planet can't wait. Our city and our country are in dire need of systemic change. The crises my generation has inherited - climate change, mass gun violence, homelessness, unaffordable healthcare - have been brewing for decades. Addressing these challenges will take new leadership that prioritizes everyday people over corporate profits.


** Will you help?
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Bryan Stevenson tells us "hopelessness is the enemy of justice." This campaign is an antidote to hopelessness. But I can't do it alone, I need your help. This is a grass roots campaign that takes no corporate PAC money - every small donation is key to helping us get out the vote in these critical final days.
Support our campaign ([link removed])
With gratitude and optimism,

Agatha Bacelar
candidate for US Congress ([link removed])
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