All About Jessica
Author's note: This material was moved from the Rich Mullins FAQ page, not out of disrespect for Richard's girlfriend Jessica from the Ragamuffin film, but because there is no Jessica. Jessica has no last name, no birth date, no parents, no city of origin, no contact information, passport, or email address. No love interest of Richard's met him as Jessica did, or parted from him as she did in Ragamuffin. Jessica and her story in the Ragamuffin film, although they may be in small part founded on actual events, are therefore fictional.
I profoundly respect history, as it forms the basis of the Christian faith. It didn't feel right describing a historical person--like Richard--and an artificial character like Jessica on the same page. --Pam Richards
David Leo Schultz, the writer and producer of Ragamuffin, tells us that his research revealed that Richard had more than one love in his life. You can start listening to the interview on this page at 36:00
Q: Are you "Jessica?"
A: No. My life is not at all reflected by the character "Jessica" in the Ragamuffin film. More here. . .
Q: Who is Jessica?
A: The Ragamuffin film is a docudrama, and it follows the conventions of its genre. No one who was a love interest of Rich Mullins consented to have their story portrayed in the film, so Jessica was invented to comply with the stringent legal requirements demanded by film distributors. The writers' intent was to "base" Jessica on more than one of Richard's love interests without exposing her identity as any living person. The result is that the character "Jessica" resembles no one Richard loved, and scenes shown in the film involving Jessica fail to resemble actual events.
Here are some of the challenges built into writing a docudrama:
Film making is the most expensive form of media. From the inception, the opportunity to distribute the film is the key to recouping the money invested in making a film. Distributors want a film to be as free as possible from legal liabilities, so it falls on the producer to clear all rights needed for the film. For example, living people are protected from being depicted onscreen by privacy laws, which vary by state. A producer needs stacks of release forms in order to create a film with even a moderate number of living people as characters. Those who do give permission for their stories to be used in the film do so with the understanding that they have no control over how they are portrayed or how details of their stories will be altered.
Whenever a living person refuses to participate, the producer will either eliminate that person from the film, or introduce them as a fictional, invented, or composite character with an invented name--like "Jessica." These composite characters can cause the motives, exchanges and dynamics between characters in a docudrama to become skewed. The confusion is multiplied when a major character, one who has a significant impact on the main character's life, is created from more than one real-life source.
No matter how many months they spend in research, film makers will exclude from their film any "risky" real life material that may touch on the lives of those individuals who have not agreed to participate. Much useful information and historical evidence will ultimately be left out of the film. Between the gaps in the script, the producer is forced to rely on his imagination. If he does not have an artistic theme in mind from the start, he needs to find one as soon as he can and develop it with every scrap of real or invented material he can muster to hold his film together. This places great creative demands on the producer.
All this is by way of explaining why I have no information about Jessica. There is nothing to tell.
I continue to pray that God will bless and use the Ragamuffin movie.
--Pam Richards
I profoundly respect history, as it forms the basis of the Christian faith. It didn't feel right describing a historical person--like Richard--and an artificial character like Jessica on the same page. --Pam Richards
David Leo Schultz, the writer and producer of Ragamuffin, tells us that his research revealed that Richard had more than one love in his life. You can start listening to the interview on this page at 36:00
Q: Are you "Jessica?"
A: No. My life is not at all reflected by the character "Jessica" in the Ragamuffin film. More here. . .
Q: Who is Jessica?
A: The Ragamuffin film is a docudrama, and it follows the conventions of its genre. No one who was a love interest of Rich Mullins consented to have their story portrayed in the film, so Jessica was invented to comply with the stringent legal requirements demanded by film distributors. The writers' intent was to "base" Jessica on more than one of Richard's love interests without exposing her identity as any living person. The result is that the character "Jessica" resembles no one Richard loved, and scenes shown in the film involving Jessica fail to resemble actual events.
Here are some of the challenges built into writing a docudrama:
Film making is the most expensive form of media. From the inception, the opportunity to distribute the film is the key to recouping the money invested in making a film. Distributors want a film to be as free as possible from legal liabilities, so it falls on the producer to clear all rights needed for the film. For example, living people are protected from being depicted onscreen by privacy laws, which vary by state. A producer needs stacks of release forms in order to create a film with even a moderate number of living people as characters. Those who do give permission for their stories to be used in the film do so with the understanding that they have no control over how they are portrayed or how details of their stories will be altered.
Whenever a living person refuses to participate, the producer will either eliminate that person from the film, or introduce them as a fictional, invented, or composite character with an invented name--like "Jessica." These composite characters can cause the motives, exchanges and dynamics between characters in a docudrama to become skewed. The confusion is multiplied when a major character, one who has a significant impact on the main character's life, is created from more than one real-life source.
No matter how many months they spend in research, film makers will exclude from their film any "risky" real life material that may touch on the lives of those individuals who have not agreed to participate. Much useful information and historical evidence will ultimately be left out of the film. Between the gaps in the script, the producer is forced to rely on his imagination. If he does not have an artistic theme in mind from the start, he needs to find one as soon as he can and develop it with every scrap of real or invented material he can muster to hold his film together. This places great creative demands on the producer.
All this is by way of explaining why I have no information about Jessica. There is nothing to tell.
I continue to pray that God will bless and use the Ragamuffin movie.
--Pam Richards