Steve J. Adams is a Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for co-directing documentary films with collaborator Sean Horlor under their production company Nootka Street, including Someone Like Me (2021) [1] and Satan Wants You (2023). [2] His work often focuses on community, identity, and cultural stories with a documentary lens.
Before directing feature-length documentaries, Adams worked on a number of short films and documentary projects. His credits include Just the Tip (2012), Only One (2016), A Small Part of Me (2016), [3] Angela (2016), Hunting Giants (2017), Brunch Queen (2018), [4] The Day Don Died (2018) and the short documentary series Dear Reader (2021). [5]
Adams co-directed Someone Like Me with Sean Horlor. The documentary premiered at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, [6] where it received a Rogers Audience Award. [7] [1]
The film follows Drake, a gay refugee from Uganda, and a group of Canadian volunteers who sponsor his resettlement in Vancouver, British Columbia. [1]
The film was later named a finalist for Best British Columbia Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2021, [8] [9] and a nominee for the DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2021 Directors Guild of Canada awards. [10] As of 2023, Adams and Horlor are no longer in a romantic relationship but continue to work together professionally.
In 2023, Adams co-directed Satan Wants You, a documentary examining the origins and cultural impact of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s, including the influence of the book Michelle Remembers. [11] [12]
The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2023. [13]