KELLY ADAMS Creative Portfolio
About Me Documentary
Storytelling
Social Strategy
Community
Design
I believe that stories can help people feel seen, strengthen community bonds, and inspire action. I first saw that power while teaching digital storytelling to young women in Hyderabad, India, and have carried it forward with my work at the Lower Eastside Girls Club in Manhattan. Today, I’m a documentary filmmaker, video producer, and digital media strategist working with arts, cultural and community organizations to tell meaningful stories and amplify their missions. My background in Anthropology and Master’s degree from NYU’s Culture & Media program shapes an approach grounded in listening, collaboration & care for the people at the center of each story. For the past decade, I’ve helped shape the Lower Eastside Girls Club’s voice and digital presence through video, photography, campaigns, and social content. I’m drawn to the human moments that reveal an organization’s impact, and to sharing them in ways that deepen connection, invite participation & bring more people into its community. Freelance Clients Include: National Dance Institute, Hermès, Partnership for Afterschool Education (PASE), Abrons Art Center, International Puppet Fringe Festival, The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, We Make Noise, Say She She, Dorril Initiative, Salsa Stories, Soho Renaissance Factory, and more. I was the recipient of the 2023 BRIC B Free Award for Excellence in Community Media.
Teaching young women digital storytelling, from Hyderabad to Manhattan.
Lower Eastside Girls Club 30th Anniversary Campaign Campaign Strategy, Social Media, Content Production, Video & Graphic Editing Email Marketing, Community & Alumni Outreach The Lower Eastside Girls Club “supports young women in leveraging their inner power to shape a better future for themselves, their communities, and the world.” For Girls Club’s 30th anniversary, I led the storytelling and creative strategy for GC30, turning the organization’s history into a campaign centered on the people who shaped it. I dug into the archives, interviewed community members, reconnected with alumni & supporters, and developed stories that made the milestone personal. I built the campaign around community participating, activating Girls Club’s network and collaborating with celebrity supporters to expand its reach. Through video, social, newsletters, print, and editorial content, GC30 drove engagement, expanded reach and supported fundraising.
Lower Eastside Girls Club Origin Story Producer, Videographer & Editor
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Lower Eastside Girls Club Lou Dembrow GC30 Feature Reel for @girlsclubny Instagram Producer, Videographer, Editor I made this reel as part of the GC30 campaign, to celebrate Lou Dembrow’s lasting impact on LESGC members. Lou founded the Girls Club’s darkroom photography program and has spent decades helping young people see their neighborhood with curiosity and a creative eye. Through her story, the reel shows how one mentor can shape the way generation of girls see the world.
Lower Eastside Girls Club Instagram Feed Example @girlsclubny Content Creation & Curation
Lower Eastside Girls Club Multiplatform Social Media Content Summer 2026 Program Recap in Vertical & Horizontal Recap video featuring interviews with LESGC members, edited for use across social platforms.
Honoring Miladys Ramirez GC30 Gala Honoree + Graphic I chose Miladys as the GC30 Gala honoree because she embodies the Girls Club: an Avenue D native, mother of two alumnae, mentor, and as the receptionist - a welcoming face at the door for all who enter. I designed the announcement graphic to celebrate someone our community knows and loves. That authenticity resonated, driving engagement and interesting tin the gala.
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Lower Eastside Girls Club Videographer & Editor
Summer 2026 Recap
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Say She She Behind the Scenes & Concert Recap Videographer & Editor
National Dance Institute Instagram Reel + Performance Video Stills Video Production & Editing
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National Dance Institute (NDI) brings dance and music education to children and trains teaching artists to share its approach. I’ve worked with NDI across performances, events, galas, and short-form videos, filming and editing stories that capture the energy of its community. For the reel above, I documented a dance teacher training workshop and interviewed Artistic Director of Emerge125, Tiffany Rae Fisher about the experience.
Partnership for Afterschool Education Afterschool Transforms Video about Staten Island Urban Center Video Production & Editing Click to View for Afterschool Education (PASE) supports afterschool programs across New Partnership
York City. I created this film at Staten Island Urban Center to show how afterschool programs transform young people’s lives and make the case for investing in them. PASE featured it at their annual fundraising gala for two years in a row.
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Oculus Ad Campaign Large Scale Motion Graphic Design
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Lower Eastside Girls Club, 25th Anniversary Ad Campaign I created motion graphics for a large-scale ad campaign spanning 22 screens throughout the Oculus in Lower Manhattan, including displays as large as 280 x 9 ft. The work required seamless animation across individual screens and sequences of panels lining hallways and elevator passages. I also prepared and exported each video to meet the screens’ different technical specifications.
Inside Out Project Activation Project Manager, Collaborative Community Project Production & Editing, Instagram Recap Reel
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“You Are Not Alone” “You Are Not Alone” is a community photography project that I managed, in collaboration with high school students and in response to the isolation of the pandemic. Together, we photographed and interviewed our neighbors, turning their stories into a public installation across the Lower Eastside Girls Club’s facade as part of JR’s global Inside Out Project. I created this reel to document & share how we made it.
DORILL Initiative Program Video Video Production & Editing DORILL Initiative is a Lower East Side organization that helps young people build creative and leadership skills through arts education and civic engagement. I filmed and edited this video to showcase its programs and the young citizen artists at its heart.
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Walk With Amal Clemente Center Video Production & Editing Click to View Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet representing a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, traveled
through all five boroughs of New York City in 2022, inspiring community welcomes and conversations about migration. When she arrived on the Lower East Side, the Clemente Center welcomed her with a celebration of the neighborhood’s Afro-Carribean traditions and puppetry. I filmed and edited this video for the Clemente to capture Amal’s visit and the community that gathered to greet her.
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International Puppet Fringe Festival Documentary, 13 min. Producer, Director, Videographer, Editor This short film embarks into the mesmerizing world of puppetry, from its ancient traditions to the avant-garde art forms of today. The perspective is both globally-minded and distinctly rooted in the rich puppetry traditions of New York, particularly the vibrant immigrant communities of the Lower East Side. This film unfolds through the enchanting backdrop of the 2023 International Puppet Fringe Festival, a unique event honoring the legacy of puppetry icon, Ralph Lee. This video was commissioned by the The Clemente Center, with the support of the Howard Gillman Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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Atlantic Sunrise Short Documentary Producer, Videographer, Editor
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This short documentary tells the story of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a convent of Catholic nuns, as they resist a natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on the basis of their religious beliefs Awards & Recognition: Recipient of Rooftop Films / DCTV Filmmakers Grant (2019) Grand Jury Award for Environmental Justice at Interfaith Film & Music Festival (2021) Documentary Changemaker Scholarship from Actuality Media (2020)
Soho Renaissance Factory Title Sequence for Short Documentary Editor
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In 2020, as racial justice protests swept New York City, businesses boarded up their windows with plywood. Artists from the Soho Renaissance Factory transformed those boards into public art, bringing color and connection to the streets. Some of their work was later featured in Voices of the Soho Renaissance, a 2021 exhibition at the National Arts Club. I edited this title sequence for a short film documenting the artists and the moment that brought their work to life.
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Awards & Recognition: Winner, Festival of the Hunt at Anthology Film Archives, 2015
Screenings:
Margaret Mead Film Festival, 2015 Rooftop Films Summer Series, New York Non-Fiction, 2015 Nitehawk Shorts Film Festival, 2015 Museum of the City of New York, Special Event, 2015 City Reliquary Museum Collector's Night, 2015 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival, 2015 Lamakaan Cultural Space (Hyderabad, India) 2015 Smita Patil Film Festival (Pune, India) 2015 Inwood Film Festival, 2015 Harlem International Film Festival, 2016 New FilmMakers New York, Winter 2016 Series Johns Hopkins Film Festival, 2016 Earth Month Celebration at Materials for the Arts, 2016 New York Independent Film Festival, 2016
One Man’s Trash Documentary, 17 min. Producer, Director, Videographer, Editor
For 34 years, Nelson Molina has worked for the NYC Department of Sanitation, developing a unique relationship to the objects that fill the garbage bags lining the streets. With a keen curatorial eye for finding treasure in household trash, Nelson has created a collection of found objects in a sanitation garage in East Harlem, which he refers to as a museum of “Treasures in the Trash.” As the film follows Nelson on his route and through his collection, he encourages us to see the things that we encounter in daily life anew. This film was produced in the Program in Culture & Media at NYU.
Brooke Halloween Portrait 2025
Elise Birthday Portrait 2024
Thank You.