Vistas recently had the opportunity speak with Prescott resident Sarah True, college student, avid volunteer, basketball player, photographer, and co-owner of a video production company called True Rose Productions.  Now 30 years old, Ms. True has had a spinal cord and traumatic brain injury since the age of sixteen.

Vistas:  What do you study at Yavapai College?

Sarah True:  This spring I am enrolled in Anatomy and Physiology I, Pre-calculus, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Human Values and Technology, and Weight Training.

Vistas:  In addition to that, you do an amazing amount of volunteer work. What organizations do you volunteer with and what has been your experience with them?

ST:  I’ve done media work with Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Calvary Chapel.  I’m a disability advocate for New Horizons Independent Living Center. 

I find it rewarding to pass on some of the skills I’ve acquired to others with disabilities.  To this end, I’m a shot put and pentathlon coach for the Bradshaw Mountain Special Olympics.  Additionally, I work as an Arts and Crafts instructor for Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church.

Vistas:  How did you come to play for the Phoenix Wheelchair Mercury?

ST:  I met Patty Cisneros at an Independent Learning Center conference in Phoenix. One night at the conference I had been swimming in the pool.  When I came out to join some friends at a table, Patty was sitting at the table next to us and asked if I played basketball.  She asked if I was interested in playing for a newly forming women's team in Phoenix. 

Vistas: What position do you play?

ST:  You have to be a better all-around player from a chair.  I am probably still closest to a power forward or guard.  I am definitely not a point guard or a smooth ball handler yet. This is my first year really learning the intricacies of the sport from a chair. 

Vistas:  How did you receive your injury?

ST:  I was in a car accident and did aerial acrobatics from a rolling vehicle.  I used my head as landing gear.  I have actually been quite lucky in life.

Vistas:  How have your injuries affected your body? 

ST:  I awoke in the hospital with a snapped sternum, complete a/c separation in my left shoulder, head injuries, C7 neck injury, T9-10 complete spinal dislocation with compression fractures, collapsed lung and broken ribs.  Since then I have had a lot of health problems that stem from that original injury, but the way I see it, we all have issues to deal with in life and we can’t let them control us. 

Vistas:  How have your injuries affected your state of mind?

ST:  In every way imaginable.  The accident happened in October 1992 when I was 16 years old.  My mindset went through many levels and stages.  I have photos and portfolios that depict a bit of what I was going through along the way.  Documenting my experience has helped me to feel like less of a victim and focus on my life, rather than my injuries.

Vistas:  How have your injuries influenced your art?

ST:  Before my accident I played sports:  Varsity basketball, volleyball, track and field... art was for my brother.  When I went back to high school, I needed an outlet for my energy.  A friend suggested that I might really dig black-and-white photography.

I enrolled at the community college in 1994.  I fell in love with black-and-white photography, fell in love with the darkroom, fell in love with being able to express myself in ways for which I had no words.  My disability did not limit my art, but gave my art more depth and meaning that could not be touched. 

The creative outlet that art provides allows me to work through so many emotions and difficult times.  We all sustain injuries in life.  Some are just more apparent than others. 

Life is an accumulation of experience and process.  Art—creating visually and mentally stimulating images that question and challenge, implore and evoke, quiet and stimulate—helps me on my path through life.

Vistas:  Where did the idea to create a production company come from?

ST:  My path to creating a production company started with my love for black-and-white photography.  From there I took a cinema class and clearly saw the connection between photo and film. 

After realizing my love for film and video, I was able to do some work for New Horizons Independent Living Center, then PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) and finally the Spinal Cord Injury Association.  Eventually, I figured that I could do video production work for a living, so I wrote True Rose Productions into a PASS (Plan for Achieving Self-Support) Plan to get off of Social Security. 

I believe that opportunities are always coming and going, but we rarely have the ability to see them.  I caught a glimpse of this opportunity and then grabbed onto it.

Vistas:  What obstacles have you faced in starting your company because of your injuries?

ST:  When I first began production classes, the organization that paid for my education said, ‘We won’t pay for your production class because disabled people don’t do film.’  Since then I’ve spent a good amount of time proving them wrong and reversing those stereotypes.  This is why my work centers around life for people with disabilities, rather than rehab or the actual injury.

Vistas: What projects are you working on right now?

ST:  Something that I’m really excited about is a documentary about myself called “Still Life.”  This video shows the success of alternative treatments to highly invasive surgery.  The title is a three-way play on words.  First, there’s the connection to art and photography, one of my passions.  Next, is the connection to the inability of movement I experience at the beginning of the video.  Finally, I see “Still Life” meaning that I continue to live and thrive and learn, despite what others would call debilitating injuries. 

See a clip of Sarahs video: