Today we’d like to introduce you to Skip Shea.
Skip, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
7 years ago we started the Shawna Shea Film Festival as a fundraiser for the Shawna E Shea Memorial Foundation Inc. a 501(c) (3) educational foundation. It’s named after one of my twin daughters, Shawna, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 16 in 1999.
A year after the accident her sister Erin, her classmates and the whole town of Uxbridge, raised 1o thousand dollars to start the foundation in her name. We tried all sorts of fundraising events after including a party with a band and raffles etc. and a golf tournament. One golf tournament. Never again.
As I am a filmmaker myself I decided to try a film festival as a fundraiser. It started as a one day, one block of short films event to a three day, two venue event of international shorts and features that we host in Southbridge from October 4-6. We’ve had filmmakers from Italy and the UK attend, including hosting some incredible world premieres.
I won’t screen any of my films but I am an award winning horror filmmaker, (MICROCINEMA, AVE MARIA, TRINITY) so a lot of the films we screen are genre films because that is my community. So it’s definitely a fringe film festival.
Which is a perfect way to honor and celebrate Shawna.
Our funds go to scholarships to graduating students in Uxbridge and Southbridge. We recently started to give out an annual Woman in Film Fellowship to a firs time female filmmaker. We’ve helped produce a documentary and narrative short. This year I’m excited that we are helping to produce an experimental museum exhibit film.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are the typical struggles of running a film festival like this, film files that won’t screen, scheduling conflicts for filmmakers etc. But we’ve overcome them. We’ve had growing pains, but that’s what we strive for, to make it better each year.
In truth the struggle is the fact that I even have to do this at all. If there was no accident this wouldn’t have to exist. It is an amazing thing and a good way for us to honor her and have people say and remember her name. That’s the good face answer. But the truth is that it is also a very public reminder that Shawna is not here.
Please tell us about Shawna Shea Film Festival.
There are so many film festivals now but I think if you stick with it, it begins to create its own identity. Without actually trying we have become a festival where the majority of the films we screen were made by women. We just did a shorts festival last month and over 60% of the films were made by women. And I want to note again, that we are very fringe. There is this misconception of women and horror films. I think we are helping show that not only do women love horror films but that make some of the best horror films you will see.
I’m proud of that. And we strive to make all filmmakers feel welcome and celebrate how special they are. We couldn’t raise the money we do for the foundation without them so we are grateful for everyone who submits and especially to those who make the trip to Southbridge to support the cause. For that we cater to them as much as we possibly can.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
That’s not a question I’m usually asked. My childhood wasn’t the best. I’m a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Worcester so, a lot of it was literally about surviving.
But I also think it’s why I’m a filmmaker now. One of my escapes from that was the world of pop culture. Born in 1960 I was around for some of the best music and movies of the last century. Isn’t that what every old person says?
I became a consumer of all of it. Records, books and comic books. I would look at the paper every day and look at the movie section. And not just the huge headlines but the fringe films listed in the lower corner of the paper. Films like MARK OF THE DEVIL, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and of course THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Some of which I would eventually see at the local drive in.
I remember, quite fondly, watching a UHF station like channel 38 or 56 and this odd horror movie was on. I must have been 9 or 10. It was Marco Vicario’s HORROR CASTLE with Christopher Lee. There was a level of violence that was shocking to me. And incredibly frightening. But I knew I was able to turn it off. And it would be gone. It gave me a sense of control over horrific things that I didn’t feel like I had in my life. I never turned it off.
Then there is the summer of 1972. I was already well into collecting 45s and albums by then, but something about that year, that summer still sticks we me. I wasn’t a child at the age of 12, but my God the music of that summer was very special. “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” by the Hollies is a song that brings me to the beach every time I hear it. And I love the ocean.
Contact Info:
- Address: Shawna Shea Film Festival
194 Granite Street
Uxbridge, MA 01569 - Website: https://www.shawnasheaff.org
- Email: shawnasheafilmfest@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Photos by Erica Chick and Kristin Hughes
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