Skip Shea

Skip Shea is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, artist and actor from Massachusetts. First known as a visual artist early in life, his fascination with filmmaking began at 7 years old when mother Patsy took him to see "Wait Until Dark" at the local cinema. Shortly afterwards during a family vacation on Cape Cod, movie making grabbed him again when "The Thomas Crown Affair" was filming in nearby Provincetown. From then on, he never looked back. Skip is an outspoken survivor of clergy sexual abuse and from the depths of that childhood trauma, he wrote, produced and performed a one-man theatrical memoir called "Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads)" which takes audiences to places they may not want to go. It debuted in 2005 in New York City. In 1999, Skip's daughter Shawna Shea, twin sister of Erin Shea, tragically lost her life in a car accident at 16. He transformed this ultimate loss as best he knew how: through art and film. In 2012, Skip memorialized his daughter's independent spirit by establishing the annual Shawna Shea Film Festival, a growing gathering attracting the best independent films from across the U.S. and the world. In 2011, Skip was recognized for his poetry when legendary jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis performed his "Songs of Mourning" at the September 11 Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Concert at Symphony Space in New York City. Skip originally wrote the poem for the first anniversary of this American tragedy that afterwards was included in the academic textbook "Lyrics of Lament: From Tragedy to Transformation." Several years ago, Skip dove head-first into the horror genre and short film making. In 2013, his horror short "Ave Maria" won the Audience Award at the Interiora Horror Festival in Rome, Italy; and was named the Most Wonderful and Weird short at the Mascara and Popcorn Film Festival in Montreal. "Ave Maria" also screened in Justin Beahm's Hollyshort Horror Nights at the TCL Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. And the horror short that started it all was Skip's "Microcinema," a sharp departure from formula flicks. It was Best Short at the 2012 Jersey Gore Film Festival, as well as a 2011 Rondo Hatton Honorable Mention for Best Horror Short.