The passing of writer, director, producer and actress, Lynn Shelton on May 16th at the age of fifty-four is still quite shocking and hard to believe. The still-in-her prime, indie filmmaker died from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder in Los Angeles.
While she began her career working as an actress with an interest in photography which she studied in college, Shelton soon decided she wanted to work behind the camera. But since she was in her mid-thirties by the time she made this decision, Shelton initially thought it was too late for her to pursue being a director. However after catching the then-forty year old French filmmaker, Clare Denis speak at a forum, Shelton realized it was never too late.
Shelton wrote and directed her first feature, "We Go Way Back" in 2006 and tells the story of a young actress getting her first major film role but is confronted by her disappointed thirteen year old self. The film made it's premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature.
Shelton's major breakthrough was her third film, "Humpday" from 2009. Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard star as two straight buddies who make a crazy dare to make a full-on gay porno to enter in the HUMP! film festival. The comedy-drama made it's premiere at Sundance and won a Special Jury Prize at the fest, received major distribution and was even remade by French director, Yvan Attal in 2012 as "Do Not Disturb" which starred Attal and François Cluzet. Other thoughtful, small-scale features from Shelton include "Touchy Feely", "Your Sister's Sister" (with Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt), "Laggies" (with Keira Knightley) and "Sword of Trust", a comedy which co-starred Marc Maron (who Shelton was romantically involved with over the last year) was released last summer. Hollywood had approached Shelton to work on studio films recently (including an offer to direct the Marvel super-hero feature, "Black Widow") but declined as she enjoyed the freedom to make films her way without much interference.
Shelton's years of doing impressive work creating adult-oriented, independent films made her quite desirable for television and soon became one of the most in-demand directors working on the small screen. Some of her credits include episodes of "Master of None", "The Mindy Project", "The Morning Show" and "GLOW". It is very sad and tragic that the accomplished life and talent of Lynn Shelton has been silenced so prematurely but she has left behind a remarkable body of work that we'll be able to continue to enjoy.
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