My Effortless Brilliance

Lynn Shelton is an American director known for writing, directing, and producing the 2009 film Humpday.

Early life, and education

Shelton grew up in Seattle. She describes herself as having been audacious as a young girl, but having lost confidence in her creativity in adolescence.This experience contributed to a theme she explored in her 2005 film We Go Way Back.

After high school Shelton attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and then the University of Washington School of Drama. She then moved to New York and attended the Master’s of Fine Arts program in Photography and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her thesis advisor was Peggy Ahwesh.

She started working in the film industry as a film editor, and made a series of experimental short films which have been described as “accomplished” and providing the basis for the “subtle, almost anthropological scrutiny” brought to bear in her later works.

Among the jobs she has held to support her film career, she has worked aboard a trawler in the Bering Sea.

Film career

In 2004 Shelton began writing and directing her first feature film, We Go Way Back. Described as “polished” and “impressionistic,” the film depicts a 23 year old actress, Kate, confronted by her 13 year old self. The dialog between the older and younger Kates begins in memory, and then climaxes in an apparitional experience with the specter of her own, repressed, precocious youth. We Go Way Back is owned by Geisha Years, LLC and is currently seeking distribution.

Shelton’s film Humpday premiered at Sundance, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures, and has shown at Cannes, SIFF, South by Southwest and other film festivals. It opened in theaters in New York and Seattle July 10, 2009. —Wikipedia