bios/who we are

Founders

Shauna Stoddart-Founder/Creative Partner: Graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Theatre Arts. She pounded the pavement in New York City pursuing her talents on stage, before heading for the sunny west coast. Life in L.A. has proved to be successful as she pursues a career both in front of and behind the camera. On camera, she has appeared in Indie films, TV soaps, episodics and commercials. Behind the camera she has worked in production, casting, talent management and writing. Shauna launched Estrofest in Feb. 2003 as a venue for women filmmakers to showcase their work. She is very excited to be bringing it back this year with her new partner Kipling Rowe.
Kipling Rowe-Creative Partner: Having grown up in San Francisco, she attended the American Conservatory Theatre. After graduating in 1988. she moved to NYC where she studied acting and performance in small theaters. Three years later, she decided to pack her bags and return to California to pursue film. Here in Los Angeles, she has continued her studies and has worked on numerous music videos, television programs, commercials and films. She produced a film entitled "My Father's House" with her friend Larry Holden. Producing led her to discover her passion for music where she has worked exclusively for the last four years working for many bands such as Depeche Mode, TOOL, Courtney Love and Tyler Hilton. Traveling and touring was a part of the job and was truly exciting. Kipling and her husband now live in the hills outside San Francisco. Shauna, Kaarina and Kipling are looking forward to expanding Estrofest to the Bay area.
Kaarina Aufranc Founder/Creative Partner: Kaarina’s professional career started in New York City, producing and appearing in the original play RAPS, by Robert Romanus at the Cherry Lane Theater. After two years of performing in New York, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. Los Angeles has proven to be a success for Kaarina, as she has worked in both Indie Films and Television. Most recently she has been seen in CSI, The West Wing, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Feb. 2003, Kaarina launched Estrofest as a venue for women filmmakers to showcase their work. She is very excited to be bringing it back this year with partner’s Kipling Rowe and Shauna Stoddart.
Filmmaker
Hanelle Culpepper, Writer/Producer/Director: Hanelle M. Culpepper graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Economics and French from Lake Forest College in suburban Chicago. For graduate studies, Hanelle enrolled in the Master’s program at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. Hanelle’s filmmaking career began when she was selected for Bill Cosby’s screenwriting program for African-American writers. Through the program, Hanelle wrote Miss Ella, which earned Hanelle a place in the IFP/west Screenwriters Lab and will be produced in the Fall. Hanelle realized her filmmaking dream by writing and directing the short film The Wedding Dress. The award-winning romantic comedy played in film festivals worldwide. Her follow-up film A Single Rose screened at the Cannes Film Festival, placed 12 th for an Academy Award, and has won several Best of awards, including Best Short, Director, Actress, Music, and Cinematography. Six and the City has won a Best Short Film award, an Audience Award and can be seen on network television in Japan and on Air Canada. Most recently, Hanelle directed an episode of Discovery Channel’s scripted crime drama “Guilty or Innocent” and was honored with the 2005 Emerging Filmmaker Award from the Cine Noir Film Festival.
Singers
Edie Carey: With her warm, graceful voice and her knack for cutting “into a subject…with a diamond-edged blade,” Carey grabs hold of her audiences and doesn't let go until she steps off the stage. While her songs are what first draw listeners in, it’s what she says in between that keeps them coming back. Carey's wry and self-mocking humor, coupled with her ability to tell a great story, makes audiences feel as though they have just spent the evening with a very close friend. Given the triple threat of her magnetic stage presence, heart-grabbing songs, and almost unearthly voice, it’s no wonder that the word about Carey is traveling fast. Carey has performed in rooms such as The Bottom Line and Bowery Ballroom in New York City, The Fillmore in San Francisco, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles, The Opera House in Toronto, and The Borderline in London. She has shared the stage with artists as varied as Leo Kottke, Ani DiFranco, Jonatha Brooke, Lucy Kaplansky, Patty Larkin, and Sandra Bernhard, and has toured extensively with Melissa Ferrick. Carey’s latest recording, When I Was Made, was produced by Evan Brubaker (Holly Figueroa, David LaMotte) and Troy Glessner at Spectre Studios in Tacoma, WA. Featuring acclaimed Seattle-based musicians Jonathan Kingham, Skip Peri, Dan Tyack, and Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco), "When I Was Made" was released in January 2004. Edie's previous albums, "Come Close, Call Me Home" and "The Falling Places" were released to critical acclaim in 2002, 2000, and 1998, respectively."
Anne Heaton: "Give In" is the second album by Anne Heaton, a gifted songwriter from New York City by way of Chicago. Produced by Mike Denneen (Aimee Mann, Guster, Fountains of Wayne) and backed up by her band, Heaton’s unique voice and piano playing have never sounded better. “Give In” is an upbeat collection of love songs that follows “Black Notebook,” Heaton’s more reflective debut. “The songs on this record explore how much to give in a relationship, where boundaries should be, and the ways in which intimacy can feel safe, fun, thrilling and scary” says Heaton. Heaton’s lyrics and melodies are complemented with uncluttered arrangements full of subtle counter rhythms and rich harmonies that give every tune its own unique soul. Starting with lessons at age three, Heaton was a studied classical pianist. She listened to everything from Dexy’s Midnight Runners to Joni Mitchell to the Rolling Stones to the Fine Young Cannibals. While studying Philosophy and Theology at Notre Dame, she sang in a rock band. After graduation, she ran a music program for teenagers in Chicago’s Cabrini Green Housing Projects. A few years later Heaton moved from Chicago to New York and joined a Gospel Choir in Harlem. This was the point when Anne started writing songs. “Hearing Peter Gabriel’s ‘Us’ for the first time, made me realize how powerful it could be to relate your psychological and spiritual experiences in a way that was musically beautiful and resonant. I felt like Peter Gabriel was expressing my inner world or what I wished the world were like. I thought that if I could ever touch someone else in the way that he had reached me, I would be very happy.”
Photographers
Camella Grace & Robin Breen: Robyn Breen and Camella Grace are SpiralEyes - a Los Angeles based visual art team. They specialize in reaching beneath the expected and challenging both their subject and their audience. SpiralEyes dares you to glimpse what you believed when you were little, and what you may not know yet. Together, Robyn and Camella have extensive experience in film, video, graphic design, web design, music and more. Their work will take you on a journey through the unconscious, time and memory. SpiralEyes refuses to be defined. The absence of obvious themes - feminism, deviance, violence - forces the viewer to feel and think for him or herself. Drawing on moments that impact our lives, their work evokes raw emotion without being sexual. To truly experience human expression from any angle, one must disregard pre-conceptions, reservations and restrictions. Allow yourself to be touched, and you will be moved. Challenge yourself. Challenge your beliefs. Challenge your fears. Get emotionally naked. Become vulnerable,any way you can. Only then are you ready to experience spiraleyes. SpiralEyes was born through Robyn and Camella's recognition of balance between their individual and shared artistic and creative conceptions. Together they have expanded their repertoire to include many mediums and creative forms. They capture the same energy and emotion in realist photography as they do in more abstract expressions. This holds true in both their fine art and commercial work.
Jewelry Designer
Nicola Vruwink: Nicola grew up riding horses in Pella, Iowa. Everytime she won a riding competition (which happened A LOT cause she was GOOD), they gave her a pretty ribbon to wear. She loved those pretty ribbons. As an adult, living in Los Angeles, she misses Pella, Iowa, but even more, she misses those pretty ribbons. Since there aren’t that many horses to ride in her neighborhood of Echo Park, she started making the next best thing: her own line of jewelry. When not making jewelry, and missing her favorite horse (her name was Missy in case you were curious), Nicola is also an artist whose work has been featured in The Seattle Art Museum, Western Bridge, James Harris Gallery, and Art Forum Magazine. Oh yeah, she also has an MFA (and we all know what that means) in sculpture and metalsmithing and she makes a great mojito.