Angela Shelton

Infobox actor
name = Angela Shelton


caption =
birthdate = birth date and age|1972|12|5
birthplace = Asheville, North Carolina

Angela Shelton (born December 5, 1972) is an American screenwriter, actress, and documentary film producer, best known for the film "Tumbleweeds" and the documentary "Searching for Angela Shelton", which she wrote, directed, and edited. She has also just released her book, "Finding Angela Shelton: The True Story of One Woman's Triumph over Sexual Abuse".

Early career

Shelton was a co-screenwriter (with then-husband Gavin O'Connor) and executive producer for the 1999 film "Tumbleweeds", based upon her experiences with her serial-marrying mother, to whom she was returned after being in foster care. She also has acted in the films "Comfortably Numb" (1995), "The Shrink Is In" (2001), "The Big Time" (2002 television movie), and "The Safe Side", a 2004 instructional video. On television, Shelton has appeared in "Pacific Blue", "Chicago Hope", and "Becker".

"Searching for Angela Shelton"

After her parents divorced, Shelton lived with her father, stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister in North Carolina. She and her siblings were sexually molested by her father and step mother and eventually removed from their care and placed in foster care. The events in her childhood inspired her to make a documentary.

In 2001, Shelton undertook the production of a documentary in which she travelled the United States interviewing 40 of the 76 anonymous women, who shared her name, whom she found while searching the Internet.

Shelton found that many of the women whom she interviewed had either been raped, beaten, or molested. Shelton, inspired to document her quest to find the women and to catalogue their traumas, rented a motor home and spent 57 days traversing the United States, spending nearly $300,000, some of which was donated by personal friends and family and professional contacts. Shelton also confronted her father, her own abuser, during the production of the film, meeting with him on Father's Day 2001 to discuss her molestation. It took three years and three different editors to complete the film. In the end Shelton edited the film herself.

Shelton chose to promote and distribute the film independently, notably appearing in 2004 on the American television programs "48 Hours" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Since then, in an effort to bring attention to domestic violence, especially when perpetrated against women and children, Shelton has travelled the United States speaking at colleges and universities and film festivals. In April 2006, an edited version aired on the cable television channel Lifetime, as part of their campaign to end violence against women. Presently, Shelton presents the film and gives speeches at colleges and universities across the country in an effort to end violence against women.

Awards

The film won 12 awards, [ [http://angelashelton.com/theawards.html Searching for Angela Shelton ~The Movie ] ] including audience awards for best documentary at the 2004 Asheville and Austin Film Festivals. The mayor of Asheville, proclaimed November 6, 2005 Angela Shelton Day [ [http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37117.asp Angela Shelton Day! - Human Rights ] ] .

* Newport Beach Festival - Best Independent Documentary
* Durango Film Festival - Audience Award
* Asheville Film Festival - Best Documentary
* Sonoma Valley Film Festival - Audience Award
* Zoie Fest - Best Documentary
* Memphis International Film Festival - Best Documentary
* Austin Film Festival - Best Documentary

Angela Shelton Foundation

In response to the acclaim received by her documentary, Shelton founded the Angela Shelton Foundation. [ [http://www.angelashelton.org/ Angela Shelton ] ]

"Finding Angela Shelton"

In April 2008, she released her book, "Finding Angela Shelton: The True Story of One Woman's Triumph over Sexual Abuse". The book is not based upon her movie, although it does run parallel to it. In it, Angela shares how making the film forced her to face her past. She wrote the book to call for a healing revolution after seeing so many people in pain. The movie breaks the silence and the book breaks the cycle.

Other Accolades

* Angela Shelton was presented with the Voice of Courage award from Darkness to Light.
* Angela was also presented with the Humanitarian Award from the Cultural Enrichment Committee at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

References

External links

* [http://www.angelashelton.com/ Angela Shelton Official Website]
* [http://bigmouthshelton.blogspot.com/ Angela Shelton Official Blog]
*imdb name|id=0791296|name= Angela Shelton
* [http://www.searchingforangelashelton.com/ "Searching for Angela Shelton" Official Website]
* [http://www.findingangelashelton.com/ "Finding Angela Shelton" Official Website]

* [http://www.angelashelton.org/ Angela Shelton Foundation]
* [http://www.angelashelton.com/weblog/ Angela Shelton's weblog]
*MySpace|angelashelton|Angela Shelton
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/09/48hours/main604910.shtml CBS article]
* [http://www.moviesbywomen.com/articles/angelashelton.html Interview with Angela Shelton]