FILM FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION
2009 La Femme Film Festival, Los Angeles. BAIT & SWITCH INVESTIGATIVE NEWS SATIRE (writer)
Rochester International Film Festival. JULIE, JULIE (acting)
Audience Winnter: Best Short
Boston International Film Festival. JULIE, JULIE (acting)
2008 Sacramento French Film Festival. JULIE, JULIE (acting)
New York Film Festival NEVER ENOUGH: SEX, MONEY & PARKING GARAGES IN SAN FRANCISCO (art department supervisor)
2007 Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival. JUST UNDER A MILLION (writer/producer/director/ art director)
Mill Valley Film Festival, California - Official Selection. PRESQUE ISLE by Rob Nilsson
2005
Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, California, Official selection - PLANTING MELVIN (acting).
Hearts and Minds Film Festival, Wilmington, DE - PLANTING MELVIN (acting) 2nd Place: Best Feature.
Moondance Film Festival, Finalist, San Francisco, CA - PLANTING MELVIN (acting),
Breckinridge Film Festival, Official selection, San Francisco, CA - PLANTING MELVIN (acting),
California Independent Film Festival, Official selection - PLANTING MELVIN (acting)
Breckenridege Film Festival, Colorado, Official Selection - PLANTING MELVIN (acting)
California Independent Film Festival, Official Selection - PLANTING MELVIN (acting)
Napa/Sonoma Film & Music Institute, Featured Artist Series - PLANTING MELVIN (acting)
2003
Hot Docs, Toronto, Canada - BLANKETS FOR AFGHANISTAN (producer, writer, director)
Distribution through Free Speech TV
2002 Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, California - YOUR GUARDIAN (acting)
2004 SF Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, San Francisco - LOVE LIFE (acting)
2002 Berkeley Film Festival - Best of Fest. - ULTIMATE REALITY - (script supervisor)
2002 Chill Valley Film Festival - ULTIMATE REALITY (script supervisor)
1995 Bay Area Women's Film Festival, Berkeley, California - WALLS OF SAND (acting)
1983 Cannes Film Festival - AMERICAN TABOO (acting)
Also Academy Award Winner, best student film 1982
MORE DETAILS -
In 2009, Hester directed the world premeires of NOVEMBER by James McLindon and DANCING WITH THE DEVIL by Seamus Ferguson for the 2009 Provincetown Playwrights Festival. In 2010, Hester will direct two shorts for the New England Russian Theatre Festival at Boston University.
A SAG and AFTRA
member, Hester has nearly 30 years experience working in theatre, film,
television, voice over, commercial and industrial markets, from acting
to writing to producing. She's worked on high budget A list Hollywood
features and low budget non-union independents.Hester's last film, JUST UNDER A MILLION premiered at the Beverly Hills Hi-Definition Festival in December 2007. She participated in the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Festival, with STUNT HUSBAND.
Hester has taught film acting at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, adjunct facutly at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont,
California. Prior teaching engagements include tenured professor of theatre and director
of the theatre department at de Anza College in Cupertino, California,
teaching Acting, Camera Acting, Intro. to Theatre, Actors' Ensemble
and producing the college productions, including a year running the
Foothill Conservatory at Foothill College, in the same district. She
produced and directed the live comedy broadcast, A LAUGHING MATTER for
De Anza Television.Favorite milestones
of her academic career include participating in the International Children's
Theatre Festival in Moscow, Russia in 1990, and teaching theatre at
the University of London during fall semester 2000. Hester is CEO
and publisher of the Internet service magazine, Bay Area Casting News.
Recent film production
credits include art department on NEVER ENOUGH by Dave Sawle and line producer on Kari Nevil's Your Guardian, starring Irene Bedard; assistant
director on Robert Pickett's A Divine Madness, based on Chekov's A Cherry
Orchard, currently in post production. In 2003, Hester finished her first documentary, BLANKETS FOR AFGHANISTAN for the American Friends Service Committee, and secured distribution through FREE SPEECH TV on the DISH Satellite Network. She directed, produced, co-wrote and edited this 20 minute documentary.
Professional stage directing credits include: Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL
for Coelacanth Theatricals' debut production; OEDIPUS REX for the Annual
Utah Greek Theatre Festival; Noel Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT; Jane Chamber's
MY BLUE HEAVEN,for the Portland Women's Theatre Collective.
Miss Schell won
acting awards for the Oregon premieres of Sam Shepard's BURIED CHILD,
J.F. Noonan's A COUPLE WHITE CHICKS SITTIN' AROUND TALKING, and Alan
Ayckbourn's RELATIVELY SPEAKING. She can be seen
on TV every holiday season in IT NEARLY WASN'T CHRISTMAS starring Charles
Durning as Santa. Hester completed
the Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the University of Utah;
Bachelor of Arts in Theatre at Portland (OR) State University; Associate
of Arts at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and a
certificate of training from the Trinity Square Repertory Conservatory
in Providence, Rhode Island.
Hester is currently
producing working on several screenplays and a book, a children's television show LET'S TAKE A WALK... teaching and coaching actors in private practice. Contact Hester Here
