Helen Stickler might be the girl next door. She lives in a perfectly appointed vintage-modern cottage in Echo Park, complete with a beautiful view, charismatic neighbors and a visiting cat. The only thing missing is the white picket fence. But as they say, looks are deceiving.
Observe more closely, and you’ll notice that the art on her walls is mostly of the street-inspired ilk, paired with editions of her movie posters. That would be as-written-and-directed-by-her: Andre the Giant Has a Posse, a 1997 documentary on Shepard Fairey’s sticker campaign; and Stoked: the Rise and Fall of Gator, a 2003 Sundance Festival screener on the life and murderous times of ’80s vert-skater icon Mark “Gator” Rogowski. Get to talking and you’ll find out she’s just completed direction on an extreme-stunts show for the BBC (Smash Lab) and is about to dig into a hush-hush project with yet another skater, the subversive Jason Jessee.
Check it out here.