Helen Stickler

Who is Helen Stickler?

Helen Stickler is an American-born filmmaker whose works include Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator and Andre the Giant Has a Posse. She wrote, directed and produced both of these films.

Stickler's early independent films include the shorts Queen Mercy and the documentary Andre the Giant has a Posse, the first documentary to discover graphic artist Shepard Fairey. "Andre the Giant has a Posse" was screened worldwide and in the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. In 2003, Village Voice film critic Ed Halter described the film as "legendary … a canonical study of Gen-X media manipulation. One of the keenest examinations of ‘90s underground culture".

Helen is the producer, director, and writer of the feature film "STOKED: the Rise and Fall of Gator," a documentary about 80’s professional skateboarding champion Mark “Gator” Rogowski, who is now serving life in prison for rape and murder. STOKED was written about in features in the New York and LA times, and an interview with Helen and former pro skateboarder Ken Park aired on NPR’s “Fresh Air" in August 2003. LA Times critic Kenneth Turan described the film as "strongly directed and unexpectedly poignant. An excellent documentary about the compelling dark side of the American dream."