Film Courage: How old was your dad when he found out he had terminal cancer?
Steven Shea, Filmmaker: 48, I think he was 48 if memory serves, I think he was around 48 and he got diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma which is a kidney cancer. He removed a soft ball-sized tumor off of his kidney. He was a vegetarian, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, had a pretty healthy lifestyle but had just gotten out of a really bad multi-year lawsuit that caused a lot of stress which probably probably helped out a lot I’m sure. It was at the time they had given him eight months and so we pushed up our wedding and everything. He ended up lasting eight years. He was a fighter for sure. He definitely fought tooth and nail and so ended up lasting about eight years on it which was great.
Film Courage: Where were you when you found out?
Steven: It’s funny I actually remember exactly where I was. I was working at the video superstore in Orlando, Florida and he called while I was on a shift and I remember going out and sitting in the car on my lunch break I think and he told me about it. I remember very vividly and it was just kind of like Oh okay…you know this big hit of how do you re-evaluate your lifestyle and your life at that point because you’re kind of like…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
International Award-Winning, STEVEN SHEA has been working in the entertainment industry since he was 16 years old. Starting out in the local television market in the Florida Keys where he grew up, he eventually made his way to Orlando where he founded Abyssmal Entertainment in 2002. His first feature film he wrote and directed, “The Night Owl”, was distributed globally in the Summer of 2005. In 2008, “Hoodoo For Voodoo”, Steven’s 2nd feature he wrote and directed was released on DVD. Steven garnered some awards on the international festival circuit with the horrific short film “2:22” in 2009, which has been distributed through Hulu & FearNet. “Doomsday County” is a horror anthology film that he co-directed and produced that was released worldwide through Troma Inc in 2013. The comedy web series “The Interrogationists” was released in the summer of 2014 through Funny Or Die. His latest feature is the Documentary “Surviving Supercon” that was completed in 2019. Steven had directed over 25 music videos, for such artists as Kitty In A Casket, The Hellfreaks, The Dollyrots, The Attack, The Bloody Jug Band, WhiteQube and The Crazy Carls. As an award winning photographer, Steven has directed and shot such talent as Harrison Ford, Louise Fletcher, Roger Corman, Deepak Chopra, Lin Shaye, Mark McGrath, Denise Richards, Vivica A. Fox, Rick Fox, Juliana Harkavy and many more. He was a Producer on the feature films Last Shift, Rockabilly Zombie Weekend, The Unbroken, Deadly Weekend, Two Days, and Andre the Butcher. As well as Producer for the Disney Channel series Game On!
Steven’s latest film is SURVIVING SUPERCON, a zany behind the scenes look at how a rag-tag Mom & Pop organization pulls off one the biggest pop culture conventions in the United States.
CONNECT WITH STEVEN SHEA
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