Estlin Feigley has been a film director and screenwriter since 1999, when his first feature film “Toll Bridge to Iowa” was selected for the IFP New York Film Festival. In 2002, he formed production company Fresh Films/Dreaming Tree Films, which began work in Chicago, directing commercial and short film productions for the Art Institute of Chicago and the City of Chicago, winning awards with the Chicago International Film Festival. Through the productions, Fresh Films also trains future filmmakers in production. To date, Estlin’s production resume includes directing over 200 films, TV episodes, commercials and documentaries, and he continues to engage future filmmakers via Fresh Films which moved onto the campus of Augustana College in 2016.
Estlin’s TV and feature film directing credits include “The Stream” starring Rainn Wilson, Mario Lopez, Christopher Gorham and Kelly Rutherford. The film was called “A Family Friendly Stand By Me” by the Washington Post and released theatrically at Regal Cinemas, the film is currently on Roku, Amazon Prime, iTunes and continues to play internationally on Fox Family Asia and AMC EU channels in various countries. Estlin also co-wrote and directed “Alternate Universe: A Rescue Mission”, starring Steve Guttenberg and Harry Lennix, which premiered at the White House STEM Festival and is currently playing on Paramount +, Redbox and other platforms. Both films had over 150 youth working on-set, including Augustana students.
TV credits include an Emmy-nomination for children's TV series “Moochie Kalala Detectives Club” which Estlin created, wrote and directed. Called “Zany, Educational Fun” by the Chicago Tribune, the 6-episode series aired on PBS WTTW and is currently in production with additional episodes. Additional TV show, Dearly Departed, created in 2019, is currently in series development with Imagine Entertainment.
Documentaries directed by Estlin Feigley include two seasons of the “Filmmaker Lab” with Reese Witherspoon, that trained 41 young women in documentary filmmaking; two seasons of ‘behind the lens’ at Tribeca Film Festival, TV documentary “Believe Chicago” featuring nine difference makers and airing on the Audience Network, and I AM not disABLEd a feature length documentary following the journey of youth with disabilities; this documentary will premiere November 2022 in the Quad Cities and had 14 Augustana students work on the project. On the music side, Estlin directed and produced two music videos for Grammy-winning artist Usher, as part of his “Got Noise” project. He also directed two music documentaries, one featuring R&B superstar Monica, and the other, “All Access” featuring Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand and Public Enemy that ran on IFC network. In addition to film directing, Estlin continues to lead training for students, working directly to mentor them on all aspects of production as faculty at Augustana College, where he teaches production and screenwriting (shown as G. Feigley on Arches) and via Fresh Films, which has 27 sites across the country and hundreds of Alumni in the industry including Augustana graduates and Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef. Estlin considers his most important contribution the mentorship of young filmmakers to be part of the industry.
