Welling Films

Welling Films (sometimes written as WF) is an American film production company and studio based in Houston, Texas. It was launched in mid-2006 by Houston-born choreographer and photographer Shawn Welling. They have produced five feature films, along with the web series AXI: Avengers of eXtreme Illusions, and several narrative and documentary short films. Their 2009 documentary film The Messenger: 360 Days of Bolivar, chronicled the life of four men living on the Bolivar Peninsula during the year leading up to the devastation of Hurricane Ike in the Galveston Bay Area. Among other accolades, it won the Houston Press award for best local film from the Houston area, In 2011, feature film Project Aether, earned Critics Choice Awards for 'Best Feature', 'Best Actor', and 'Best Overall World Premier' by the Houston Film Critics Society, as well as a Best Local Filmmaker Award from Houston Press. In 2011, the studio also began the web series AXI: Avengers of Xtreme Illusions, featuring the I.aM.mE Dance crew in a series of web films in the vein of The Twilight Zone, but "infused with dance and lyrical movement that have never been seen before." The series is described as "Once Upon a Time" meets "The Twilight Zone" meets insanely good hip hop—with a Tim Burton-esque quality that's just creepy enough. Also in 2011, he began filming The Legend of DarkHorse County, a feature film starring Olivia "Chachi" Gonzales. The film began as an episode of AXI, but upon finding out Gonzales was strong enough as an actress, Welling decided to create the project as a feature film. In 2016, Welling Films partnered with Wolk Films to produce "Agnosia," a dramatic feature delving into the experience of aging and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. He also made "The Blimp Trap," a dramatic short, featuring a strong differently-abled female character.