Hey there.

I’m Andrea. I’m a filmmaker based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Yes, Morningstar is my real name. There’s a story there that involves the ghost of my husband’s great grandfather and the wax head replica of Gordie Howe that I can’t wait to tell you over a glass of wine. In the meantime, here are some facts about me.

I direct, produce and edit commercial and non-fiction video content for a diverse array of clients in the US and abroad.

You can check out my LinkedIn profile or download my resume here to learn more about my education, awards and professional work experience. But here’s the real story:

Not long out of undergrad, I lucked out and had the opportunity to write, record and narrate a radio piece for This American Life titled My Pen Pal, about my friend Sarah York’s unlikely friendship with Manuel Noriega and it became a feature story and fan favorite that is rebroadcast annually. This experience gave me the crazy idea that I could make documentary narratives for a living. Which lead me directly to waitressing, driving a doggy day care delivery van, assistant teaching in a first grade classroom, volunteering at a million film festivals, driving from Maine to Mexico City and back and then trading my car for a houseboat and taking it down the Mississippi River. Some near death experiences, a few short films and an MFA later, I found myself in Detroit, Michigan where I founded Final Girls, a collective of professional women filmmakers that won the Knight Arts Challenge in 2014, and worked as the Environmental Content Producer and Editor at Great Lakes Bureau of Detroit Public Television. You can see a lot of that work, like the branded content piece I was nominated for an Emmy for, and the multiple video series I made for Public Radio, right here on my website. In 2019, after moving to New Orleans and starting a family, I founded Raconteuse Media, a production company run by a collective of New Orleans based women filmmakers. We make everything from music videos to bank commercials, but branded non-fiction content that is produced in a way that gives back to the community is what we do best.

I’ve taught filmmaking at Interlochen Center for the Arts, The University of Missouri, and several high schools and primary schools around the US. I’m a mentor with NOVAC, a community film organization in New Orleans, LA. I’m a founding faculty member of Interlochen Center for the Arts Motion Picture Arts Summer Program, where I established a documentary film major in collaboration with Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival.

I’m a filmmaker because it allows me to bring all my experience across mediums; in radio, photography, writing, installation and performance, to work in one place. And because more than any single medium, in both process and content, it allows me to revel in human connections, and the cathartic experiences they lead to. Making a story is always its own story. I’m particularly drawn to the stories of creative boundary pushers, passionate eccentrics, and deeply humane visionaries who eschew societal norms to create new patterns in their lives and communities. I hope to be one of those people when I grow up.

Feel free to contact me via any of the links below.