Featuring festivals and film organizations from the South, this panel will explore how regional festivals engage and support the needs of their local film community and, more broadly, what resources each organization is offering to Southern filmmakers in these turbulent times. Together, participants will take a deeper look at the opportunities virtual presentation offers local filmmakers, as well as collaboration strategies to enhance the Southern film community. Featuring Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Executive Director of Third Horizon Film Festival; Brighid Wheeler, Director of Operations and Senior Programmer at Indie Memphis; Kiyoko McCrae, Filmmaker Programs Manager at New Orleans Film Society; and Chloe Cook, Executive Director of the Sidewalk Film Festival.
On demand, available Oct 9-17th
BIOS:
Kiyoko McCrae is the Filmmaker Programs Manager at the New Orleans Film Society where she manages the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program and the Southern Producers Lab. Kiyoko brings decades of work as an independent film and theater director and producer to her work in fostering professional development initiatives and mentorship opportunities with industry advisors. She is also a documentary programmer for the New Orleans Film Festival. Her films include Artist in Exile, Come Home and Black Back and numerous award-winning theater productions. Kiyoko has received support from the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and Southern Documentary Fund for her latest documentary, Within, Within, which is currently in development. She is a 2017-2018 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow and one of Junebug Production’s 2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts Fellow. She received her BFA in Theatre Arts from NYU’s Tisch School. Her work can be found at kiyokomccrae.com
Brighid Wheeler has been (willingly) held captive in the film festival world for most of her adult life. Having run the gamut from volunteer to THE ‘Queen B’ (nickname earned as Festival Coordinator), she currently serves as the Senior Programmer and Director of Operations for the Indie Memphis Film Festival. Outside of the festival, you’ll most likely find her mentoring, guiding and encouraging the filmmakers in Memphis. She often attributes this as her main source of inspiration and what continues to drive her work at Indie Memphis. Brighid has served on countless juries and panels at festivals across the country, and considers each experience an honor as it allows her the opportunity to support our current and next generation of storytellers.
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a Miami-based filmmaker and journalist from Barbados whose work primarily focuses on giving voice to the often-marginalized stories of the tropics. As a journalist, his work has appeared on The Intercept and in The Miami Herald. As a filmmaker, he has produced award-winning shorts such as Papa Machete, Swimming in Your Skin Again and T, which recently won the Golden Bear at Berlinale, that have screened at Sundance, BlackStar, TIFF, Sheffield and more. He is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the creative collective Third Horizon, which stages the annual Third Horizon Film Festival, a showcase of cinema from the Caribbean, its diasporas, and other underrepresented spaces in the Global South.
Chloe Cook, Executive Director, Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema, Sidewalk Film Festival
Chloe is a native of Talladega, Alabama and received her BA in Communication from Auburn University. Chloe has served in the role of Executive Director at Sidewalk since 2009. Under her leadership ticket sales for the annual Sidewalk Film Festival have quadrupled and the Fest has been recognized multiple times by international film industry press, most recently being named one of the "50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" (MovieMaker magazine 2017) and twice named one of the "Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World" (MovieMaker magazine, 2015, 2014). In 2018/2019 Chloe led a $4.9 million dollar capital campaign to fund the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, a 11,000+ square foot, two screen movie theatre and film education center that is located in the lower level of the Pizitz Building, in the heart of Birmingham's Historic Theatre District. The state of the art facility opened to rave reviews October 1, 2019 and after only 5 months of operation was forced to temporarily close its doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic; the Sidewalk Cinema reopened after a 6 month closure, offering only 12 tickets per screening (in 100 seat houses) and lots of health and safety protocols in place. She lives in the Glen Iris neighborhood of Birmingham with her 12 year old daughter, Clea, her husband Josh, and a very loud beagle mix, Sox.
- Year2020
- Runtime60 mins
Featuring festivals and film organizations from the South, this panel will explore how regional festivals engage and support the needs of their local film community and, more broadly, what resources each organization is offering to Southern filmmakers in these turbulent times. Together, participants will take a deeper look at the opportunities virtual presentation offers local filmmakers, as well as collaboration strategies to enhance the Southern film community. Featuring Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Executive Director of Third Horizon Film Festival; Brighid Wheeler, Director of Operations and Senior Programmer at Indie Memphis; Kiyoko McCrae, Filmmaker Programs Manager at New Orleans Film Society; and Chloe Cook, Executive Director of the Sidewalk Film Festival.
On demand, available Oct 9-17th
BIOS:
Kiyoko McCrae is the Filmmaker Programs Manager at the New Orleans Film Society where she manages the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program and the Southern Producers Lab. Kiyoko brings decades of work as an independent film and theater director and producer to her work in fostering professional development initiatives and mentorship opportunities with industry advisors. She is also a documentary programmer for the New Orleans Film Festival. Her films include Artist in Exile, Come Home and Black Back and numerous award-winning theater productions. Kiyoko has received support from the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and Southern Documentary Fund for her latest documentary, Within, Within, which is currently in development. She is a 2017-2018 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow and one of Junebug Production’s 2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts Fellow. She received her BFA in Theatre Arts from NYU’s Tisch School. Her work can be found at kiyokomccrae.com
Brighid Wheeler has been (willingly) held captive in the film festival world for most of her adult life. Having run the gamut from volunteer to THE ‘Queen B’ (nickname earned as Festival Coordinator), she currently serves as the Senior Programmer and Director of Operations for the Indie Memphis Film Festival. Outside of the festival, you’ll most likely find her mentoring, guiding and encouraging the filmmakers in Memphis. She often attributes this as her main source of inspiration and what continues to drive her work at Indie Memphis. Brighid has served on countless juries and panels at festivals across the country, and considers each experience an honor as it allows her the opportunity to support our current and next generation of storytellers.
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a Miami-based filmmaker and journalist from Barbados whose work primarily focuses on giving voice to the often-marginalized stories of the tropics. As a journalist, his work has appeared on The Intercept and in The Miami Herald. As a filmmaker, he has produced award-winning shorts such as Papa Machete, Swimming in Your Skin Again and T, which recently won the Golden Bear at Berlinale, that have screened at Sundance, BlackStar, TIFF, Sheffield and more. He is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the creative collective Third Horizon, which stages the annual Third Horizon Film Festival, a showcase of cinema from the Caribbean, its diasporas, and other underrepresented spaces in the Global South.
Chloe Cook, Executive Director, Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema, Sidewalk Film Festival
Chloe is a native of Talladega, Alabama and received her BA in Communication from Auburn University. Chloe has served in the role of Executive Director at Sidewalk since 2009. Under her leadership ticket sales for the annual Sidewalk Film Festival have quadrupled and the Fest has been recognized multiple times by international film industry press, most recently being named one of the "50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" (MovieMaker magazine 2017) and twice named one of the "Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World" (MovieMaker magazine, 2015, 2014). In 2018/2019 Chloe led a $4.9 million dollar capital campaign to fund the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, a 11,000+ square foot, two screen movie theatre and film education center that is located in the lower level of the Pizitz Building, in the heart of Birmingham's Historic Theatre District. The state of the art facility opened to rave reviews October 1, 2019 and after only 5 months of operation was forced to temporarily close its doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic; the Sidewalk Cinema reopened after a 6 month closure, offering only 12 tickets per screening (in 100 seat houses) and lots of health and safety protocols in place. She lives in the Glen Iris neighborhood of Birmingham with her 12 year old daughter, Clea, her husband Josh, and a very loud beagle mix, Sox.
- Year2020
- Runtime60 mins
