Austin Film Organizations Panel

Have you ever wondered about Austin Film Organizations in town - what goes on and who's running the show? Join Women In Cinema for our presentation of the ladies behind the Austin film scene. If you're interested in obtaining summer internships that will project your career forward, filmmaking grants, how to become a reader for the Austin Film Festival or just curious about what goes on in the Austin film scene, come to this panel. Leaders from the Texas Film Commission, the Austin Film Festival, the Austin Film Society, Femme Film Texas, and the Austin Film Meet will be in attendance!

Thursday April 12, 2012

Women In Cinema Meeting - 7pm

Austin Film Organizations Panel - 7:30pm - 9pm

at the UT Campus, CMA 3.124

Kimberly LeBlanc – Location Scout for the Texas Film Commission – Since 2009, Kim LeBlanc has been on staff at the Texas Film Commission helping to spread the good word about all of the wonderful resources available for creative industries in Texas. As a Location Scout, she works closely with Writers, Directors, Producers, Production Designers and Studio Executives, promoting Texas as a great destination for filmmaking, television production, commercials, music videos and still photography. Her travels have taken her to the far corners of the state and her efforts have been put forth on projects such as TOP CHEF TEXAS (2011), BERNIE (2010), NATURAL SELECTION (2010) and TRUE GRIT (2010), among many others. Prior to working at the Texas Film Commission, she has had the incredibly good fortune to work for the Austin Film Society, the Austin Film Festival and Troublemaker Studios, where she was on board as an Executive Office Assistant, Operations Assistant and Assistant to Director, Robert Rodriguez. She has donated her time and energy as a volunteer for SXSW Film Festival since 2009. Kim is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, where she double majored in Urban Studies and History and co-founded the university’s Film Studies minor program.

The Texas Film Commission is a state agency of Texas, under the oversight of the Governor of Texas. Its headquarters are in Suite 3.410 in the Texas Insurance Building in Downtown Austin.

Maya Perez - Conference Director of Austin Film Festival - Maya Perez is the Conference Director at the Austin Film Festival. Prior to joining the Festival in 2002, she was a literary agent with Trident Media Group and before that, with William Morris Agency, Inc., in New York. Perez received her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College in 1993. She has just been accepted into the Michener Center for Writers’ MFA program at the University of Texas at Austin for Fall 2012.

The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries" It has a number of events and services for emerging and professional writers and filmmakers.

Agnes Varnum - Director of Marketing of the Austin Film Society - Agnes Varnum came to Austin from the New York City-area where she served as a marketing and publicity associate for Icarus Films, a 30-year-old documentary distribution company. Prior to that, she worked as the associate director for the Center for Social Media at American University, managing research, producing events and building the growing organization. Other projects include contributing to a variety of publications such as Tribeca Film Insitute’s Resources blog, indieWIRE, Sudance Intitute's DocSource, Doc It Out and IDA's Documentary magazine. She has served on programming committees for SILVERDOCS, Newport International Film Festival, IFP's Spotlight on Documentaries, AOL True Stories (now Snag Films) and most recently SXSW.

The Austin Film Society (AFS) is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fostering independent filmmaking in Texas and has served as a cornerstone in building the film industry in Austin. The film society also owns and maintains Austin Studios, hosts the annual Texas Film Hall of Fame gala, and oversees the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grant program. The film society was founded by film director Richard Linklater, who currently serves on the board as artistic director. Other notable members on the board and advisory board include Tim McCanlies, Robert Rodriguez, Charles Burnett, Guillermo del Toro, Jonathan Demme, Mike Judge, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Stekler and Quentin Tarantino.

Michelle Voss - Executive Director of Femme Film Texas - As the founder and Executive Director of Moving Image Arts & Education, Michelle is the architect of the Femme Film Texas programs. A graduate of the Radio, Television, Film department at the University of Texas, Michelle won Best Documentary at EarthVision Film Festival for her short film, Velocity. Michelle received numerous funding awards to complete the film, including the Sustainable

Development Fund Film Grant. In addition to stewarding the Femme Film Texas programs, Michelle is currently working as a Development Associate at the University of Texas.

Femme Film Texas teaches filmmaking and media literacy to young women and girls, with a focus on serving economically disadvantaged youth. Each girl participating in the program receives hands-on instruction in the art of filmmaking, including screenwriting, cinematography, acting, directing and editing. Since 2007, more than five hundred girls have participated in the Femme Film Texas programs. Current program offerings include The Film Camp for Girls, The After School Film School and the Media Technology program at the Ann Richards School. Femme Film Texas is a project of Moving Image Arts & Education, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

H.Cherdon Bedford – Executive Director of the Austin Film Meet and Creative Superhero at Humblebee Media – For as long as she’s been, Creative Superhero H.Cherdon has demonstrated an exceptional aptitude for the creative arts. Her art and literature, stories and poems, have won her numerous awards and gained her national attention, especially for the children’s picture books she both writes and illustrates. Also a talented stage performer, she has appeared in more than 40 stage productions, two performing arts touring troupes, several short films and a few PSAs. Her producer powers include organization, presentation, big-picture perspective, unforgettable memory and maybe even a little obsessive-compulsive behavior sometimes. Driven and self-motivated, Cherdon excels as as artist, director, photographer, web designer, writer, actress, illustrator, producer, bookmaker, entrepreneur… and creative superhero. As the Executive Director for the Austin Film Meet, Cherdon reaches out to fellow filmmakers and artists. She thrives as a “handyman” for creative challenges, a real-life Creative Superhero for hire, using love and creativity to touch lives and projects. Cherdon is based in East Austin where she lives with her fish, four kitties and her partner Brandon Boggs.

Originally started as a Meetup.com group called Austin Filmmakers Meetup, and then Austin Film Meet, the Association of Independent filMedia has had several past lives. The group was first started by a man named simply “E” but when he had to move out of state due to a family emergency, Mike Rembis stepped up to the plate. He continued the group as a small social mixer. A little later, Mike also moved away from Austin leaving the group’s leadership to H.Cherdon Bedford, who immediately began making changes for the better. In just a few short months, she grew the mixer from a drinking social with a handful of people to a large community of power networkers. Since assuming the leadership role, our group has played host to a wide range of events servicing the local Austin film, video and new media community. For more than two years, we hosted weekly events on a wide variety of topics from Actors Showcases to Equipment Show and Tells to Guest Presentations to Reels Showcases and much more. Most recently, a new organization has grown out of the Austin Film Meet. The Association of Independent filMedia.