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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Phillip Matthews, Executive Director
Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
305.534.9924
pmatthews@mglff.com
Miami Beach - The Board of Directors and staff of the MGLFF has restructured its internal operations and is pleased to announce new job titles and responsibilities of its staff.
Phillip Matthews has been named Executive Director of the Festival. In this newly created position, Matthews continues his oversight of the day-to-day management of the Festival, supervision of the year-round fundraising and marketing of the Festival, the maintenance of its many government grants and corporate sponsorship agreements, collaboration with the Board of Directors and its committees, and the production the actual Festival in cooperation with the Board of Directors, staff and its many volunteers.
"Although my title changes, my responsibilities really do not. In my first year, my main concern was to create administrative structure, solidifying our office systems, establish financial accountability and raise the funds needed to meet our goals," Matthews explained. "We accomplished that. My challenge now is to build upon the incredible success of last season, help take the Festival to the next level and continue our growth as a premiere world-class film venue," he said.
Last year's Festival drew over 13,000 attendees to the ten-day event, making it one of the largest gay and lesbian events in South Florida. "We are extremely proud of the role the Festival plays in our community. The Festival belongs to the entire GLBT community and we excited to be able to bring such a great event to the residents of South Florida," he said.
Matthews holds a bachelor's degree in Communications and has over 15 years of non-profit management experience. He has served as Executive Director of nationally recognized HIV organizations located in Chicago and in New York City. Previously he worked in the New York theatre world, both Off-Broadway at the non-profit Circle Repertory Company, and on Broadway serving as Marketing Manager for the original productions of Angels in America, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. He also has considerable corporate public relations experience working in New York for some of the largest PR firms in the country. Matthews began his time in Miami in the fall of 2000 when he worked for the local gay-rights organization SAVE Dade.
Carol Coombes has been named Program Director. A long-time London resident, Coombes worked for five years at the British Film Institute on both the London International Film Festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, administering 10 major annual events during her term there. Prior to that, she served as assistant arts access officer for the Arts Council of England, where she was responsible for funding "women in the arts" projects in a variety of media across the U.K. Coombes also worked for ten years in film production in England, and holds a postgraduate degree in film and television.
Coombes brought a new level of professional expertise with her to Miami, which contributed greatly to the success of the 4th Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in 2002. Her international connections include filmmakers, production companies, sales agents, distributors, and other film professionals programming domestic and international GLBT festivals. She will now serve as curator of the Festival, chair the Festival's Program Committee and collaborate with specialist program advisors as the Festival continues to develop, expand, and improve. Coombes becomes co-Editor of the Festival's ticket brochure and program catalogue.
"The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is a young organization with huge potential to really take off. The Festival has been making a solid name for itself locally, nationally and internationally and filmmakers really want to come to Miami to showcase their talents" she said. With the support of the Screening and Program Committees, staff members and the Board of Directors, Coombes is committed to delivering the best of new gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered cinema to South Florida audiences in 2003, and she has not been idle. Since the 2002 Festival finished, Coombes has been busy tracking and following up over 400 international and domestic features and shorts for possible inclusion in the 5th Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2003 (April 25 - May 4th).
Jaie Laplante, last year's charismatic Festival Coordinator, moves into the role of Festival Manager. In his new position Jaie will take on a more direct role in shaping the style and personality of the Festival for its Fifth Anniversary. An accomplished writer and experienced journalist, Jaie will also serve as co-Editor of the Festival's ticket brochure program catalogue. He will participate in the branding and imaging of the 5th annual Festival, supervise and maintain the Festival's website (http://www.mglff.com) and as part of the permanent MGLFF team, plan and manage most major aspects of the Festival's presentation, both on and off-stage. In addition, Jaie will continue with overseeing and developing the Festival's membership base, providing them with year-round special events and screenings, and also once again supervise the Festival box office and ticket distribution, as he did last year.
"The Gay & Lesbian Film Festival ultimately belongs to our ever-broadening community," he noted. "I am committed to making sure the community doesn't lose any of the essence and spirit they have experienced in the previous 4 years of this much-loved community event. The impressions and connections I made last year with all festival-goers will inform every decision I make as Festival Manager in this coming year. My inspiration is our audience!"
Jaie has a wild and varied history with gay & lesbian cinema and film festivals around the world. As a screenwriter, he is the co-author of the feature-film film "Sugar", currently in pre-production in Toronto, Canada, directed by New York and Toronto stage veteran John Palmer. "Sugar" was adapted from the zine short story collection "J.D." by infamous queer punk filmmaker Bruce La Bruce. "I'm eager to see how John makes the script come alive on film," says Jaie. "I didn't hold back in terms of the explicitness of Bruce's original sex and violence. When it is finally complete it would thrill me to be able to premiere it for Miami audiences at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival." As an actor, Jaie appeared in Todd Verb's film adaptation of Dennis Cooper's cult novel "Frisk", alongside Craig Cooper and Parker Poesy.
In the past 10 years, he has attended and/or participated in the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, New York Lincoln Center Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece and of course local favorites like the Miami Film Festival, Brazilian Film Festival and Miami Jewish Film Festival.
If you have questions or comments, please call the Festival office at 305.534.9924, or contact us at info@mglff.com.
Thank you, our community, for your continued support!
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