The Crossroads Film Society celebrates the art of filmmaking in all of its diversity and depth. The Crossroads Film Society will facilitate and promote a broader spectrum of film and video for the community, will present and honor films and videos related to Mississippi and the South, and will provide educational opportunities and facilitate general discussions for film lovers and aspiring film makers.
2012 Festival Committee
- Chris Myers, co-director
- Andi Agnew, co-director
- Nina Parikh, co-director
- Michele Baker, festival coordinator
- Ashley Hewitt, youth coordinator
- Katie McClendon, hospitality
- Meredith Norwood, art/design
- Shawn Rossi, marketing/PR
- Connie Souto Learman, volunteers
- Robert Traub, screening coordinator
- Phillip Scarborough, technical coordinator
- Lisa Papale, jury coordinator
- Colleen Smith, merchandise
- Kevin Slark, Festival Genius
- Jimmy Taylor, transportation
- John Stenmark, workshop
- Arden Barnett, music coordinator
- Darren Schwindaman, program design
- Clyde Watkins, box office
- Programmers: Nina Parikh, Michele Baker, Robert Traub, Lucian Dixon,Carolina Whitfield-Smith, Chris Myers
Crossroads Film Society Board of Directors
- Greg Smith, President
- Rick Patt, Vice President
- Sid Davis, Treasurer
- Nan Beaumont, Secretary
- Dean Blackwell
- Noel Didla
- Brad "Kamikaze" Franklin
- Sunny Fridge, PhD
- Monte Kraus
- Kentrell Liddell, MD
- Pam Maxey
- Shawn Rossi
- Kevin Slark
- Randy Tinney
- Vikram Udeshi
- David Watkins, Jr.
Advisory Board
- Ed Inman
- Jeanne Luckett
- Anita Modak-Truran
- Nina Parikh
- Philip Scarborough
- Todd Stauffer
- Ferrell Tadlock
- Joy Parikh
2012 Crossroads Film Festival Jury
Rick Clark grew up immersed in music in his hometown of Memphis, TN, a place where Rock, R&B and Blues was everywhere. During the 70's onward, Clark played live and in sessions, including projects with members of Big Star, Memphis Horns and the seminal Memphis Power Pop scene. Early on, Clark DJ'ed his own radio show at WLYX-FM Memphis, eventually starting a successful business programming music for every genre in venues throughout the South and other parts of the country. He also wrote for numerous national publications, including Billboard, Mix, Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, the All-Music Guide, Goldmine and others. He authored The Expert's Encyclopedia of Recording and, most recently, the third edition of his book Mixing, Recording and Producing Techniques of the Pros.Over time, Clark began producing and compiling numerous major and indie label album releases, as well as writing liner notes, on artists ranging from Ricky Nelson, Dave Edmunds and Lynyrd Skynyrd to Leo Kottke, Jean Luc Ponty and Big Star. Clark also began working as a curator, music consultant and independent A&R with clients ranging from museums, magazines to films and major label projects.Meanwhile, Clark's production work in the studio attracted projects with Los Super Seven (an amalgam that included Calexico, Lyle Lovett, Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt, Raul Malo, Freddy Fender, Rodney Crowell and others) and work with Death Cab For Cutie, - music for The Band tribute Lost Highway and the hit TV show Weeds. Clark would also produce 26 shows of Marty Stuart's American Odyssey for XM radio, direct two videos on Emmylou Harris for Warner DVD-Audio, compose and produce music for IBM's International Globalnet, as well as have his photography featured in gallery shows, record albums and ad campaigns.Beginning in 1997, Clark began work producing, co-compiling and doing all the legal clearance work for what would be the first seven volumes of the award winning Oxford American Magazine music CDs. As a Music Supervisor, Clark's credits include working with Jason Reitman on Up In The Air and Billy Bob Thornton's Jayne Mansfield's Car.
Mary Turner Cox grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, where she graduated from Jackson Prep. She attended Briarcliff College and graduated from Mt Vernon College in Washington D.C. with a BA in Communications. Mary moved to New York in 1983 and began her 28 year post production career. Mary has worked in many aspects of post production and at several post production studios including Warner Brothers and Technicolor. Mary currently works at NBC/Universal where she shepherds current NBC shows through the post production process. She has worked on such well known series as Law and Order: SVU, Parenthood, Up All Night and the Untitled Mindy Kaling Pilot project. She recently had the pleasure of meeting renown cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond who is known for such films as The Deer Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Witches of Eastwick. Courtesy of Mary Turner Cox
Anne Etheridge, a Jackson, Mississippi native, now lives and works in Los Angeles as a cinematographer in feature film, television and documentary. Anne’s recent credits include the feature film RETURN, written & directed by award-winning filmmaker and artist, Liza Johnson, and starring Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon and John Slattery. The film premiered in the Director’s Fortnight at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was released earlier this year to critical acclaim. Two of Anne’s latest documentary projects earned a national broadcast spot on PBS’s Independent Lens and POV this summer: STRONG! chronicles an Olympic athlete’s struggle to defend her champion status and THE LIGHT IN HER EYES, provides an exclusive look into a Koran school for girls in Damascus, Syria. Anne also works in television, shooting for award winning shows on a wide variety of networks, including the Food Network, History Channel, Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel.
Mary Goodson is a production designer and art director based in Canton, Mississippi.
Teresa Hollingsworth, Senior Program Director for South Arts, oversees the Traditional Arts and Film Programs, and provides support for international exchange activities. Teresa directs Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers working closely with filmmakers and partner communities to present new documentaries and narrative films throughout the South. She is currently serving as the film programming coordinator for Caravanserai A Place Where Cultures Meet, a national project funded by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts that will present contemporary Muslim films and filmmakers to midsize communities. Teresa is a seasoned film festival veteran who annually attends national and regional film festivals (Sundance Film Festival, True/False Film Festival, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, etc.) to identify filmmakers for Southern Circuit. She has contributed to a number of media projects, educational publications and scholarly journals, curated museum exhibits, and served as a project consultant, lecturer, festival stage manager and grant panelist.
Tom Humbarger is an actor/producer living in Los Angeles who was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta town of Indianola, Mississippi. Tom attended the University of Mississippi where he played football alongside Eli Manning & studied theatre. He further pursued his theatrical career in Memphis under the direction of famed acting coach/agent Red West. Upon moving to California in 2005, Tom was cast in his first role in Cameron Crowe’s film Elizabethtown opposite Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom. Tom also appeared in the Emmy Award winning television miniseries Elvis opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Tom is currently cast in the upcoming films The Story of Bonnie and Clyde & Being Awesome. In October of 2011, Tom and his investors founded Bellengate Productions LLC, and they are currently working on a variety of feature film projects.
Randy Kwan grew up in Moorhead, MS, where the rural Delta and his parents love of movies fostered a creative spirit. The 1977 release of the international vision called STAR WARS created a burning desire to work in Hollywood where he moved after graduating from University of Southern Mississippi and completing a stint as a photojournalist and news cameraman. For 11 years he called Los Angeles home and worked on various films, tv shows, and commercials in many aspects of pre- to post-production. He was fortunate to work with his idol, John Dykstra, the special effects supervisor of STAR WARS.In 2003 he moved back to Mississippi when he took a job as a cameraman for Mississippi Public Broadcasting. He is presently chairman/instructor of the Entertainment Media Technology program at Hinds Community College in Pearl, MS. He also works as a freelance segment producer/cameraman for the weekly Mississippi Public Broadcasting series MISSISSIPPI OUTDOORS. Randy Kwan is also a member of the steering committee for the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum.
Sonya Lunsford served as the co-producer on THE HELP and PRETTY UGLY PEOPLE, both directed and produced by Mississippi natives Tate Taylor and Brunson Green. The three had been introduced by friends and discovered a common desire to tellgreat stories. With 20 years experience in the industry, Lunsford came to these projects witha solid background in the financing and economic realities of feature filmproduction. She served as the production controller on Steven Soderbergh’s CHEhaving been the production accountant on his films THE GOOD GERMAN, BUBBLE,EQUILIBRIUM and FULL FRONTAL.Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Lunsford had the good fortune of starting her career as a production assistant on notable features DRIVING MISS DAISY, FREEJACK, and ROBOCOP III. Following PA work in almost every department on a variety of films,commercials and television programs, Lunsford decided to learn the business side offilmmaking and segued into the accounting department on the series, “In the Heatof the Night.”After a long hot summer filming the THE HELP in Mississippi and then following its’ journey to the Oscars, Lunsford is sticking close to her home in Los Angeles while in development on several projects.
Dixon McDowell leads the film program at the University of Southern Mississippi on the Gulf Coast.
Rick Moore is the owner and president of Eyevox Entertainment and Mad Genius. Eyevox Entertainment is a multi-media creative house that produces movies, television programming, books and more. Mad Genius is a full service advertising and creative house based in Ridgeland, MS.
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up Rhino Films, the independent film company that originated as a division of iconoclastic record label Rhino Records. He has produced and executive produced dozens of films. His producer credits include The Surrogate, starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and Wlliam H. Macy, which was recently acquired by Fox Searchlight in a bidding war, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Dogtown and Z Boys, What We Do Is Secret, Radio Free Albemuth, and You and I. He is in pre-production on Snake and Mongoose about a legendary drag-racing rivalry. Nemeth's documentary credits include War/Dance which was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Fuel (Audience Award Sundance '08), Flow (Sundance '08), Pick Up The Mic (Toronto '05), Climate Refugees (Sundance '10), Mr. Bitchin' about artist Robert Williams, Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story, Patriocracy and is in production on A Nuclear Family, Ride With Larry and State of Control. He is on the board of numerous non-profit organizations including Friends of the Earth and Children Uniting Nations and is on the dean's board of the UC Santa Cruz's School for the Arts.
Setu Raval began her film career in Los Angeles at Creative Artists Agency and transitioned into the Film Festival world. She has worked for Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Most recently, Raval worked as the Nominee Liaison for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Setu received a Bachelor’s degree in Producing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and produced a number of award-winning short films. She has created several short documentaries for non-profit organizations to raise awareness on issues of diversity, inclusion, and domestic violence. Setu has a passion for any and all cross-cultural endeavors and is currently developing a feature film based in Southeast Asia.
Kathryn A. Rodenmeyer is filmmaker and public relations practitioner. She has worked as a photojournalist, videographer, director, writer, producer, event planner, publicist, and promotions strategist for more than 20 years. Kathryn worked with Kartemquin Films as the local producer/videographer for a doc series set in Mississippi, and was selected from a national pool of filmmakers to make a documentary about the challenges facing arts organizations for the Mississippi Arts Commission. Of her independent works, the award winning “uprooted” (2003) aired in several PBS markets in the United States. Kathryn is a Mississippi Arts Commission fellow in media arts and has received numerous grants for her independent documentary film work. She is one of 25 producers invited into the 2010 class of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/ WGBH (Boston) Producer’s Academy. In 2011, she directed a documentary about the passage of the 1982 Education Reform Act in Mississippi and a documentary about a history of nursing in the state of Mississippi. Both films aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. She has participated in Crossroads Film Festival by screening her films, volunteering, and serving on panels.
Richard Stowe is the owner and director of Midtown Arts Center in Jackson, Mississippi. He also owns and operates the screenprinting studio Lotus Editions.
Bradley Sumrall is Chief Curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. A native of Sumrall, Mississippi, he currently lives and writes in the historic Faubourg Tremé.
