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Film Festival Alliance adds New Board Members for 2025

By Gray Rodriguez posted 29 days ago

  

Film Festival Alliance is pleased to announce the addition of six new board members for 2025. Get to know our new board members below, and check out our complete list of 2025 board members here.


Meet the 2025 class: 

Ben Stilp, Sundance Institute
Ben Stilp serves as Chief Financial Officer of the Sundance Institute, overseeing the $45M annual budget, $43M endowment, tax, audit, and treasury. Ben is a seasoned executive with 20 years of C-Suite experience overseeing all aspects of nonprofit organizations; finance and operations, board management, and strategic planning. Before Sundance, Ben served as the CFO/COO for the LA Cleantech Incubator, a small venture capital and debt fund that incubates cleantech start-ups with an emphasis on social equity. He served five years the Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Outfest, the LGBTQ film festival. His other prior experience spans nonprofit service in the arts, education, healthcare, HIV/AIDS services, LGBT advocacy, and economic and workforce development. Ben earned his MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Business at UCLA, and he splits his time between homes in LA and San Francisco where his partner lives.

Jessica Chriesman, Sidewalk Film
Jessica Chriesman is an award-winning filmmaker based in Birmingham, Alabama. She has worked as a director, producer, researcher, and/or cinematographer on projects for Twin Cities Public TV, Southern Foodways Alliance, Vox Creative, Alabama Public Television, Dirty Robber, and local indie film productions. As the Director of Education and Outreach at Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema / Sidewalk Film Festival, she plans learning opportunities through the lens of film and media for filmmakers and film lovers of all ages. She has served as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts and as a juror, programmer, and panelist for film festivals across the South. She teaches Visual Media Production at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has led storytelling and filmmaking classes and workshops at UAB, Georgetown University, and the University of Florida, and for the Jane Goodall Institute Africa Programs staff in Kigoma, Tanzania. Her films have been screened across the United States and internationally.

Kristen C. Heller, Milwaukee Film
Kristen C. Heller is the Managing Director of Milwaukee Film, overseeing the areas of Ticketing, Customer Service, IT/Technical, Cinema Operations, Festival Operations, Events, Volunteers, and Human Resources. After receiving an MBA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Kristen began work in this field through several seasonal positions for film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the Provincetown International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and eventually finding her way to the Milwaukee Film Festival in 2011. Since 2013, she has overseen the Operations department of Milwaukee Film, which operates the Oriental and Downer Theatres on Milwaukee’s East Side and produces the Milwaukee Film Festival and Dialogues Documentary Festival. 

Christopher Racster, Outfest
For 25 years, Christopher has made an impact as a filmmaker and advocate, employing media to shape public perception and acceptance of the queer community. Currently, Christopher serves as Executive Director of Outfest, returning this year to the role he previously held until 2019. During his tenure, Christopher increased Outfest’s role in addressing the systemic issues faced by LGBTQ people in entertainment, investing in filmmaker education, connecting filmmakers to the industry, and advocating for more inclusion at all levels.

Prior to Outfest, Christopher was a producer focused on queer storytelling. During this time, he produced five award-winning, internationally distributed feature films with premieres at festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca and BFI London.

In 2008, Christopher was invited to become a founding Patron of the Iris Prize Festival in Wales and a Trustee of the Iris Prize Foundation, focused on launching the careers of new queer filmmakers worldwide.

Melissa Simpson, Atlanta Film Society
Melissa Simpson is the Executive Director of Film Impact Georgia, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers in Georgia. Born and raised just north of Atlanta, she holds a BS in Film & Digital Media from the University of North Georgia.

Melissa's passion for film is reflected in her experience in the industry. She has volunteered for and worked 24 film festivals across 6 different organizations. Additionally, she spent two years at Eventive, a ticketing and virtual streaming platform, where she collaborated with filmmakers and festivals worldwide.

Currently, Melissa is the Education Director at the Atlanta Film Society and remains active in the Georgia filmmaking community. She has produced projects such as Come Correct, Wokman, and Christmas with Jerks. She was recently named one of the 200 Most Influential of Georgia’s Creative Industries by Georgia Entertainment and honored at the Women in Film and Television 50th Anniversary Gala.

Beth Seymour, ACT Human Rights Film Festival
Beth Seymour (she/her) joined Colorado State University's ACT Human Rights Film Festival as Managing Director. Beth brings extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising and event management. Beth formerly sat on the board of directors of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film and chaired the board of Imagination Celebration, both located in Colorado Springs. Since 2020 she has served as a board member of the Human Rights Film Network, based in Amsterdam. Beth has been a festival jury member for Movies that Matter in The Hague, Netherlands and for Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. Beth has a B.A. in Spanish from Whitman College and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University. 


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