Behind the Scenes

	Carol Coombes. Photo: Dale Stine

Name: Carol Coombes

City Of Birth: Manchester, England

City Of Residence: Miami Beach

Occupation: Co-Director/Program Director Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

What brought you to South Florida?
A job offer at the MGLFF, a sponsored work permit and a one-way ticket to the U.S.

What inspired you to chart a course in film?
My dad was a movie buff and my mum and dad used to take me to children's matinee screenings from a very early age.

How did you get involved with the MGLFF?
I was working at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and had a transatlantic telephone relationship with Robert Rosenberg,  who I met at the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2001.  Coincidentally, he was looking for staff to recruit for the upcoming 2002 Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

What is entailed in your position as program director?
Oh my goodness, so many things.  The MGLFF is an all-year round event—part of my job entails sourcing films for nine months of the year for members preview screenings and then of course there is our annual 10-day event which is a huge collaborative effort to pull in films/sponsors/set up parties/venues and bring in all the talent.  I travel to two major North American festivals each year—Toronto and Sundance—to view and program films and also attend two major GLBT U.S, festivals to view new work with audiences.  I have sole responsibility to manage program  support staff, oversee all the travel and hospitality logistics for incoming guests, lock in all the gala titles and films in our regular line-up.  I have to network with other programmers, distributors, sales agents, production companies and filmmakers, and of course I always have to look my best when presenting films during the MGLFF, which includes trips to vintage shops and my hairdresser.

How long have you been working with film festivals?
Nine years.

What are the main challenges in programming the film festival?
Being blown away by huge potential gala titles at Sundance late January and then having to try and lock those films in our line-up to a print production deadline of late February— effectively three weeks after their world premiere in Utah.  The second major headache is talent logistics and the third is pulling everything together—the films/the parties/the guests—within the constraints of a non-profit budget.

What are some of the things you have to take into account when
programming for a South Florida audience?
That our audience make-up is principally Hispanic.  That I cannot program any films that have already screened in the Fort Lauderdale or Miami International Film Festival or on cable television in our area.  That we have to program a broad mix of films for all our community which is broad in demographics and made up of individuals who are GLBT, sometimes even Q—questioning—and straight.

How many films do you see each year in order to program the festival?
Around 400.

What are your top three favorite films?
While it is hard to choose a favorite, these are three films that stand out in our 2006 line-up: small town gay bar, the inspiration for our 2006 theme of  “Local Heroes”,  The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, a truly beautiful story about Maxi, a little boy who acts as sister and mother to his two brothers and father in the slums of Manila, and Time to Leave, the new François Ozon film starring legendary Jeanne Moreau.  François Ozon is the deserving recipient of our HBO career achievement award 2006.

What do you love most about your job?
Everything.  I cannot imagine doing anything else.  This is my life career.

What do you consider your proudest moment since you began work
with the festival?
It is so hard to choose one moment—some memories that stand out are: the surprise on Craig Lucas's face when he first saw the ice sculpture of The Dying Gaul at our opening night gala party in honor of his film in 2005, two muscular go-go boys supporting the
hem of my vintage ‘50s dress as I made my entrance on stage for our opening night gala screening of Straight Jacket in 2004, and the emotion during Cachorro/Bear Cub our centerpiece screening at the Shores in 2004 when a donor stood up and pledged $8,000 to seal the angel grant fund for the MGLFF.

What would people be most surprised to learn about you?
That I used to be one of the 24-hour party people in Manchester.

With gay culture becoming more and more mainstream,
how is the MGLFF still relevant?
While a few films do get mainstream attention, there is a plethora of films evident in each annual MGLFF line-up that will not cross over to mainstream but still deserve to be seen by our South Florida audience.

For more information about the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, visit www.mglff.com