Interview:
Janet Pierson,
Director Emeritus Film & TV,
SXSW Film Festival
After 15 years of overseeing the SXSW Film & TV Festival, Janet Pierson stepped aside in October 2022 to become Director Emeritus Film & TV, with her deputy Claudette Godfrey inheriting her day-to-day responsibilities as VP, Film & TV. Janet Pierson moved to Austin in 2004 with her husband John Pierson, who produced early films by Richard Linklater, Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Kevin Smith, and wrote the 1995 book “Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes.” She spent 30 years prior to joining SXSW as an exhibitor, producer's rep, financier, and executive producer of the TV series Split Screen, which she co-created with her husband John. Janet Pierson served as both a board member of the Austin Film Society and a volunteer screener for SXSW before succeeding Matt Dentler as Head of SXSW in 2008. Under Pierson’s leadership, SXSW expanded its programming to include TV and extended reality (XR). As Director Emeritus Film & TV, Pierson serves as a programmer for this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, which runs March 10-18 at various Austin venues. Janet Pierson and her husband, producer and author John Pierson, will be honored at 6 p.m. March 3 during the Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Awards at Willie Nelson’s Luck ranch in Spicewood. Aired: February 28, 2023. Web sites: https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/film/ https://www.austinfilm.org/texas-film-awards-2023/ |
|