Co-Artistic Director

Co-Artistic Director

Director of Operations

President

Sarah Schoonhoven (M.M.) (she/her/hers) is a strategic event designer, project manager, and program coordinator at UT Austin, where she works to create programming for instructors at the faculty, staff, and graduate student level and strives to center the full, radical inclusion of LGBTQA+ students and instructors in her work. She serves as Co-Chair of UT’s Presidential LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, as the Membership & Outreach Chair of the Texas Exes Pride Alumni Network, and as a past chair of PEFSA, UT’s LGBTQA+ staff/faculty association.

Vice President

Molly has been hanging around OUTsider in various queerpacities since 2015 and brings a background in film production, nonprofit program management, and talent development. At work, she gets excited about helping organizations be strategic about their workforce learning and development, especially when it comes to equity and inclusion. At play, Molly gets excited about dance protests and learning Spanish.

Director of Operations

Bobette began her festival and nonprofit career with The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) in 1996 serving on the board as secretary and president as well as managing the festival box office and fundraising events until stepping down in 2005. In 2013, she joined Curran Nault, PJ Raval, Paul Soileau, Annie Small, and founder and former aGLIFF Artistic Director Scott Dinger in creating OUTsider Film & Arts Festival and continues to serve on the board, as Director of Operations, and festival site manager.

Co-Artistic Director

Laura G. Gutiérrez (she/her/ella/they/elle) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and, when not teaching on all things related to culture, researches and writes about Latinx and Mexican performance and visual art. This deep commitment to contemporary art and culture-makers enables Gutiérrez to occasionally collaborate with artists.

Artist in Residence Director, Artistic Director EmQueerItus

Curran Nault is the Founder and former Artistic/Executive Director of OUTsider (2013-2022). Previously, he was the Artistic Director of aGLIFF (the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival) (2011-13) and the Co-Founder and Director of Programming of AAAFF (the Austin Asian American Film Festival) (2007-11). Nault is also an Assistant Professor in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin.

Treasurer

Ellie has played bass in outsider bands for many years and now plays in a new project called Hey Jellie, with her former band mate from Erase Errata, Jenny Hoyston. She has 13 years experience managing nonprofits and holds an MBA from UC Berkeley.

Media and Digital Archive Director

PJ Raval (he/him) is a queer, first generation Filipinx American filmmaker whose documentary work includes CALL HER GANDA (2020 Excellence in Documentary NLGJA Association of LGBTQ Journalists), BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (PBS) and Trinidad (Showtime). His provocative collaboration with queer performance artist and human pissoir, CHRISTEENE, has been described as “something you desperately wish you could un-see” (Hollywood Reporter) MmmHmm…PJ is a Guggenheim Fellow, member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and a founding member of OUTsider.

Creative Designer

Bio coming soon

Accessibility Director

Jessica Smedlund is a SHRM certified Human Resource professional at UT Austin with experience working in nonprofit and film. She spent five years working for a nonprofit that provides diverse programs for adults with various types of disabilities and helped champion their mission to allow these individuals unlock the door to their full potential. Jessica also worked as a film/video production coordinator where she developed a regimented workflow for managing the moving parts of production.

Hospitality Director

Bio coming soon

Company Manager, Ballet Austin

Founder/Artistic Director, Fusebox

Performance Artist & Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Poet & Editor, Shampoo Poetry

Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies/English, University of Texas at Austin

Founder & Artistic Director, Rude Mechs Theater Collective

Theater Writer/Director

Visual Artist & Director, Central Trak

Filmmaker & Programmer, Sundance Film Festival

Musician & Filmmaker

Interdisciplinary Theatre Artist & Professor, Fordham University

Senior Editor, Indiewire

Visual Artist

Entrepreneur & Community Organizer

Filmmaker

Founder/Director of Programming, Austin Film Society

Experimental Artist & Professor, Bryn Mawr

Festival Director, CAAMFest

Musician

Choreographer, Dancer & Professor, University of South Florida