STAFF
Artistic Director – Curran Nault
Director of Operations – Bobbette Mathis
PR Director – Annie Bush
Special Events Coordinator – Sarah Schoonhoven
Volunteer Coordinator – Tarik Daniels
Website Support – Jon Bolden
Festival Photographer – Rolando Sepulveda II
Outreach – Grey Gamboa
Grey Gamboa is a current student at the University of Texas at Austin who is double majoring in Radio-Television-Film & Communications and Leadership. For OUTsider Fest he is assisting with outreach and engagement as a volunteer.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PJ Raval is an award‐winning filmmaker whose work explores the overlooked subcultures and identities within the already marginalized LGBTQ+ community. Named one of Out Magazine’s “Out 100”, PJ’s credits include TRINIDAD: TRANSGENDER FRONTIER (Showtime) and BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, which follows the lives of three gay senior men, described by indieWIRE as “a crucial new addition to the LGBT doc canon.” BEFORE YOU KNOW IT screened theatrically and broadcast premiered as the season finale of AMERICA REFRAMED on PBS World Channel, and was awarded the National Gay and Lesbian Journalist Association Excellence in Documentary Award 2016.
PJ recently completed CALL HER GANDA which follows the events surrounding Jennifer Laude, a trans woman who was discovered dead in a motel room in Olongapo City, Philippines with the prime suspect being a US Marine. CALL HER GANDA released theatrically Fall 2018, winning over a dozen Best Documentary and Audience Awards and recently broadcast premiered on POV on PBS to millions of viewers.
In addition to his feature documentary work, PJ also continues to collaborate on a collection of highly charged, not-safe-for-work videos with performer and “provocateur” Paul Soileau (a.k.a. CHRISTEENE) under the name “Three dollar Cinema”. Their work has screened at SXSW, The New Orleans Film Festival and various underground, above ground, and art venues internationally. Banned from YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK alike (MmmHmm…), their collaborative efforts is best summed up by The Hollywood Reporter as “…something you desperately wish you could un-see…”
Also an accomplished cinematographer, PJ shot the Academy Award‐nominated Best Documentary TROUBLE THE WATER and is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, 2016 Firelight Media Fellow, 2017 Robert Giard Fellow, and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.
Bobbette Mathis – Vice President
Bobette’s festival and non profit career began with The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) in 1996 where for the next nine years she served on the board, managed the box office, fund raising events, and volunteers, and served for five years as Board President. Bobette received her B.S .from the University of Houston and was a Mechanical Designer for the Hypervelocity Impact departments at the Center for Electromagnetics and Institute for Advanced Technology at the University of Texas until 2012. In late 2013, She joined Curran, PJ, Austin performer Paul Soileau, film maker Annie Bush and founder and former aGLIFF Artistic Director Scott Dinger in creating OUTsider Film & Arts Festival and continues to serve on the board and staff.
Ellie Erickson – Treasurer
Alex Barron – Secretary
Curran Nault – Artistic Director
Annie Bush: PR Director
Two-time Teacher of the Year Nominee Annie Bush is an educator-turned-film producer based in New York City. Annie is co-founder and producer for From The Woods, a film production company producing original content. Projects Annie’s produced have played at the Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, IDFA, Berlinale, SXSW, AFI Docs, Camden International Film Festival and more. Annie most recently produced the Oscar qualifying NY Times OpDocs documentary short, DULCE. Annie is a co-founder and former Executive Director of OUTsider.
Ashley Hicks – Social Media & Website Director
Ashley Hicks is a musician, artist, and producer based in Austin, TX. They are 1/3 of the tropi-psych band Mamis, a 1/2 of the motley vinyl duo Mosaico X, part of The Groop (Stereolab tribute band) and a DJ. When they’re not playing around town, they are practically living in the Greenbelt, making art.
Jesse O’Rear – Director of Youth Engagement
Jesse D. O’Rear is an Austin-based theater artist/scholar/activist/dog dad/pizza snob from New Jersey. He is currently completing his PhD in Performance as Public Practice at UT Austin where his research focuses on autobiographical live performance work by transgender artists in the United States. Recent stage credits include Sound Design for siri gurudev’s The Future of Ismael (Generic Ensemble Company, 2019) and Co-Director/”Max” in the world premiere of TRANSom (Ground Floor Theater, 2019). He gleefully coordinates Youth & Student Engagement for OUTsider Fest.
Jessica Smedlund – Box Office & Director of Inclusion & Accessibility
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. She serves as the Director of Inclusion & Accessibility for OUTsider and is the Box Office Manager.
Tarik Daniels – Volunteer Coordinator
Tarik Daniels is an AfroQueer writer, performer, and mental health & HIV justice activist. Tarik is the Founder and Executive Director of Whatsinthemirror?, a social movement that provides mental health awareness and suicide prevention through art and advocacy to communities of color. He is serving his second term as a City Commissioner for Austin’s LGBTQ Quality Of Life Advisory Board. Tarik has written, directed, and produced several plays and released a novel, No Bonds So Strong in 2018. He is the winner of the 2019 Austin Under 40 Awards in Arts & Entertainment.
Felice Trirogoff – Sponsorship Director
Felice Trirogoff (Sagittarius sun, Virgo moon, Leo rising) talks, Tweets, and writes for a living. She swims with the H2Hos, Austin’s first feminist synchronized swimming troupe and likes to roller skate. She loves when people and businesses donate their time, money and goods to OUTsider through sponsorship. She hates being left on read.
Sarah Schoonhoven – Special Events Coordinator
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 also serves as the Chair-Elect of PEFSA, UT’s LGBTQA+ staff/faculty association, and as the Membership & Outreach Chair of the Texas Exes Pride Alumni Network. She has previously worked in the Events and Hospitality Industry and received her Masters of Music in Music Theory at UT Austin in 2015, where she studied the electronic music soundtracks of noted Trans composer Wendy Carlos and worked in the UT Gender and Sexuality Center. Sarah is recently Gay Married ™ and would love to tell you all about it.
Jacob Wilson (Hospitality Director)
Laura Gutiérrez – Education Director
Founders Circle