David Sweeney - President and Former Executive Director
David Sweeney has a background in non-profit organizations, HIV Prevention and gay community building and has worked with a number of other HIV/AIDS Service organizations in Austin, and with the University of California, San Francisco / Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in projects both here, and in San Francisco.
David served as the Executive Director of aGLIFF from April 2008 to September 2009 and is widely credited to rebuilding the organization’s reputation as the premier LGBT film festival in the Southwest. In order to continue the work he began as Executive Director, David was asked to serve as the President of the Board of Directors and continues to help maintain the alliances he built during his tenure.
Deb Bryan - Vice President
An aGLIFF member for several years, Deb Bryan joined the Programs Working Group for the 2009 Season and was later asked to join the board.
Deb mixes her commitment to unite the LGBT community with boarder audiences throughout Austin with her love for film. She wrote, produced and directed the short film CLOSE ENOUGH (2009), winner of the My Queer Movie Award at aGLIFF22. She served as co-producer for NATALIE AT FIVE O’CLOCK (2006), a short that was selected by SXSW Film Festival. She is currently in the developmental stages on a documentary film.
She is also the real estate broker/owner of Bryan & Associates, REALTORS, and in her spare time she is a contemporary artist.
Kermit Johns - Treasurer
Kermit Johns joined the aGLIFF board after the 21st annual festival and brings with him a long history in film. Kermit is a partner in Funny Boy Films, and was the executive producer of LATTER DAYS (2003), ADAM & STEVE (2005), and NAKED BOYS SINGING (2007).
Kermit is also a partner of Johns and Wilkinson, an independent financial advisory firm. He is looking forward to continuing his work in promoting LGBTQI film, while also helping aGLIFF grow its financial base over the coming years.
Risa Puleo - Secretary
Risa Puleo is Assistant Curator of American and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Before thoroughly enjoying all the lovely perks of “institutionalization,” Risa cultivated her DIY curatorial style while running a project space, The Donkey Show, out of her home in east Austin, and working at a number of non-profit and alternative art spaces and publications across Texas.
Risa joined the aGLIFF board in 2009, bringing her passion for queer and art community building with her. In her spare time, she serves on two other boards, is a member of the Femme Mafia, and sews elaborate clothes for herself and related pets.
John Dalton
John is Assistant Dean for External Relations for UT Austin’s Graduate School. His working days are spent cultivating relationships with the University’s vast alumni, as well as recruiting prospective graduate students.
A native of Virginia, John moved to Austin 10 years ago, by way of Florida, and never looked back. He joined the AGLIFF board in 2010.
John Largess
John Largess, classical musician and violist, joined the board of AGLIFF in 2010. He has toured for 14 years with the internationally acclaimed Miro String Quartet, winners of the Fischoff, Banff, Coleman competitions as well as the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Cleveland Quartet Award. John performs regularly in the world’s greatest concert halls including Carnegie Hall New York and has been heard in live radio and television broadcast around the world.
John is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of String Chamber Music at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where the Miro Quartet is currently Quartet-in-Residence. There he teaches private students and directs the school’s string chamber music program, as well as performing regularly there for Austin audiences. He and the Miro Quartet are a major part of UT’s fundraising, outreach and national visibility efforts in the arts.
Born in Boston MA, John studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. He graduated with a degree in Archeology from Yale University in 1995 where he also studied Greek and Latin Literature. John enjoys cooking gourmet cuisine, particularly French pastry and fine desserts. Luckily, he also enjoys exercising: favorites are lifting weights, running sprints, and playing soccer.
John Livingston
John Livingston joined the aGLIFF board in 2008 after two years on the Programming Committee. He is excited to work with the Austin film community to make aGLIFF one of the preeminent film festivals in the nation. John’s day job can best be described as small-business financial advisor, although he prefers the titles bon vivant and philosopher fisherman.
When he’s not working, John is likely to be found shopping at Whole Foods, walking his dog Dobie around Lady Bird Lake or drinking coffee on South Congress.
Kevin Lovelace
Kevin Lovelace is responsible for grant writing at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Austin Area as well as aGLIFF and Out Youth. When he’s not chasing foundations for donations, he is playing guitar, watching movies or hiking trails. Kevin received his Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago. In 2005, motivated by a desire to help the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, he decided to move to Austin.
Kevin joined aGLIFF in 2010 to continue to promote awareness for queer activism and artistic expression. He is looking forward to participating in the film festival, as well as helping aGLIFF grow financially in the coming years.
PJ Raval
PJ Raval is more recently known as an award-winning filmmaker than he is an ex-scientist, ex-vegetarian, born on tax day.
Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s ‘25 new faces of independent film 2006′, PJ’s films have won awards such as Best Narrative Short at the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Int’l Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Cinematexas Int’l Film Festival, the Betty Nowlin Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, and the Director’s Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival. In 2004 PJ’s body of film work screened at the Artists’ Television Access (ATA) in San Francisco sponsored by the Alliance of Emerging Creative Artists (AECA), and then again in 2006 as part of aGLIFF’s Filmmaker Series.
PJ is also an award-winning cinematographer. His work has been showcased at both Sundance and Cannes and earned him awards such as the ASC Charles B. Lang Jr. Heritage Award as well as the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography. PJ has been featured in American Cinematographer and recently completed shooting the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Award Winner TROUBLE THE WATER.
But you’ll probably know PJ best as the Producer/Director of TRINDAD, which screened as part of aGLIFF21 and was named “Best Feature Documentary.” He’s now ready to lead a filmmaker’s perspective to the programs of aGLIFF and help us grow for our next 22 years.
Heath Riddles
Heath Riddles has worked in fundraising and communications as both a staff member and a volunteer for a number of non profit organizations in Austin, including AIDS Services of Austin, Equality Texas, Texas Advocacy Project, Community Shares of Texas, The Hill Country Ride for AIDS, Out Youth and aGLIFF.
Heath studied journalism at the University of Oklahoma and began his career as a television news producer at the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City and FOX in Austin. He currently hosts OutCast, a 60-minute public affairs radio program for Austin’s LGBT Community. Heath was appointed by Austin Mayor Will Wynn in 2002 to serve on the Austin Area Comprehensive HIV Planning Council.
Lois Rodriguez
Lois M. Rodriguez joined the aGLIFF board in August 2009, although she has attended many aGLIFF festivals and events since moving to Austin eight years ago.
Lois is deeply committed to the lesbian community and women’s causes in general. She has organized monthly Club Skirt dances, helped plan the annual Pride Women’s Dance, served on Equality Texas’ Pride planning committee, and most recently served on the Pride Committee that oversaw the “big picture“ of Pride Austin.
Joining the aGLIFF board has been an extension of Lois’ interest in representing the lesbian community, minorities and the LGBT community as a whole, in hoping to foster the positive aspects about our community that are sometimes underrepresented. To further that mission, Lois has also joined the aGLIFF Programming Team, which screens the hundreds of films submitted every year.
Professionally, Lois is a travel writer, as well as a print and web editor. On occasion, she also gets to write about food, a personal passion. In 2006, Lois received an Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Award for one of her specialty desserts sold at a local restaurant, and was even offered store space at Whole Foods. She was also recently tapped to serve as one of six guest chefs for the Fredericksburg Food and Wine Festival.
Jeff St.Onge
Jeff St.Onge moved home to his native Texas in 2009 after 22 years away in New York, Seattle and London. He has worked in advertising all of his life. After four years working at major agencies in Mahattan, Jeff opened his own firm in New York City for more than 15 years, with clients such as De Beers, Harry Winston Jewelers, Oxygen Media, the New York City Dept. of Health, Showtime, BMG and Douglas Carter Beane’s Drama Department, where Jeff sat as a board member.
A huge fan of the movies all of his life, Jeff was thrilled to join the board of aGLIFF in early 2010.
Jeff is owner of St.Onge Creative, specializing in web and print design and marketing projects for small to medium sized businesses.
Richard Williams
You all know Richard Williams…even if you’ve never met him. Responsible for planning all of our fabulous parties, Richard has been a volunteer with aGLIFF for several years and comes by his event planning experience through is business, Luna Park Events. He has coordinated events for LStyle GStyle, aGLIFF’s BLOOM, AIDS Services of Austin, and ModaVino.
We’re so happy to have Richard on the board as he brings not only his experience in event planning, but also his extensive network of contacts and relationships in Austin and throughout Texas.
