indieWIRE has an excellent run-down on the still-developing story of the mass resignations of at least 20 staffers from the Denver Film Festival/Denver Film Society:
Word of the mass exodus from the Denver organization and festival, an increasingly popular stop on the fest circuit for filmmakers and industry alike, began to emerge late last week with the departures apparently stemming from a growing rift with Burleigh “Bo” Smith, the new DFS executive director who joined the organization in October. Smith, a twenty-one year veteran who was the head of film, video and concerts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, was chosen in part by DFS founder Ron Henderson who began his retirement in 2007. Henderson had agreed to stay on as a consultant but also gave final notice earlier this week after attempting to rescue the group in the wake of the impending departures. He is currently negotiating his departure date."
Before continuing, I must give full disclosure: I have a long relationship with the Denver Film Festival and personal friendships with Erickson, Henderson and Withey. As the indieWIRE article notes, Britta Erickson is a producer on my new film. Brit Withey has blogged for this space and has been a member of the Cinema Eye Honors nominations committee for the past two years. Last year, we named Denver as one of the top 25 festivals for documentary. I also know and have worked with Bo Smith, who programmed my first film at the Boston MFA.
All that said, I can vouch for Withey's statement refuting Smith's claim that the resignations were timed to financial difficulties at the organization. There has been unease over the leadership of Smith since late last year, particularly in an organization as tightly bound as the DFS had been throughout Henderson's leadership and in his passing the torch to Withey and Erickson in 2007.
The Denver Post's Lisa Kennedy wrote of the situation in mid-April, suggesting that board members felt that the reputation of the vaunted film festival overshadowed the year-round programming that the film society put on at their Starz Film Center:
[More full disclosure: Henderson-Moore is the wife of Denver Post editor Gregory Moore, who is Kennedy's boss as well as a minor character in my new film, which features the political unit at the Post as a major storyline.]
Such a view would align with what Smith told me in November about his vision for the film society - in essence a belief that the festival was successful and didn't need the same care and tending as the rest of the organization. There was a great deal of talk of reaching out to neglected communities in the Denver area. From Kennedy's piece:
But a number of changes had already taken place, seemingly under the radar. For example, one had to be a close reader of the e-newsletter to film society members to learn that the film society had cut back its hours of operation. Or you could simply have been a moviegoer who arrived at the FilmCenter one Monday or Tuesday night to suddenly find locked doors and dimmed lights."
While Kennedy's piece would only hint at the tension that - even at that point in mid-April - was already at a boiling point, now-departing staffers are speaking openly about their decisions to leave, putting the blame squarely at the feet of Smith and the board, which, according to Brian Brooks' article tonight at indieWIRE, held an emergency meeting Tuesday night where "in an apparently sharply divided decision, (they) ultimately voted to continue to back Smith as the executive director of the organization."
“I see the organization not continuing under its present leadership, I’d rather leave now than see it fall apart,” Starz FilmCenter General Manager Oaken Beeson told indieWIRE today. He is among the many people who have resigned in Denver. “We’ve been ignored by the board of directors and I don’t want to be there as the organization destroys itself.”
More details as they become public.
Updates after the break
UPDATED: Thursday, June 4 @ 7:30 PM: The Post's Lisa Kennedy is now reporting 21 staffers as having resigned. She also reports that in April a mediator had been brought in to help calm the roiling dispute between Smith and longtime DFS staffers and executives. Kennedy also notes that DFS currently has a deficit of between $124,000 and $150,000. No word on how much of the deficit came from the extensive search that led to Smith's hire.
Thank you so much, AJ, for revealing a point that has gone largely overlooked—the role of Nina Henderson-Moore in all of this.
When, as you write, the DFS departees "put the blame squarely at the feet of Smith and the board," it is she in particular who has been vehemently anti-staff (kicking them out of board meetings upon becoming chair) and so inexplicably pro-Bo Smith. Why that is is anybody's guess—but her position of power in this town has given her word versus the staff's far more weight than it should have had from a sheerly logical organizational standpoint.
Posted by: Denveater | June 04, 2009 at 06:02 AM
From an outside perspective, I keep thinking if these 21 staff members were aligned, they could just discard the guidance of Bo and the Board and continue running the organization as they saw fit. They'd either see great results, or they'd get fired, but at least then they could collect unemployment.
As a nonprofit ED, it does make me question the structure, where half of the board together with the ED can make a decision that contradicts what 90% of the staff on the ground believe. On my board, any one member can block a decision, and it takes a 2/3 vote to overcome that. I guess you also have to make sure all the constituencies are represented, from staff to audiences to members, etc.
Posted by: Tony | June 05, 2009 at 09:33 AM
AJ, thanks also for the hint at some of the philosophical/business approaches that may be at the core of the disagreement. These things tend to be more personality-based, and I'd be interested to hear if Brit and Britta were opposed to re-directing energies towards "reaching out to neglected communities in the Denver area." I'd love to hear if there was any tension between the focus on the festival, which provides the caché, and the more community-focused mission of developing "opportunities for diverse audiences to discover film through creative, thought-provoking experiences."
In any case, you always root for the home-grown talent, and I personally appreciated seeing DFS raise people through their ranks instead of hiring outsiders to lead.
Posted by: deproduction | June 05, 2009 at 09:41 AM