Houston’s Potential to Be the Next Global Film Epicenter
HCAS Artistic Director Jessica Green Discusses Houston’s Diversity Can Support a Film Industry
Houston, Texas
As a New Yorker working in the arts sector in Houston, Houston Cinema Arts Society Artistic Director Jessica Green sits down with Lynn Birdwell to discuss how Houston’s diversity can help build the next great global film city.
"There are obviously a lot of challenges, there's a lot of infrastructure challenges, but there is so much potential to develop film production in Houston...We do have a long way to go, but the further we can get, the more we're going to tap into this potential, and it's really, like, endless what could happen here around developing a real film industry."
Speaking from the first-ever Black Media Story Summit at the DeLux Theatre in Fifth Ward, she also talks about the power of film and its healing process for black filmmakers and audiences.
Lynn Birdwell: Hi, it's Lynn Birdwell with the Bird Feed Podcast, and I'm here today with Jessica Green with the Houston Cinema Arts Society. Jessica, thank you for talking with us.
Jessica Green: Thank you.
Lynn Birdwell: So, this is the last day of the festival. Tonight, there's a film in the theater that we're in, and can you tell me a little bit about the movie?
Jessica Green: Yeah, yeah. One of the closing programs is here, at the historic Delux Theater in the fifth ward, and it's Always in Season by Jacqueline Olive. It is a film about the history of lynching, but also a modern-day lynching, current lynching. And, it was at the Sundance Film Festival and it won an award there. It's an incredible, urgent documentary. And one of the reasons why it's included at the Houston Center Arts Festival is all about the arts and all about artists and all about, you know, multifaceted representations of the art.
So, this film, interestingly, includes theatrical, historical reenactments of lynchings. This is something that people are doing now, kind of, you know, extreme art therapy, if you will. So, we definitely wanted to include it in the festival. It also bridges the first-ever Black Media Story Summit, which is happening here today, at the Delux Theater, also.
It really speaks to the mission of the Houston Center Arts Society, which is as much about engaging audiences around the arts, but also engaging artists and supporting artists and empowering them.
It's not just about audience engagement, it's also about empowering artists and serving them and supporting the pipeline. So, we have more artists, we have more filmmakers.
Lynn Birdwell: Well, we never had a film festival in Houston like this one. So, how did they find you, and what do you do with this festival?
Jessica Green: I'm the artistic director, and like many things in life, it was through relationships. I was invited to be on one of the juries at the Ashland Film Festival who my predecessor, Richard Herskowitz, who's amazing, he's the artistic director and the executive director of the Ashland film festival. So, we met up, and he was still doing Houston at that point. Then, I also met, who was on another jury, Marian Luntz, who is the head of film at the Museum of Fine Arts, and really kind of created that whole program and has ushered it for almost 30 years, and is just a force of nature and really is such an important pillar of arts in Houston.
So, it was an opportunity. I'm really interested in what I would call cosmopolitanism, you know, urban culture, which to me is everything. It's high and low and it's about, you know, respecting the kind of rarefied, you know, fine art, you know, culture as much as street culture. And, I thought a lot of my interests and my literacy and my values could translate to Houston, it also being such an incredible, generative place of so many different kinds of urban culture -- so much diverse culture.
So, I thought, you know, kind of, again, my values, you know, as a programmer, as a curator, I thought would translate well to this arena. And as we all know, Houston is the most diverse city in the country. So, as a New Yorker, that was really attractive, and really frankly, Houston was the guiding light -- was always, you know, what I was most interested in around this project, the fact that it was happening here, the fact that it would engage what is happening here, which is really interesting and fascinating, and I'm just scratching the surface. I just started coming here a few months ago and I, you know, look forward to understanding it more. But I also, again, born and raised in New York, know that big cities are ... mysterious. Parts of them will always be unknown, unknowable. You cannot get to everything. There's no way. I've lived in New York my whole life, and I will never completely understand it. And I think Houston is similar, and I think that's also what defines a true global, great city. Literally, everything is happening in Houston, every kind of person, literally everything is happening here. It's the world in itself.
Lynn Birdwell: And, there's no geographical barriers. So, it's not even like New York City where it's like, there it is. Right? You got your boroughs and then basically Manhattan's an island. Houston, it's just sprawling. It's neighborhood-based. You can drive and drive and drive and drive, and still be in Houston, and be in China or be in Mexico. It's just completely different neighborhoods, and they're massive.
Jessica Green: Which is really inspiring; it's amazing. And, it's an incredible muse to program around.
Lynn Birdwell: So, one of the things you mentioned was the Austin Film Society. We don't have anything like that. I would like for there to be. I'm trying to work on that. We don't have that in Houston, which is a supportive organization that's a fiscal sponsor and all of those things specific to film. When I was talking to Michael Robinson, who's on your staff, I told him, you know, one of the things that I've noticed is that there's a lot of separation in Houston because it's neighborhood based, because it doesn't really have a firm film core here. I didn't feel like most of the professionals in our industry were actually connecting with the Cinema Arts Festival because it felt to them like it was just a festival that was just, you know, an attraction. But, it should be and can be something where the city that it's in, the people that are actually doing film production in that city, go to the festival, support and participate in all of the different programs.
Many of the crew that I use, they have been on every single movie that was ever shot in, you know, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, wherever, LA -- TV shows and movies, big, huge movies, James Cameron movies. Those people live in Houston, but none of the work that they do is here. And so, I'd like to think that organizations like the Houston Cinema Arts Society can connect with all of them the way we all need to connect with the university programs and help build a studio system, that doesn't actually exist here. And, when I say there's never been anything like this organization that you work with now in Houston, there hasn't been. And, we really do need it.
Jessica Green: I agree. I mean, we have to start somewhere, so thus this summit today. I mean, this is a step in this direction of really focusing.
So, being able to partner with Black Public Media and the Austin Film Society on this all-day summit, it's a baby step, but it's completely in that spirit. That's why I wanted to make sure my first year as artistic director, that stamp was there, that seed was planted that we, you know, build on. I think the thing is that there are obviously a lot of challenges and there's a lot of infrastructure challenges, but there is so much potential to develop film production in Houston. I mean, that's the thing, we do have a long way to go, but the further we can get, the more we're going to tap into this potential. And it's, it's really endless what could happen here around developing a real film industry.
Lynn Birdwell: But, it's not the responsibility of the Houston Cinema Arts Society to solve this problem.
Jessica Green: Well, in part though, we do need to participate.
Lynn Birdwell: Yes, but we all need to participate, exactly.
Jessica Green: It's all of our responsibility.
Lynn Birdwell: Yes. You know, there is no "one" organization in Houston that all the professional, a-list crew [members] belong to because it doesn't exist here. So, what we do need to do is to find a place where we all come together and then we're, you know, really participating in all of these organizational things, like you're providing, at a professional level. Like, that's really probably the goal. And then, what I was talking to Fleurette [Fernando] about is film in Houston is not considered an art, and it's also not considered an economic conversation either.
I think if we could refocus the lens on film, which supports all other art forms, then the investment in film production and learning how to make money on film as well, which just is education, really all it is, then it can be seen as a big piece of this economic industry.
The NEA had a report, a couple of years ago, that something like $600 billion was made in the creative economy in the United States alone. And, I think Houston is a very big city, and it's a very wealthy city, but I don't think it thinks of film or any kind of media industry to be something that is a worthy investment.
Jessica Green: It hasn't happened, for sure. I'm not surprised about the NEA report. I mean, the fact remains that the two biggest exports of the US are #1 finance, #2 media.
Before this, I was the director at the Maysles Documentary Center, which has a documentary program in Harlem where young people are trained on how to make documentary films about their communities, about their experiences. So, this is something that I'm really passionate about. I think it is completely an opportunity, and it just needs to be opened up so much more for young people, and the barriers to entry really need to be taken away.
One thing, a couple of things, I would just say about the place of a festival, or any festival, and kind of my philosophy that does connect up to what you're talking about, I think, you know, where festival programming is actually critical around, I think there are a couple of things. For instance, this year the opening night film was Waves from Trey Edward Schults, who grew up in Houston. Modeling is key. I was really happy that I was able to do that because one of my goals from day one and one of my pillars of my thinking about this: he's from here, Lizzo's from here, Beyonce's from here. Like, how are you really strategic about bringing Houston's favorite sons and daughters back, right, to model to everybody. I think that's part of it. I think that does actually lead to retention, I think it's really important to bring people back here. Even if they don't live here, bring them back here, vet them, celebrate them, have them share.
The other thing is really tapping into what does exist in terms of local story, local narrative, local filmmaking. Last night, which was the fourth night of the festival, we had three events that were all locally driven in terms of the themes, the makers in three different locations. These were not movie stars. There was no big Robert Redford, whoever, it was all local stories about neighborhoods, about local figures with local makers. Everything was popular because there is so much interest in Houston from Houston. And that kind of dovetails with the last thing I want to say about this is documentation is really key.
I think you have to amplify these stories and telegraph them to the world. I think that helps in bringing people back that are from here and being really intentional about making sure the story is about this place getting out to the world. I think that also will help embed things and can also really support the development of an industry and a production industry.
Lynn Birdwell: It's gonna take time. Thank you very much. Thanks for being with us.
Jessica Green: Thank you. Thank you very much.