Kasell Joins Hamptons Fest As Exec Director

by Mark Rabinowitz

The Hamptons International Film Festival has hired its sixth Executive Director in six years, with Hudson Valley Film Festival Executive Director Denise Kasell being brought in to replace outgoing director Bruce Feinberg. Kasell begins her tenure on June 1, immediately after completing her third Hudson Valley fest, which wraps on May 31. Kasell told indieWIRE that she plans to work at making the festival more of a year-round presence in the film community. "We're going to be expanding (the festival)," she said, adding, however, that it was too soon to get into specifics.

Kasell also mentioned that there would be a programming committee this year, as opposed to last year when Stephen Gallagher programmed the festival single-handedly. "It's too much as we get bigger and bigger. It's too much for a single programmer, and it's not what the Board (of Directors) wants," she said, adding that the Board would prefer at least two programmers. Kasell told indieWIRE that she has not yet met with Gallagher to discuss plans.

In recent years there has been some speculation by some involved with the festival that a move from October to the Spring might be in the works. When asked about the possibility of this move for the 1999 or 2000 fests, Kasell replied that "again, that's something that we're talking about, but I have no answer on it, yet. Because I don't start until June 1, officially, we haven't had enough meetings to make that decision."

Past directors of the festival include Joyce Robinson, one of the founders of the festival and Chairperson of the Board who acted as the first Executive Director, with Darryl Macdonald coming on board as Artistic Director for the first few installments. Following Macdonald were Peter Glatzer, Joy Pereths, Ken Tabatchnick and Feinberg. This year's installment of the festival runs from October 14-18.

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posted on May 6, 1998 |Share