SXSW 2012

Exec Dir
Indie Memphis
For over fifteen years, Erik has led non-profit community-based regional film festivals in the South and Pacific Northwest corners of the country -- all three of which were ranked as one of MovieMaker Magazine's "25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" during his tenure. In 1999, he co-founded the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham, Alabama, serving as Director for its first eight years and growing the event into a filmmaker favorite and one of Time Magazine's "Film Festivals For the Rest of Us." In 2007 he moved to Bend, Oregon to run the BendFilm Festival, where he created a program that The Oregonian called "the best crop of fictional features yet to screen at BendFilm." Since 2008, Erik has served as Executive Director of Indie Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, which runs year-round programing and special events, including the annual Indie Memphis Film Festival, presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc. The 2012 festival attracted a record-setting crowd of more than 11,000 attendees and was named a named a "Top 20 Event" by the Southeast Tourism Society. Erik has served on numerous film festival juries, including SXSW, Slamdance, Atlanta, Nashville and the Biografilm Festival in Bologna, Italy.