The Dallas International Film Festival is back in town for eight days and bringing a slate of fabulous screenings, marvelous premieres and some very special presentations.
The 12th annual festival, a production of the Dallas Film Society, gives filmmakers from around the world the opportunity to showcase their talents right here in the Big D. The festival opens this Thursday, May 3rd and goes through Thursday, May 10th.
Johnathan Brownlee, is an award-winning Canadian/American executive producer, director, and writer with a diverse, international body of work spanning over 20+ years. In October he was named the new CEO and President of the Dallas Film Society. I had a chance to speak with Johnathan, who was quite witty and charming, a welcome addition to the film scene in Dallas. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation about DIFF and how it was playing “the boyfriend” on a well-known Seinfeld episode.
Susan Kandell: So glad to have this opportunity to speak with you on the cusp of the Dallas International Film Festival. You must be very excited……or terrified! How does it feel to be on the other side of the lens?
Johnathan Brownlee: That’s a great question, I love film festivals, ….I love film, and so it’s my responsibility as filmmaker and a person in the film community to make sure that other people get to see films that otherwise might not have a chance to be seen, so the opportunity to build and help curate a community event like this, is the penultimate of what one should be doing in the film community.
Susan Kandell: If this was a film, I would call this part of the interview the flashback.
Johnathan Brownlee: (a hearty laugh) Yes!
Susan Kandell: You were born and raised in Toronto ~ that’s a looong way from Dallas, Texas. Give me a little background ~ how did you get from there to here?
Johnathan Brownlee: I grew up in Toronto and then I received a Fulbright Scholarship and spent my time in film classes and theatre classes. I got a fellowship to go to Brandeis for graduate school – which is amazing for an actor! And then I went back to New York and I was on Broadway and Off-broadway but eventually (like a lot of actors) migrated to California. Since I’m a dual citizen, I would get cast in LA to go to work on projects in Canada because of tax incentives. That’s how I ended up in Vancouver.
Besides acting, one of the things I loved to do was renovating homes. Instead of doing yoga, I would go rewire a house, so, how do I take my love of homes and building and renovating and my love of film and television and put them together? I thought we should do a home renovation series in Canada.
Susan Kandell: And you won some awards for that program!
Johnathan Brownlee: We won some awards, but be careful what you wish for, because now we’re the experts in the field and so we had all these different series going and the irony in this, is the first person to buy my series in the US was Mark Cuban because he was starting HD-net and they had no content. So that’s how I started producing, we shot our first feature, “Decoding Annie Parker,” in 2011 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Susan Kandell: I’m so impressed! I knew you had made a film, but until I looked at IMDB, I had no idea how many you worked on!
Johnathan Brownlee: My wife and my mother both think that I’m famous! So don’t ruin it in this article, alright?
Susan Kandell: So, in 2 programs, one being “Seinfeld,” you were credited as simply, “Boyfriend.” Which episode was it?
Johnathan Brownlee: So the episode is called, “The Little Kicks” and it’s the dancing episode, Elaine’s crazy, jerking dancing episode.
Susan Kandell: That was you?!
Johnathan Brownlee: It’s a famous episode and she won the Emmy for that. They used to use that clip in all the promos for years, so I got massive (residual) checks! I bought my first house on those checks! It was really fun and an amazing set to work on with Jerry and Andy Ackerman who directed that episode. Julia Louis-Dreyfus couldn’t have been more wonderful.
Susan Kandell: As CEO of the Dallas Film Society, I imagine your duties are many, will you have time to work on your own projects? What is your full title?
Johnathan Brownlee: My title is the longest title in the history of mankind…You actually have to take a breath before you say it. I am the CEO and President of the Dallas Film Society and the Executive Director of the Dallas International Film Festival. And technically the webmaster too! I wear many hats.
Susan Kandell: So will you be able to work on your own projects?
Johnathan Brownlee: Part of my discussion with the board, is that I really wanted to do this, but I have other commitments, I have one son in college right now and a four-year-old at the Levine Academy – I better start saving for her wedding! They have been very gracious about letting me do other things and I’m really cognizant of when I need to be giving 120% of my time to the festival.
Susan Kandell: Which is NOW!
Johnathan Brownlee: I’m not out shooting a feature film right now.
Susan Kandell: So how did you make your way to the directorship? You had a film in the festival, right?
Johnathan Brownlee: I’ve had three films at DIFF. And the first time, when my wife Anne and I were dating – I was living in Vancouver and I came down for a film premiere and Ben Stein introduced us here in Dallas at the Angelika theatre. Ben knew my wife for years and invited her to see it and I met her at the event. A year or so later, I thought about moving to Dallas. So I came down for the DIFF/AFI festival and bought a Star Pass and walked into the box office and this lovely woman comes over and says to me, “You’re Johnathan from Vancouver, right?” I was afraid it was someone from customs or immigration! But it was Anne Stodghill. She and her husband Steve were chairing many events and hosting parties that year. She gave me her card and I thought, “This is really nice!” Anne and Steve were so gracious! They took me around and introduced me to everybody and asked, “How can we help? What do we have to do to get you to move here?” They were great connectors, very kind people. I thought, if there are people in Dallas like Anne and Steve here, this would be a positive move.
Susan Kandell: Thanks Johnathan for your time, you’re a wonderful spokesperson for your organization and the festival.
Johnathan Brownlee: It’s very easy when you believe in it and passionate about it. Thank you!
Tickets are available online at www.dallasfilm.org through the Prekindle Main Box Office or in person at the DIFF Box Office in West Village located at 3700 McKinney Avenue, Suite 144 – next to Public School 214. Or better yet, purchase a pass and see them all! Please call 888.454.4353 for further assistance or to purchase a pass by phone.
