About Arthouse Cinema

MFI's mission with Art House is to bring Art House Cinema, featuring the World's best indie films, from all around the globe to downtown Jackson, Mississippi.  MFI also owns and will show select films from its own 500-film classic library, featuring films from the golden age of Hollywood not seen in theateres for decades: serials, rare cartoons, science fiction, film noir and horror films.  

Films, opera and ballet presentations from the great opera houses of Europe, along with Shakespere filmed from the Globe Theater in London will be featured on Sunday afternoons at 2pm beginning November 28, 2010.  Check our Cinema Schedule page for information.  Cultural film tickets will be $16 each.

About Mississippi Film Institute

The Mississippi Film Institute (MFI) was established as a charitable and educational entity organized to aid in the discovery and development of aspiring and independent film writers, producers, directors and their supporting casts and crews by bringing them together in an environment that allows them to showcase their talents and network with other aspiring and established industry persons from around the world and introducing general audiences to their new works.  That led to the birth of the Mississippi International Film Festival.

Working with the City of Jackson and several Mississippi businesses, MFI has created the Mississippi International Film Festival (Festival) to be held each October in downtown Jackson, Mississippi.  In addition to the mission stated above, this festival will bring worldwide travelers to Jackson, Mississippi each year, helping to promote the growth of the downtown area.  The Festival will also contain educational workshops for those interested in learning more about the film business.

As an ongoing effort, MFI will be working alongside the City of Jackson and the Russell C. Davis Planetarium to showcase weekly films in downtown Jackson and is working to create an educational component to bring knowledge of the film industry to the classrooms of Mississippi and beyond by partnering with industry professionals and combining films with custom content that can be incorporated into classroom curriculum to educate secondary school and university students.

YOUR MFI BOARD

Edward Saint Pe'

MFI Founder/Director

Edward Saint Pe' incorporated The Mississippi International Film and Video Festival in 1998. After 12 years of percolation the first annual festival is here.  Saint Pe' has donated 500 public domain films and television programs he purchased in 1998 to the now newly named "Mississippi Film Institute"  in 2010.  Working through the MS Dept of Education, the films will be used as a core film curriculum tool for film education in the public schools of Mississippi and beyond.

The Institute's other mission as envisioned by Saint Pe' is to use the films in an on-going "Art House Theater" project in the revitalized downtown Jackson Mississippi at the Davis Planetarium and to produce Jackson's annual premier Film and Cultural Exchange event, The Mississippi International Film Festival and EXPO.

He  began his career in media by founding the nation's first TV Weathercast via satellite service in 1990. To get the service to TV stations around the country it was necessary to create the Jackson Teleport, Mississippi's first public satellite uplink  and earth station. The Teleport has been used and is presently used by all national and international television news networks for live TV guest shots from Jackson back to their studios around the nation and world. Saint Pe' is also Founder and President of WLEZ FM, "The Voice of the Community"... Jackson Mississippi's only non-commercial FM radio station dedicated to the American Standards of yesterday.

Saint Pe' has appeared daily on-air for the past 20 years and is an active filmmaker and actor. His recent film, Zeitbombe! won best film in the Pelican D'Or Short Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana and he was  recently cast  as a lead in the  film "One Warrior" to be released in 2011. Edward is a graduate of the Communications Department of Belhaven University in Jackson.

Jason McCleave

MFI-CFO

Jason McCleave is Vice President of WeatherVision, Inc. In addition to his involvement in every business aspect of WeatherVision, from on-air delivery and affiliate relations to production management and broadcast operations, Jason is an on-camera meteorologist.  McCleave joined WeatherVision in 1995 and has worked closely with Edward Saint Pe’ to grow the company’s reach to more stations, as well as to develop its Website and its Internet forecasts. For WeatherVision’s television station affiliates, McCleave focuses on making WeatherVision’s forecasts function as a profit center for the stations by being as attractive as possible to advertisers. Working with a station’s General Manager, News Director, or most often, Sales Manager, McCleave’s objective is to deliver value. He enjoys this creative end of the business, whether it is producing a custom demo tape for the station to use for sales, adding the client’s logo to the forecast or having the meteorologist mention the client and product on the air, he takes pride in finding solutions to make the WeatherVision’s broadcasts a win-win for all concerned.  McCleave has a degree in meteorology from Mississippi State and is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. He was an on-camera weatherman at WCBI, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Mississippi, before joining WeatherVision.

At WLEZ-FM, Jason is Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Directors that controls the station and also actively oversees day-to-day traffic, billing, and programming of WLEZ-FM.  McCleave has been an officer on the Board since WLEZ’s launch in late 2003.

In his spare time, Jason rides bicycles and motorcycles, plays 8-ball and 9-ball pool and serves as a director on the Board of Statewide Federal Credit Union in Flowood, MS.

Cary L. Spence

Advisory Board

Cary L. Spence, a native Jacksonian has been in the field of Hospitality since the mid-70's. He is currently the General Manager of River Hills Club and believes that Mississippi is the very best place to live in the United States. He has worked in promotions and has had the opportunity to work with notables such as KISS, The Dooby Brothers, Journey, The Grateful Dead, and many other Rock Bands.  He worked with Cassandra Wilson, Fred Knobloch, These Days, and other local acts booking them early in their careers.   He has managed banquets and dinners with Senators, Movie Stars, and a sitting President of the United States.  He is a member of the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association and the Club Managers Association of America.

2011 Mississippi International Film Festival Committee

John Horhn

MIFF Advisor

John Horhn is a 17 year veteran of the Mississippi Senate, where he has been a champion for small business development and the City of Jackson. Prior to his election, his public service includes serving as state film commissioner for Mississippi. Senator Horhn has sponsored bills authorizing more than $300 million in projects throughout Mississippi. He serves on numerous boards, including the Mississippi Museum of Art, NewStage Theatre, the B. B. King Museum, the ACLU, and the Mississippi Technology Alliance, among others. In private life, Sen. Horhn works as a business development consultant. A member of the Screen Actors' Guild, he is also an accomplished actor and story-teller.

J. Neil Bloomer

MIFF Screener, Advisor & Documentarian

J. Neil Bloomer is co-owner, director, and producer of St. Michael's Sword LLC. Located in the south, St. Michael's Sword LLC works solo or in concert with several other film companies to achieve the highest production quality possible. 

J. Neil is currently filming (or in pre-production) 7 films, ranging from narrative shorts and features to feature documentaries, having finished work on 6 films already in 2010. Raised in Santa Cruz, CA, he made numerous live-action surf and skate films during the 1990's, as well as the short and experimental genre.

Karma Cloud Montagne

MIFF Advisor

Karma was raised in Texas throughout her young life with brief stints into South America with her family.  She began modeling when she was 15, traveling to NY, LA, Paris, before settling into a more traditional job as a radio DJ at the age of 18.  At 21, she left Texas to travel to LA to begin a career in TV, Film & Music.  She was a Commercial Talent Agent at “it” Models for several years, while making her album “Karma Cloud” with Producer, Juan Lopez, which was nationally released, and still available today.  Karma left LA at the age of 26 to start a family and relocated to Sydney, Australia, where she resumed her career as a model and mother of 2!  She has recently returned to Austin, Texas, where she is a Talent Scout for Wilhelmina Models & Actors, as well as an independent film producer.

Daniel Guaqueta

MIFF Music Director and Culture Ambassador

Daniel Guaqueta is an award winning music video producer, radio DJ of 11 years, and musician extraordinaire.  With 7 years as World & Jazz Music Director of WUSM 88.5 FM in Hattiesburg, MS, creator and producer of the popular Mississippi music blog, Mississippi Happening, and initiator of one of Jackson's only world music radio programs, Mundo Melodia, Guaqueta has continuously provided his communities with insightful and entertaining programs.  Guaqueta is one of Jackson's sources for knowledge and experience surrounding music presentations of many genres.  

Guaqueta's experience as a musician also brings a keen understanding of live music and its presentation; having performed four national tours,  released two national albums as original member of Esperanza Plantation Records artist Questions in Dialect, was former member and co-owner of Mississippi's popular Storage 24, and, currently, as a solo artist in (TR) TTOCCS REKARP.  

As Music Director of the Mississippi International Film Festival, Guaqueta hopes to bring an exciting and refreshing look at the vast cultural diversity Mississippi has to offer through its music.

Don Tingle

MIFF Advisor

Don Tingle is the Workshop Director for the Alabama Filmmakers Co-op, a Huntsville based community service organization that was founded in 1977. Don has presented over 80 workshops on various aspects of low budget and amateur moviemaking. He leads multiple workshops for the North Alabama community including a monthly Filmmakers Workshop focused on technical aspects of amateur filmmaking and a summer day-camp "MovieMakers: A Filmmaking Workshop for Kids" now in its 7th year.  Don has presented seminars and workshops with the Oxford Film Festival, Tupelo Film Festival,Ebertfest (Roger Ebert’s Film Festival), the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, the Gadsden Public Library, the Southern Shorts Film Festival (Athens, Al), and community programs including "Girls Inc." His popular "Amateur’s Guide to No Budget Filmmaking" is presented regularly to audiences eager to learn how to translate their story into a short film. Don has served as host and moderator for panel discussions at film festivals and interviewed actors, screenwriters and filmmakers. He organizes and produces the Huntsville based "Rocket City Short Film Festival," a showcase for local and regionally produced short films, held in October of each year. Recently, Don organized a new “Collaborative Screenwriting Workshop” in which an invited group of participants generate a screenplay for a short film in a single afternoon. This is now a quarterly program of the Film Co-op.  Don maintains a studio at Huntsville’s “Flying Monkey Arts Center” where he presents workshops and meets with filmmakers one-on-one to discuss their projects. By day, Don is a Technical Director at a Huntsville based aerospace company and past president of Huntsville’s Association of Community Artists.issippi!

Veleka Gray

MIFF Advisor

Veleka Gray, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a professional actress, educator, writer, director, and producer with credits in film, television, and Broadway.  She has shared the stage or screen with such luminaries as Sigourney Weaver, Ted Danson, Jobeth Williams, Ron Harper, Jameson Parker, Armand Assante, Gerald McRaney, and Madeline Kahn among others.

As an actress on afternoon television, Veleka set several records.  She starred in nine different roles in six soap operas, seven of which were contract roles, more than any other actor in history.  And she is the only actress in soap history to play two roles on the same show at the same time that were not related in any way.  Her best-remembered parts include Lyla Montgomery on "As the World Turns" and the unusual dual role of Ruby Collins and Dr. Sharon Reaves on "The Young & The Restless."

 During the fifteen years she was on daytime, Veleka was also a judge for the National Emmy Awards and is a member of the Academy.  For six years she penned a biweekly column for "Soap Opera Digest" and wrote feature articles on daytime celebrities for other fan magazines.

After a hiatus of nearly twenty years, Veleka returned to the screen in the title role in "Godmother," an entry in the 2009 48 Hour Film Project.  She was next cast as Dr. Souza in "Flag of My Father," as Eleanor Cameron in "Flood Streets," as Crystal Mortensen in "Reunion," and as Nurse in "Television2."  In October, 2010, she will be playing the role of Lisa for JonGunnar Gylfason's film "Fingers."

Wilma E. Mosley-Clopton

MIFF Advisor

Dr. Mosley-Clopton holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Sociology and German from Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma, with post graduate degrees in Education from Indiana University and St. Louis University.  She is also a graduate of The 10th Annual Ole Miss Filmmaking Workshop at the University  of Mississippi. 
Dr. Mosley-Clopton is Mississippi African American history documentarian and an independent filmmaker and author whose clients have included for The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, The Negro in Mississippi Historical Society, The Jackson NAACP, Hinds Community College and The Medgar Evers Homecoming Foundation.

Dr. Mosley-Clopton’s works include: “Stepping Stones to Economic Freedom,” a photographic documentary and companion publication which chronicles the entrepreneurial efforts of Black Mississippians from 1830 to 1930, and the documentaries “Pathfinders to a Legacy,”  highlighting the lives of Aaron Henry, Medgar Evers, Margaret Walker Alexander and Fannie Lou Hame , “Through My Brother’s Eyes” which tells the story of Medgar Evers through the eyes of his brother, Charles  Evers and “In Spite of it All”, the story of Dr. Ollye B. Shirley who was responsible for bringing "Sesame Street" and the "Electric Company" to Mississippi.  She was also the organizer/coordinator of “The Richard Wright Centennial Celebration”, “The Smith Robertson School Reunion” which included a historical exhibit about Smith Robertson and served as the publicist/marketing consultant for The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation. While serving in this capacity Dr. Mosley-Clopton developed all the commercials and promotional pieces for the Foundation.

Anthony DiFatta

MIFF Advisor / 2011 Official Festival Poster Artist

Anthony DiFatta is native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi and currently lives in Jackson with his wife Melissa, son Preston, and their rescue dog, Woody. Tony grew up in the swamps of Southern Louisiana near New Orleans where he fostered an appreciation for Southern music and culture. After being stationed in Southern California with the U.S. Navy and 2 tours in McMurdo Station, Antarctica, he returned to Mississippi to study painting and sculpture at the University of Southern Mississippi. While at Southern, he worked in the Teaching and Learning Resource Center as an illustrator/designer.

In 2000 Tony left his job as a graphic designer for MCI WorldCom to pursue painting full-time. He is involved with several non-profit and charity organizations including such programs as HeArts Against Aids, Habitat for Humanity, Mississippi Heritage Trust, ACLU, Cancer League of Jackson and many more. Tony also uses his talents to teach art to adults with mental illness through the Mississippi State Hospital, the Stubbs Homeless Program, and Jaquith Nursing Home. His artwork has been seen internationally on CD covers, posters, books, and as the official art for JubileeJAM, MS Picnic in Central Park, Crossroads Film Fest, The Viking Golf Classic, HeArts Against Aids and many more. He compiled and designed the book, "Images from the Edge", a collection of artwork and creative writing from the Stubbs Homeless Program.

 Anthony’s paintings have been in many solo and group exhibits thought Mississippi and in New York, Memphis, Santa Clara, CA, and Baton Rouge. He has been nominated for a Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts by the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.