ABOUT US

OUR MISSION

To expand minds, open hearts, and entertain people through worldwide independent cinema.

OUR VISION

Provide a year-round destination for international independent cinema, promoting diversity, understanding, education, and inclusion through engaging storytelling. Our world-class annual festival in San Luis Obispo County, along with events throughout the year at the SLO Film Center, provide a venue for international and local filmmakers, exposing an ever-expanding range of audiences to new ideas and experiences.

Located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, surrounded by lush vineyards, ranch land, and a 100-mile coastline, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLO Film Fest) is headquartered in the quaint, sophisticated downtown of San Luis Obispo on the spectacular Central Coast of California. As a premier 6-day annual event, the SLO Film Fest showcases contemporary and classic film screenings in a wide variety of venues. These range from the city’s classic art deco Fremont Theatre to the popular independent Palm Theatre, which now also hosts the newly established SLO Film Center showcasing independent film year-round.

What makes the SLO Film Fest Special?

Skye McLennan

Executive Director

Grace Tucker

Associate Director

SLO FILM CENTER STAFF

HEAD OF PROGRAMMING: Ryan Burr
THEATER MANAGER: Talha Hussaini

GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Elizabeth Kurrels & Rhiannon Dudley | PUBLICIST: Ann Flower

SLO FILM CENTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MARIA KELLY - Board Chair

Maria has applied her collaboration and networking skills to all aspects of education, corporate branding, government affairs and community relations. She has been responsible for building capacity through community engagement, promoting sustainability and strengthening strategic relationships for both public and private organizations. Building community and solving problems are core to her approach. Maria holds an MS in management and leadership from Pepperdine University, a certification in paralegal studies from Cal Poly SLO and a BS from Oregon State University.

SUZANNE SCHONIG - Vice Board Chair

Suzanne is a local radio host and program director. She's spent the past 20 years working in broadcast locally including a year at KCBX, our local NPR station, and 19 years in commercial radio with American General Media. Currently, she is programming and hosting for 93.3 KZOZ and The Krush 92.5. Tune in sometime! Her connection to the SLO Film Fest is long standing as she has worked with her company on ongoing sponsorship of the fest, attended as a fan and has entertained festival goers as an emcee at Surf Night and our Music Video Showcase and has proudly presented various awards to our winning filmmakers. Suzanne happily brings her experience in public speaking, events, marketing and her passion for community building to the board.

TOM WALTERS - Treasurer

For the past 20 years, Tom has worked as a writer, producer and director on numerous internationally distributed documentary and educational films. His most recent, the award-winning “Botso”, became the Critics Pick of the New York Times. After graduating from Cal Poly, he received additional training at the Sony Institute and at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. In 2014, Walters was awarded an Artist In Residence position at the Napa Valley Film Festival. Tom enjoys playing music with The Taproots

KYLE PLUMMER - Secretary

Kyle Plummer is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in the beautiful Central Coast of California. His first short documentary Korea Remembered, made at the age of 16, was honored by the Department of Defense in 2013 and was made a permanent addition to their historical records. More recently, amongst many other short and feature length projects, Kyle edited and produced the multi-award-winning short documentary Becoming Rich (2018). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication with an emphasis in Digital Film and has returned to SLO to pursue independent production work in both film and video through SuperImage, Ltd.

RYAN HATHAWAY

MEG HIGDON

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NINA LESCHINSKY

Nina is a wine industry veteran on the Central Coast of California. She has held numerous roles in her career, acting in executive roles at Vina Robles, Ancient Peaks, Justin, and Perinet. Her love of independent film was developed in her youth in the Bay Area, loving books and movies, followed by numerous visits to film festivals including Sundance, SLOIFF, and Santa Barbara Film festival. This path naturally led her to the SLOIFF board in 2023. With extensive knowledge of the wine industry, events, and brand development, Nina brings
a global and local perspective to the board. Nina is a resident of Santa Margarita, where she lives with her husband, Chris, and two sons, Rio and Aksel.

CHELSEA O'CONNOR

Chelsea has been watching “weird” (aka independent) films since she was young, so it was no surprise that she instantly fell in love with SLOIFF after attending her first screening 11 years ago upon moving to SLO. She’s been involved with the festival ever since and appreciates the delightful oddities, diversity, and fresh perspectives it brings to the community. Chelsea has built her career turning data into smarter systems and smoother processes, always on the lookout for a better, more efficient way to do just about everything (preferably with fun or humor involved).

RODNEY OTT

Rodney Ott is a retired attorney who has always loved movies. One of his earliest memories involves his parents taking him to see Vincent Price in “The Fly” at a drive-in movie theater in rural Michigan. He continued his fascination with film while working for 30 years as a commercial litigator in New York City and Phoenix, Arizona before retiring to Paso Robles. When not suing used car dealers as part of his pro bono work, Rod regularly attended the Scottsdale International
Film Festival, where he served for a time on its Board of Directors, as well as
attending film festivals in Sedona and Phoenix.

ASIT RAIRKAR

Asit Rairkar was born and grew up in Mumbai, India and came to the US for graduate studies. Asit holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University and a BS in Engineering from University of Pune, India. He has had a rewarding 15 year career in Silicon Valley at various companies, such as Applied Materials and Apple. He is the founding principal of a SLO based consulting company, Samaasa Consulting and is a part time faculty member in Engineering at Cal Poly in SLO. Having grown up watching mainly mainstream Hollywood and Bollywood movies, he has been an avid independent and foreign language movie lover and Film Festival goer since his time in the US. He has been a SLO resident since 2017 and has attended the SLO IFF almost every year since then. Asit is excited to be working alongside the highly capable board and leadership team at the SLO Film Center and international film festival.

EMILY RYALLS

Emily is a Professor at Cal Poly in the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Liberal Arts Department. She also teaching for Women’s, Gender, and Queer Studies Department. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of critical/cultural studies and feminist media studies. She is the 2022-2023 recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award. In her free time, she can be found watching films at the Palm Theatre and hanging with her dog, Henry.