The Ashland Film Festival did happen in 2023, but barely. A few dedicated film fans patched together a short festival, after AIFF found itself with no staff, few board members, and debt on the books after COVID and some programming missteps.
Now AIFF is following in the footsteps of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "Save Our Season" campaign, asking people to contribute to save and ultimately re-boot the film festival.
Step one: people. Jim Fredericks is now in place as the Executive Director of AIFF. He visits the JX with board member Carina Kolodny to talk about putting the festival's past behind it, and ensuring that it has a future.