Kristin Molloy: An Ongoing Retrospective

From the writers’ and actors’ strikes to billion-dollar Barbie, it feels like everyone’s talking about Hollywood this year — which means it’s the perfect time to introduce you all to Kristin Molloy, Festival and Program Manager for the Athena Film Festival and our resident Hollywood expert here at Athena. 

Athena Senior Programs Assistant Lauren Carr sat down with Kristin to learn more about what she does here — and more importantly, why she does it here. 

Kristin, as your colleague, I get to see what you do every day — but in your words, how would you describe what you do?

I recently got a promotion and a title change. My new title is Festival and Program Manager because we're combining the two big initiatives that we do. We have the four-day Athena Film Festival that's been running since 2011, we also have this wonderful Creative Development Program where we help emerging writers and filmmakers with stories that focus on women's leadership. I'm the sole year-round staff member that is devoted to the Athena Film Festival. I have my hands in everything that we do, and my main goal is to make sure that it all gets done on time and efficiently, and that it's still driving the mission of Athena at the end of the day.

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When I started in August 2015, the Athena Center itself looked so much different than it does today. I came to this position with expertise to help this place grow and flourish and realize all that it can be. I've seen so many changes and helped to implement things to help us grow, and become who we are, and show all of the other festivals and show New York City and everyone I can get a hold of what our mission is and what we do.

There's something so special about Athena, and I love showcasing that. 

I'm happy to say we’ve made such wonderful improvements, including a slew of student crew that we now hire to help work, and thanks to so many of our consultants, we engage more in the community. 

I think my favorite thing that I've seen develop and evolve is the Creative Development Program. The mission of the festival came out of the mission of the center and Women in Hollywood. There isn't enough representation of women on screen, particularly women leaders on screen, which of course you can define however you want. [Melissa Silverstein] had the idea of the Athena List, which is for scripts that are ready for production but need that final boost. The AFF Documentary Pitch Program is for documentaries that need extra funding and feature women leaders.

She and I spent a lot of time talking together about what the future of AFF could be, and we realized that if what we're trying to do is change what you're seeing on screen, we need to take a step back further and help to get those stories made. So it's been really beautiful to help grow this Creative Development Program into what it is now.

 

How did you get into festivals, and how are you so good at this?

I started working at festivals when I had an internship when I was 19 years old. It was due in part to the mentor I had and also a really great TA who helped me to see the skills that I had in organizing and doing operations and events. Like that is an actual job in itself! I didn't know that you could have a job where you were in charge of making runs of shows and I didn't know I had this talent.

I thought I would be a producer, like a more hands-on film producer, organizing the call sheets and being on set, making sure that it all runs smoothly. But I found that my real passion lies in doing live events. There is this electricity of being able to put everything together and then watch it happen before your eyes. So I realized that in college and then I hopped around to so many different festivals.

When you watch something for the first time and you really love it and then you go to the festival programming meeting with everyone else and you fight for that film and you finally win over your colleagues, and you finally get to program it… There's something so special about sharing it with an audience and being there to watch an audience experience it for the first time, knowing that you had a hand in shepherding this artist's work. And I think it's just such a wonderful feeling! So to be able to do that with all the films and all the programs we have here and seeing the excitement on the audience's faces and hearing the students talk about what they're going to see.
 

Why do you do that here, at Barnard?

There's something so special about Barnard, it's a thing that you can't really explain. Barnard students are unlike any other student I've ever encountered in my entire adult life and even undergrad life. I went to college in New York City, it was a completely different experience from anyone who went to Barnard. This is a magical, wonderful place. And I think a lot of that comes from the students because they aren't afraid to fully be themselves and realize their potential. They're not afraid to agitate and advocate for themselves. It's something that makes working here… It changes you in a sense because it allows you to feed off of that energy. If a student decides they don't like the way the food service place that we're ordering from because they realized that, in addition to colleges, they also had terrible practices in prisons and they're holding a protest on campus, then I can easily advocate for myself in a smaller capacity. 

It’s feeling that inspiration of, don't be afraid to speak up for yourself, to speak up for others. But also on the other side of that, don't be afraid to celebrate the joy and excitement, and be your whole self. I think it's really lovely. Being here eight years now, I've seen so many different students blossom and change over their four years at the college. And it's been lovely to be a part of that. I think that it's such a special place.

Sometimes when you've been someplace for a long time, people ask, why are you still here? And you get new energy [at Barnard]. That's the wonderful thing about every school year. I might not be a faculty or a student, but when the school year starts, there's new energy and new things that are coming and that keeps it changing in a good way all the time. And it's just wonderful. 

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What’s something about your work that might surprise others? 

I think my favorite thing to talk about is line management. I spend a lot of time thinking about lines. This is very niche! I think about how to make a line more efficient, and how to make sure that everyone who's standing in line knows what's going on.

We were doing a screening of Knock Down the House. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was coming and we knew that people were going to line up early. I know everyone was incredibly excited about seeing her. But I was more excited that I figured out how to best implement and create lines and egress and not block hallways. I talked to CARES about how to help us out and got all of these volunteers and ran it. The thing I think that would surprise people is just the excitement I get from lines, and it comes with me everywhere. When I'm waiting, I'll start complaining and my partner will be like, “Can you not?”

I'm very much obsessed with this in a way that no one else is. There's an entire book about it called Why Does the Other Line Move Faster? that does a full history of Western culture creating lines and all of the different science.
 

What’s something you’ve learned about the film industry that you wish others knew?

Something I've learned, and this goes for anything in the entire world: the worst thing someone can tell you is no. Always ask a question, and be curious about everything. Sometimes you'll run into issues with people who are gatekeepers of things.

I found that early on in my career that people weren't willing to share wisdom and knowledge out of, I'll quote Umbreen, out of scarcity and not abundance, instead of sharing their knowledge and what they know to help set up the next generation of people. I think that has since changed, I find a lot of people who are in my generation working at festivals and a lot of the people I work with now are always willing to help out other people. 

[The industry] can be intimidating and scary because there's this model and idea of Hollywood, that these are celebrities, so what am I doing here? I don't belong here. I'm going to mess it up. But they're people, like if you're ever working with anything that is related to quote-unquote Hollywood, like red carpets, they're just people. I think that more often than not, if I'm going to give you advice on celebrities, just say hi to them as you would anyone else that you're working with. And it goes a long way. That also makes them feel better. 

Be curious, ask questions. I think that if you're ever wanting to explore getting a job at a film festival, volunteer first and you can see all the different things.

Remember that you can try a bunch of things out. Just because you decided you wanted to do programming, but then all of a sudden you think you actually want to manage and do an executive director position, ask questions. If you take an interest in what people do, they'll get excited and want to talk about it.

I made a lot of those relationships early on in my career just by asking questions about people's journeys and how they got to where they were. And they were so wonderful about it. Once I got past the people who wouldn't share anything with me and I found the right people who helped me.

Another piece of advice is, and this is a deep cut, if you're the person who has been filing permits for something for a really long time and you decide to no longer do that, you must pass along that wisdom.

 

That sounds specific, maybe you’re speaking from experience?

If you're not doing it anymore, what's the harm in helping someone else figure it out? Stop gatekeeping! Share your wisdom! 

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You’ve been part of every Athena Film Festival since 2016. What’s your favorite festival moment or story? I know, it’s probably impossible to pick just one!

I would say one of the most inspiring and beautiful moments of the festival was at the February 2017 festival. Right off of the 2016 election, right after the Women's March, we had a wonderful town hall. Of course, Gloria Steinem was there. And to hear from someone who has seen everything and telling you not to give up was wonderful. 

We also had Dolores Huerta at the festival and she was wonderful. I think her piece of advice I stayed with was that, as you know, she did a lot of stuff for workers' rights. And someone asked her, “What do you do if someone isn't willing to listen to you?” And her piece of advice stuck. She's said, “Talk to them about it on three occasions, and after three times, if their minds and hearts have not been changed or shifted, move on to the next person.” I think it's a great piece of advice because, for anyone who is trying to create, implement, change, or build communities or try to get someone to see your side of things, it can be exhausting when you're constantly hearing the term, like reach across. If this person's not listening to you within the three times you've been trying, find someone else who will. 

We have a lot of fun too. We have great seasonal staff that come in and we will do a volunteer appreciation party and that's always so much fun. It's changed over the years. We used to have karaoke nights and now we do trivia. The volunteers are just so wonderful. It's a mix of Barnard students and people who volunteer at festivals and they just are so funny, a bunch of really great film nerds that will give you a run for your money. One of them is always like, “Kristin, you should play with us, I bet you know everything.” And I don't play because I don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that they know more about film than I do! There's always just so many wonderful, great moments.

I constantly walk around and see little moments of a mom and daughter that go to see movies together or hear a group of students who are like, “Are you going to that? We’re going to go do this, are you going to go to this screening?” And it's great. 

Shameless plug for myself, I finally put together a panel on women in horror, and Nancy Stephens, who is one of our sponsors and famously played Nurse Marian in the Halloween films, I got her to be a part of the women in and horror panel. The best soundbite was Caryn Coleman, who runs the Future of Film is Female and is a great horror enthusiast, was talking to Nancy, and I think this had to be 2018 or 2019, and she asked  “Nancy, you famously survived the first two movies and then were killed off in the third one. Do you ever think you'll return?” And Nancy was like, “Never say never.” And then she was in the new Halloween series! Like she came back, which I thought was so funny. She predicted it before she even knew. It was just fantastic. 

It's a wonderful, great celebration, that's why it's impossible to pick one. 

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Heard any good gossip recently, industry or otherwise? Can you share it?

I know so much good gossip that I cannot share because I'm so industry-adjacent and I have a lot of friends who work in industry-specific stuff! I’ll tell you some offline. 
 

What makes a perfect movie, in your opinion? 

I mean, it's subjective. In my opinion, what makes a good movie? One that I can talk about. Even if you are watching something and you're having a good time following along, and you're picking out stuff, if you could spend an hour talking about something after you're done with it, I think that makes a perfect movie.

I love talking about that stuff. It's the idea that like I can watch something and then talk to my friends about it for like an hour and a half afterward and like go through and pick apart stuff, this was fantastic and this is why it was great, but why did they decide to do this? And to try to do the industry brain, this person came down from the studio and was like, you have to change this.

I love a good rom-com. Always have, always will. I wait with bated breath to get good rom-coms back. Like I'm just like, They're so good. We're in a lull, for sure, and I think it's because Mark Ruffalo is, has gotten too old to star in them. Oh, 13 Going On 30. My mom introduced me. We watched the movie together. They had the Razzles and I didn't know what they were, and now my mom buys me them every year on my birthday.

 

Any upcoming releases you’re excited about? 

So many. Given the strike and all that, there are a lot of things that aren't being advertised, so you kind of have to dig in. The fall is usually a huge time for film festivals. So you usually have TIFF and Telluride and New York Film Festival and you get those films. There's the Oscar side of that, which is always fun to watch. But there are also wonderful foreign films in the fall. 

I'm excited for Todd Hayes's new film May December. The writer, Sammy Birch, is someone I met years ago and I'm so excited to see it. I think it's the centerpiece at the New York Film Festival and it stars Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.

I'm excited for Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla, because we had Elvis. It feels like a wonderful pairing. I want to do a double feature of Elvis and Priscilla, and Sophia Coppola’s films are always visually stunning to look at. 

I'm excited for Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film, Poor Things with Emma Stone because I love that partnership. I think that's going to be great. 

There are so many good things that come out in the fall too. We had a great summer. People are back in theaters, which is lovely and I love theater, but I am excited for those quiet long films. We started the summer with Fast 10 and big explosions, and now it's like, hmm, let's sit and watch this quiet three-hour movie. I'm excited for those coming up and I'm sure there'll be other stuff.
 

What’s your life like outside of the Athena Film Festival? What brings you joy? What’s something that has made you smile recently? 

Because I do so much forward-facing work and interact with so many people, people think I'm constantly out on the town and schmoozing and talking to people. But really, I spend a lot of time with myself or my small group of friends that I have. 

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Things that bring me joy are my cat. Isn't it funny that there's just a little creature that lives in my house? We go to bed and there's just something roaming around. This is my little guy and I'll bump into him and go, “What are you doing up? It's two o'clock in the morning.” So that’s constant smiles. 

It’s no surprise to anyone that I love geeking out on film stuff. I have a movie group with my friends. We usually meet up every Friday, and we're now like 165 movies deep. It’s a wonderful group of people. I'll never share the list of what we watch with anyone because it runs the gambit of like, why would anyone watch this?

I love reading. In the same way that summer blockbusters are for those big action movies. Summer for me is reading romcom books. And then in the fall, I'll cozy up with the serious New York Times bestsellers. I’m pretty non-glamorous. I like going to see movies, and going to bookstores, and talking with friends, and getting ice cream. I like building Lego sets. I like doing cross stitch, but only eight-bit cross stitch, so video game cross stitching. I have a Nintendo Switch, after I turned 30, I became a gamer officially. So now I'm just obsessed with my cozy games. You know, life is fun.

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What’s something I haven’t asked you about — but should have?

I mean, I think we have to go with, remember to save the date for the 2024 Film Festival! It’s February 29-March 3, 2024.