Industry-led; Volunteer-Fueled
Allyson West is a multi-award winning filmmaker. She holds a BFA in Acting and is the founder of the Cindependent Film Festival. Since 2017, she has curated over 52 short film programs spanning genre, theme, location and energy.
In 2017, Allyson's film TEXICAN garnered multiple acclaim on the indie festival circuit, curated and screening over 30 times within 10 months across the country. The film won multiple Best Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress awards.
She founded Cindependent in 2018, which has been awarded a 'Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festival,' and the 'Best Filmmaker-Focused Festival in Cincinnati' by Cincinnati CityBeat.
Allyson is a sought-after host and speaker and currently continues her visual storytelling work as a Director and Producer for the Kroger Company; her emphasis on quality and storytelling have recently won multiple Ragan Awards in 2024. Recent projects include directing celebrity Issa Rae and local-favorites, Crunchy and Bubs, in famous Cincinnati scenes.
Jack Crumley is CIFF’s Board President and joined Cindependent in 2018. He works as the Regional News Director for 700wlw.
Jonny Shenk is an experience film curator who currently curates and programs in Cincinnati, Ohio. He created CindePodcast and directs the Adjudication team.
Melissa Iwu is a systems expert and works in regulatory. She is creating the CIFF Member Program.
TJ Peloquin is an indie filmmaker. He is part of our hospitality team and runs the monthly CindeSocials.
Cindependent Film Festival is Cincinnati’s Home for Independent Filmmakers.
The first festival took place in August 2018 at The Woodward Theater and Mini MicroCinema on Main St. in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. In partnership with 21c Museum Hotel, the festival hosted over 160 artists with over 200 submissions including films and screenplays. The event was three days long and featured hospitality events including city-wide tours for the visiting filmmakers. There were four educational classes in the first festival. Attendance was over 2,000 screening attendees for the three days of programming. Submissions were received and screened from international locations including Canada.
The event was awarded grants from both ArtsWave, the Ohio Arts Council and the City of Cincinnati for its work. The festival awarded 5 Development Grants to filmmakers of promise wherein each would be granted $500 to develop new filmmaking work in the Cincinnati area.
Following the event, Cindependent was listed as a ‘Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festival,’ and still retains this honor to this day.
The festival was also noted as the best ‘filmmaker-focused festival’ in the city due to its networking and economic events as part of the weekend.
The 2019 festival took place the last weekend of August and included more locations: The Woodward Theater, The Mini MicroCinema, Graydon on Main and Know Theater. This three day event followed the same schedule as the previous festival but with over 220 filmmakers in attendance including from international locations such as Canada, Mexico, Russia and India.
Again, there were multiple sold-out screenings and attendance topped out at 2500 screening attendees for the events.
The festival was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. In its stead, the organization developed Reels on Wheels, a mobile cinema that was funded by ArtsWave and the Ohio Arts Council in both 2020 and 2021. The cinema screened over 25 times in 2020 in various neighborhoods around the city of Cincinnati.
Reels on Wheels continued in 2020 alongside Cindependent and Chill, a virtual, monthly subscription product that aimed to keep artists employed during the pandemic. The program hosted 11 months of curated film screenings and was discontinued in January 2022.
The organization hosted four nights of virtual screenplay readings in 2021, employing a group of performers for four evenings and giving screenwriters the opportunity to hear their work in live performances.
In 2022, the festival hosted a six series film screening event in partnership with The Woodward Cinema.
The festival returned in 2023 to Memorial Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, alongside launches of CindePodcast, CindeSocial and our indie film community calendar.
The 2023 festival hosted 15 masterclasses, 16 1:1 professional networking sessions, five parties, 10 film screenings, 6 screenplay salons which employed local actors and three days of film education and entertainment events.
We welcomed our meaningful community partners to participate including Black Cincinnati Cinema Collective, Women in Film, OutReels Cincinnati, The Golden Lion Film Awards, The Niehoff Center for Film and Media Studies and Northern Kentucky University.
We are currently in plans to host the 2024 festival at Memorial Hall and other locations on September 19, 20, 21, 2024.
Our board includes Allyson West, Jack Crumley, Jim Crooks, Jonny Shenk, Melissa Iwu, Sian Bitner-Kearney, Christina Hardebeck, David Chimusoro and TJ Peloquin.
Our advisory team includes Aaron Kes, Erica Bock, David Stephen-Kalonick, Peter Niehoff and Jason Snell.
You can join or sponsor our team. Let us create with you.
Magic is reel.
Jim Crooks is a visual artist, art curator, art consultant, writer, poet, musician, framer, and critic. He holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting. In 1999, Jim co-founded Red Top Art Gallery and Studio in the Mohawk District of Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio. His work has been featured in the weekly arts and culture newspapers Everybody's News and CityBeat as well as his own self-published zines Dead Animal Flesh, The Stick, and Good Gravy. He has participated in multiple juried art exhibitions. Retiring in 2022 after 22 years as a civil servant within the United States Treasury Department, Jim was voted in as the Board Treasurer of Cindependent. In addition, he works at Eisele Fine Art Gallery in Mariemont as well as running the Framers' Guild, also located in Mariemont.
Christina Hardebeck is a special education Vice Principal with a first-career in film and media. She is our Volunteer Coordinator.
NOT PICTURED: Sian Bitner-Kearney and Jason Snell.
Cindependent also retains an Advisory Council comprised of meaningful individuals who contribute resources or time to our festival. These members include Aaron Kes, Amber Reynolds, Meredith Carroll, Ryan J. Poole, Peter Niehoff and Kirk Weber.