MIX NYC

MIX NYC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to queer experimental film. It is also known as the "MIX festival," for its most visible program, the annual New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival (NYLGEFF), which has featured early works by filmmakers such as Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes, Isaac Julien, Thomas Allen Harris, Barbara Hammer, Jonathan Caouette, Jennie Livingston, and Matthew Mishory.

MIX was founded in 1987 by Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard. The festival was created because newly emerging Gay Film Festivals were not including formally inventive work, and the then vibrant experimental film venues marginalized gay and lesbian work. They were aided by curators Jack Waters and Peter Cramer from Naked Eye Cinema and Ela Troyano who programmed The New York Film Festival Downtown. The first festival featured the world premiere of Su Freidrich's Damned If You Don't, and from then on the festival became a showcase for new works by established makers, archival masters like Barbara Rubin's Christmas on Earth, and new emerging artists. Quickly, in concert with the emerging AIDS Activist and Queer Activist movement of the day- The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival (NYLGEFF) became a mass cultural event in the LGBT underground. Friday nights were guaranteed sold-out "Lesbian Date Nights" and a counter-culture of new interest in filmmaking and video production emerged around the festival community. MIX soon became very influential on other programming venues, often contributing significant work to The Whitney Biennial, Berlin International Film Festival and other important screens. MIX exhibited first films by major lesbian, gay and bisexual filmmakers including Todd Haynes' college thesis film, Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud, (which got him his first review, ever), Maria Maggenti's Name Day, the first screening of Paris Is Burning, when it was still on a dual system, Christine Vachon's first film, and many others. Hubbard and Schulman prioritized artists' fees, paying all makers equally regardless of the length of their work, since in experimental film, labor intensivity was not determined by length. They included the first focus on films by and about black gay men in any film Festival. Schulman and Hubbard worked long and hard to get press review coverage for gay experimental work, often holding individual press screenings at the critic's convenience. They hand wheatpasted posters on buildings around the city, and leafleted areas where gay people hung out, like the piers and bars. MIX received no funding and managed to break even on enthusiastic box office support. They showed gay experimental film from other countries and brought films by hand to venues around the US, Europe and Japan. The festival has shown the work of filmmakers such as Barbara Hammer, Nisha Ganatra, Teri Rice, Jonathan Caouette, and Isaac Julien among hundreds more. As makers began to die of AIDS, Jim became active in film preservation, beginning with the film Avocada by the late Bill Vehr of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Eventually, he preserved over 2,000 hours of AIDS Film and Video, now available for free viewing at the New York Public Library. During Sarah and Jim's tenure, no one was ever turned away from MIX due to inability to pay. The festival also included Transsexual work from the very first year, with Marguerite Paris's film All Women Are Equal. They found ways of getting works by makers like Chantal Ackerman who did not show in gay festivals. Among many fabulous moments in the festival's history was MIX's screening of Andy Warhol's Blow Job which was attended by Kitty Carlisle Hart in a gown with a tuxedo'd escort.

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