New leadership for the Fairhope Film Festival as its founder hands over the reins
Every second weekend in November, Fairhope becomes a film town. The Fairhope Film Festival, now approaching its thirteenth annual edition, screens forty of the year’s best independent films across the town’s walkable venues — a scale that puts it in the company of festivals like Sundance, Tribeca and South by Southwest, if a good deal smaller and easier to park in. This year, the festival makes that lineup under new leadership.
Mary Riser, who started the festival in 2012 after spearheading a successful monthly film series, is stepping down as executive director after twelve years of bringing award-winning films and special guests to the Eastern Shore. She will stay on as chairman of the board and director of programming — meaning she still screens and selects the films — while Melanie LeCroy takes over the festival’s day-to-day leadership.
From interview to festival assistant to director
LeCroy’s path to the job began with an assignment: she was a writer for a regional newspaper when she interviewed Riser about the festival for a news story, and the two stayed in touch. When LeCroy decided she was ready for a change, that connection became the answer. She joined as a festival assistant that summer — “initiation by fire,” Riser says of throwing everything at her at once. “She was quick to learn.” LeCroy’s own recollection is simpler: “It was fun, I loved it.”
Her preparation came from years in customer service — managing doctors’ offices, working retail, organizing other businesses. “Every one of those jobs prepared me for this,” she says. The job itself is a long list: fundraising, event planning, website management, administration, plus running the festival’s Monthly Movies program in the 40-seat theater at the festival office at 122 Fairhope Avenue, where two showings of independent films run each month from January through May, complete with popcorn and wine, $15 tickets and required reservations.
Outreach across the county
LeCroy’s priority is growth through outreach. “With all the new people moving here, we need to get the word out to grow the festival,” she says. Her plan is to speak anywhere that will listen — Chambers of Commerce, city councils, Rotary Clubs and any group that invites speakers — to build the audience and expand sponsorships.
She grew up in Ohio and West Virginia, attended Kent State University, and moved to Fairhope 11 years ago. Fairhope was her household’s tenth move, and the last one: “Once I got here, I told him, this is it, I’m not going anywhere.” She and her two children are committed Fairhopians.
Riser, meanwhile, is turning to her own filmmaking, with a documentary on the Italian colonies of Baldwin County already in production. The handoff keeps the festival’s programming in the hands that built its reputation while giving the operations to new energy — a combination the festival’s audience will see on screens downtown this November.