On July 15th, Cacky Poarch will be stepping down as Executive Director of the deadCENTER Film Festival. Cacky actually made this decision before the festival, but was asked to keep the announcement confidential until yesterday.
Here’s a statement from Cacky herself…
I’ve been doing this gig for the past 8 years, both as a volunteer and employee, and it’s been a great ride.
For our 10th anniversary, the Festival hosted a Decade of deadCENTER Retrospective at the IAO Gallery (thank you Jennifer, Alyx and Brian!) and it was a sincere gift to be able to reminisce about how much our festival has grown over the last decade. Since moving the festival downtown with the ‘Fab Five’, the festival has experienced continual growth that has been amazing. The festival experienced a 2000% revenue growth, which seems outlandish, but it’s true. Even Lloyd Kaufman, the owner of the oldest independent film studio, Troma Studios, has said that we are the best run film festival he has ever attended. We are all extremely proud of that.
For our 10th year, we can honestly say we rocked the face off OKC. We had record attendance, multiple world premieres and attracted the likes of Spike Jonze, Elvis Mitchell and even Simply Irresistible. That’s about every shade of fabulous a festival can hope for. We’ve also developed a solid strategic plan, and with a sound Board of Directors, the next Executive Director will have all the tools necessary to successfully take deadCENTER into the next decade.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to all our sponsors and volunteers that have helped make deadCENTER the largest and most prestigious film festival in Oklahoma. We couldn’t do it without community support and for that I am sincerely grateful. I’ve always said that people think our festival is run by magical fairies because it operates so smoothly. It’s truly because of the Kimmisioners’ hard work and all the volunteers that rally to make it a success.
Thank you. You’re all awesome. I love you.
-Cacky
