A Conversation With Outfest's Damien Navarro About The Future of Film With Q26
Executive Director Damien S. Navarro was selected by the Board of Outfest to become its next Executive Director in 2019. Navarro oversees all day-to-day leadership and oversight responsibility for Outfest staff and programs, including fundraising, finance and administration, staff supervision, and external relations. Navarro is a native Angeleno and a graduate of film studies from California State University, Fullerton. He began his career as a start-up entrepreneur, building the LA-based digital marketing and tech agency, Earthbound Media Group (EMG) / Brighter. Damien is the proud owner of Monkey Business Farms, a sustainable urban farm in LA's Laurel Canyon, where he lives with his husband, Adam. Jasmine D. Lowe, the Managing Editor at Q26, got a chance to sit with the Executive Director for Q26's QTYPE.
Damien S. Navarro
Jasmine D. Lowe: So, how did you come into the role of Executive Director at Outfest?
Damien S. Navarro: It's definitely one of those right places, right times journeys that I never thought I would find myself in," said Damien S. Navarro. "I in my career have worked with dozens, and dozens of nonprofits and education and healthcare and lots of foundations and, and just have always really enjoyed them as clients. But, and, and I did sit on a few boards, nothing, nothing like this. I was an adjunct professor at Chapman for a couple of years, and so slowly, I was being pulled into giving back directly, I guess you could say.
I've always been into film. I've been to Outfest many times my husband was actually currently a member at the time, and I remember opening up LinkedIn for the first time where I wasn't recruiting, but I was actually job hunting. I remember it was one of the first job descriptions that popped up, and I went to film school. I had always wanted to be in film in some way. I produced shorts, and everything else that I just saw if I was going to get into the entertainment industry, which I had been in for years, but always on the marketing side, always on advertising digital. So, this came up. I remember writing Kevin, the recruiter, pretty quickly. I was like, listen, I am such an outsider for this, but I would be crazy not to throw my hat in.
We have two festivals that we do, and although shockingly are, so we have a pretty steady audience space. It was just becoming increasingly difficult. The Los Angeles film festival had been canceled. I think just the year before. We suddenly were the largest, and we are the largest film festival in Los Angeles. They knew that in order for us to survive, they wanted to ideally find a leader that understood them and could get us where we wanted to be.
Jasmine: With that saying, where do you see Outfest going another 50 years from now? Is it going to look like the two festivals that we have now and a bunch of other programs, or is it going to be digital because of all the transition with COVID?
Damien: Well, hopefully, it's not because of your COVID. We started going digital, and this is months before, again, I specifically built a career in digital media streaming content publishing content platforms, and all of that space. It just so happened that most of my clients were nonprofits. And most of that media advertising work at some point is used to help raise money, support the mission, expand the audience.
Jasmine: Got it.
Damien: So that began with my hire way before COVID. It is bizarre. Some will say it's fate. You may want to say the universe. However, it is strange at this moment that you do have an executive director who comes from a space that is very comfortable throwing massive events online and using portals and streaming content. The question is, how do you monetize that? So, when you talk about 50 years, it's a very different space, but ideally, the dream, the mission, the goal is that we take the programs that we have and make them accessible to so many more people.
We take the impact that we have in visibility and looking at visibility, especially in so many underrepresented communities within our own community umbrella, and use this new platform, which is a hybrid. We are working to provide distribution and exhibition of those stories to so many more people. If you look at just last month alone, where we finally started to turn things on a little bit to see how people respond, live conversations, and streaming content, our first festival online, in partnership with a lot of major publishers. The response has been incredible, and our ability to pivot and be part of the inter-conversation, which we normally couldn't have done before we had this vision, we couldn't have done for a whole year.
Now, all of a sudden, we are present. We can give the mic over to black filmmakers within days, or our trans community, but then days, within a day, can go back and find content, but never received distribution and provide that platform because it's more important now to have that as part of the conversation than ever before.
So, in many ways, when you're just selling tickets, you have such a diversity of people that you're trying to attract, but really because it's capitalistic in nature, you're appealing to people with money to be quite honest. Whether that's donors, or whether people that can afford the tickets that have transportation. Even though we have done our very best not to let members of our community be marginalized or be left without access, by default, because it's a physical event that requires you to be there, whether you have a physical disability, or distance challenged, you can leave millions out. What's unique to our programming is that we have really pushed the envelope to make it as representative of so many different groups of people. But up until now, again, it was limited to the amount of people you could get in a seat.
Jasmine: What are some of the programs that you're working on right now that we'll probably see that are online and available to us with that kind of access?
Damien: So, Screenwriting Lab, obviously, is great for digital. I mean, it's nothing that, other than, I mean, getting together in the city face to face with their mentors, the field, the filmmakers, the writers that are selected from the screenwriting lab, have very, very little lead to come together in person. So that's a program. Outfest legacy project by its very nature, film, archive, and restoration is about digital. So that one got picked off years ago and has only accelerated once the people could actively go in, keep archiving and restoring films that will be turned back on. Then Outset, which is our young filmmakers' project, is in need of a reboot because right now, that very much plays into a lot of the physical, socio-economic issues that no matter how many times we've tried to solve it by its very nature. After all, it is a heavy burden, a substantial requirement for so many, we have seen dropouts, we have seen those that are more challenged.
I'm really excited to dig into that program and understand how it could be more balanced from a gender perspective, from a race perspective, how are films selected? How can this can maybe be on digital for a fair mode and get more people involved because of those whose lives it's transformed, it's been incredible for those whose lives have been challenged or experiences. It's something that you're really listening to, because it is supposed to be when you're dealing with 16 to 24-year-olds is something that you have to be really sensitive to what their needs are as time evolves. And so that's one I'm really excited to kind of dive into and see where it goes. Then, of course, the festivals. It's a lot to express how many different ways you're turning the onion to figure out where you want to chop it, so you don't cry. That's the best metaphor that I can use.
Jasmine: [laughs] I like that metaphor.
Damien: [laughs] Do I go against the grain? It's going to hurt because it's not what you're used to. It is shepherding people both from an audience perspective soon and the team and the staff to get through it. The board to approve budgets that are traditionally that high and digital--that's the part where it absolutely got fast-tracked, the minute that COVID hit. And then when black lives matter began, and that became something that they're like, Oh, this is an opportunity to really, even though we strive to do this all year round, share from black artists and share some of our personal stories right now.
How do we use it as an opportunity to say, wow, people are really craving listening, and we have this digital platform because everybody's at home, so, let's do this. Let's really sift back through last year and look at black filmmakers who didn't get picked up and who are absolutely deserving. What black females are out there? Because even more so, their voices are not being heard, especially when you look at black lesbians. This is critical that we really take the time to not keep pressing forward, but go back in time and say, what are the voices that just never got selected because we do have this storybook that's open 24/7 now.
Jasmine: What advice do you have for those young people who want to get into entertainment or do what you do with Outfest and give back to the community?
Damien: My Alma mater just did an article on me, which was kind of great because it's like, wow, you went to film school, you're a person of color your gay and why didn't you just go right into the industry? A lot of what we're uncovering, and that's no surprise to anybody of color who is in the industry especially if you look at the socioeconomic background, to even get your leg up in management or an agency working in the mailroom like these needs the resources and the compensation are dismal. Then if you're handicapable in some ways that again, eliminates you from so many of the physicality that's required of internships.
That's also a challenge. So, we're really pressing that the incoming role of the entertainment industry is the only way that will begin to impact the outgoing, which is content, or the types of stories we see. Most people just want to attack the end game, and that's not helping. As young people, I think holding people like myself, even though I will put myself in an older generation, I've definitely been around a number of years, and I like being held accountable. I come from a family in which each of us holds each other accountable. I think being very persistent in not simply being defeated by the first, "no" is the first part, or not feeling like you're empowered to do.
And this may not be cut out for you. Just if it starts to harm at any point, you just know there are lots of choices, and to make sure of self-care and trying to understand who you are at any moment. It's something that I was trying to tell people to go back to. Whether that be my students or not because it's so easy for us to be turned against one another, self-hatred, body shaming, all of these things that were already the entertainment has been notorious for, and that's not just for, in front of the camera, and that's across the board unless you're a fat, white, old dude. It seems to be the only time the entertainment was back in the day promoting you. And everybody else had to look like very different roles.
I think they're changing; I think there's hope, but we are just at the very beginning. Part of it is the enemy also being the opposite of that it is tough, and we were going to hear horrible, disgusting things. So, make sure you have a support group and the community if you need one. And that's what I love about organizations like yourselves and something's new emerging groups that are filling a need that traditionally hasn't been met. In fact, I think one of the faults to Outfest many over many years is that we've done a poor job around supporting our alumni. We don't have an alumni program per se. We don't check-in, we don't provide a lot of what I would like to see us providing more resources, even if it's partnering with other groups that filmmakers go through and so those are the types of things that I'm very cognizant of that I wish young people would also make sure they are reflecting on as they, as they enter this journey.
Damien Navarro, in partnership with the Board of Directors, has been specifically tapped to lead Outfest into its next 40 years, including the implementation of a strategic vision and direction for the organization, as informed by a recently completed five-year Strategic Plan that expands its footprint nationally, globally and digitally. For more information on Outfest, its programs, and upcoming events, please visit outfest.org.
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