The Mix Festival, originally known as the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, was created in 1987 by filmmaker Jim Hubbard and novelist Sarah Schulman. The purpose of the festival was to create an alternative to mainstream gay and lesbian film festivals and to highlight the important contributions that queer filmmakers have made to experimental and avant-garde film practices. The program of the initial festival, which was first held at the Millennium Film Workshop, included a number of both classic and new works by queer filmmakers, including Todd Haynes' very first film, Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud, showcases of films by Barbara Hammer, Roger Jacoby and James Broughton and Joel Singer, and a program containing "Gay Films of the 1890's," all of which demonstrated the various strains of queer representation in film history. The festival was curated by Hubbard and Schulman themselves. A small group of unpaid volunteers helped out during the festival. The following year, the festival was once again held at Millennium, with films by Chantal Akerman, Abigail Child, Tom Chomont, and a panel moderated by Barbara Hammer entitled "Does Radical Content Require Radical Form?".

The third festival was held in 1989 at the Anthology Film Archives, where it has more or less been held ever since. The focus of the 1989 festival was on representations of the AIDS crisis, including several works by experimental filmmakers who had succumbed to AIDS and many others who were fighting the virus themselves (as if to illustrate the tragedy the virus had wrought on the gay arts community, filmmaker and performance artist Jack Smith died the night before the festival opened that year). The fourth festival included a special emphasis on films by and about black gay men, such as Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied, Isaac Julien's Looking for Langston, and Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason. Jennie Livingston's documentary Paris Is Burning, about drag ball culture in Harlem, was the closing night feature at this festival, and would shortly go on to much wider critical acclaim. In 1991, like many arts organizations around New York, the festival suffered a severe cut in funding from the New York State Council of the Arts. Nevertheless, the festival continued to show films that posited themselves against mainstream representations of homosexuality and AIDS.

After the 1991 festival, Schulman left to spend more time writing. Hubbard, Marguerite Paris and Jerry Tartaglia curated the 1992 festival, recruiting a group of guest curators including Thomas Allen Harris, Cheryl Dunye, Daryl Chin and Tania Cypriano to program 5 of the shows. In 1993, Shari Frilot and Karim Ainouz became the festival directors. Shari continued to direct the festival through 1996. With the change in membership came a change in name - the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival was now known as Mix. The festival also started to focus more on showing films by and reaching out to younger queer filmmakers of color. Additionally, the festival began to depend more on having guest curators create and exhibit programs. In 1993, Mix became the first lesbian and gay film festival to feature video installations with both the 1000 Dreams of Desire "queer co-ed porn extravaganza" at the Ann Street Bookstore, co-curated by Jim Lyons and Christine Vachon, and the Go!Go!Spot! cafe/installation showcase. 1993 also saw the launch of Mix Brasil, an international extension of Mix and the first lesbian and gay film festival in the history of Brazil. Mix 94 was a joint venture with the LOOKOUT Festival, held at both Anthology and the Downtown Community Television Center. Among the innovations that year was the Cyberqueer installation, which showcased the emergence of interactive multimedia and queer digital media.

1995 marked the beginning of the festival's partnership with Free Speech TV, which broadcast activist media on local cable and community access networks. Another highlight of Mix 95 was the 100 Years of Cinema/100 Years of Sodomy tribute program to the centenary of cinema. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Mix 96 expanded to 4 venues, NYU's Cantor Film Center, the Knitting Factory, and Harlem's Victoria 5 Theatre, where Victoria MIX, Harlem's first gay and lesbian film festival showcase, took place. 1997 saw the departure of Shari Frilot as Festival Director, with Rajendra Roy taking her place. This year also saw the development of Mix Mexico, Mexico's first ever gay and lesbian film festival, and a collaboration with the PlanetOut website to present the first ever online queer film festival.

Mix 98 witnessed an increased push toward corporate sponsorship and support from grant foundations. Anie S8 Stanley became Mix's Artistic Director, and the Festival that year showcased films that documented the vogue for reclaiming "antiquated" forms of film technology, such as hand-processed and super 8mm films. The theme of Mix 99 was "Get Lucky," with programming that "gambled" on promising new work by upcoming filmmakers. Memorizing Mix, a gay and lesbian film and video preservation project launched in collaboration with the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS and the Guggenheim Museum, and the HONCHO Blue Movie Midnight Series, were both prominent features of the festival this year. In 2000, the festival instituted screening and programming committees to review the abundance of film submissions. Among the special attractions this year were the ACCESS digital media series and the Innovations Features Series, which showcased full-length feature work by Mix alumni. In 2001, Hubbard, Frilot, and Roy each curated guest programs as part of the Memorizing Mix series, with each showing work that highlighted films from festivals past.

In recent years, Mix has continued its dedication to providing downtown New York with a venue for formally challenging gay and lesbian film and video. The 2002 festival included a showing of James Wentzy's AIDS activism tribute video Fight Back, Fight AIDS: Fifteen Years of ACT-UP on Video. In 2003, Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation had its world premiere at Mix and would eventually foist Caouette into the indie-film spotlight. While the Mix Festival has most often been held every November at the Anthology Film Archives, in 2006 the festival opened at Manhattan's 3LD Art and Technology Center. It is currently directed by Stephen Kent Jusick with co-directors Szu Burgess, Andre Hereford and Kate Huh.

The Mix Collection contains paper files and media related to the Mix Festival. The paper files include administrative files, such as budget statements, distribution invoices, bills, receipts, meeting notes, programming and scheduling notes, and program guides for each year of the Festival; correspondence between the Festival and filmmakers, film/arts organizations and potential sponsors, whether written, faxed or e-mailed; entry forms and press kits for films submitted to the Festival; press and promotion materials, including newspaper and magazine articles, articles printed from online, and flyers; information, such as press or flyers, about special programs and events, including Mix Brasil, Mix Mexico and touring programs; materials relating to the Mix Preservation Project; sales figures for each Festival and some ticket stubs; flyers, pamphlets and other materials relating to community outreach efforts carried out by the Mix Festival; catalogs, pamphlets, and correspondence with grant and fundraising organizations; catalogs from other film festivals; film distribution and other catalogs; personal files of various administrative Festival staff; and miscellaneous materials such as books and ephemera that arrived with the collection donation.

The photographs series contains stills from submitted films, stills and negatives from photo shoots for program guide layouts, photos from Mix-related events and parties, and miscellaneous photos. This series also includes other media, such as Minidiscs and floppy disks that contain digital photographic files. The media series contains mostly videos and some films; the bulk of these are entries submitted to the Festival. NB: The Mix Collection does not contain every film and video shown in the Festival's history, only the ones in the Festival's possession at the time of the collection donation. Also, the collection does not hold any media materials from 1987-1991, owing to the Festival not keeping an extensive database of submitted works until 1993. Furthermore, not all the media materials housed in the collection were shown in the Festival; for more information concerning which titles were screened during the Festival, consult the program guides, which can be found in each year's administrative files subseries (subseries A), and the entry forms (see Subseries C).

SERIES DESCRIPTION:

SERIES I: 1987

This series contains information pertaining to the 1987 Festival.

SERIES II: 1988

This series contains information pertaining to the 1988 Festival.

SERIES III: 1989

This series contains information pertaining to the 1989 Festival.

SERIES IV: 1990

This series contains information pertaining to the 1990 Festival.

SERIES V: 1991

This series contains information pertaining to the 1991 Festival.

SERIES VI: 1992

This series contains information pertaining to the 1992 Festival.

SERIES VII: 1993

This series contains information pertaining to the 1993 Festival.

SERIES VIII: 1994

This series contains information pertaining to the 1994 Festival.

SERIES IX: 1995

This series contains information pertaining to the 1995 Festival.

SERIES X: 1996

This series contains information pertaining to the 1996 Festival.

SERIES XI: 1997

This series contains information pertaining to the 1997 Festival.

SERIES XII: 1998

This series contains information pertaining to the 1998 Festival.

SERIES XIII: 1999

This series contains information pertaining to the 1999 Festival.

SERIES XIV: 2000

This series contains information pertaining to the 2000 Festival.

SERIES XV: 2001

This series contains information pertaining to the 2001 Festival.

The subseries for series I-XV are arranged according to the following rubric. For certain years, a particular subseries of items may not exist; these letters have been skipped in the organizational structure for those specific years. These oversights will be noted in the body of the finding aid.

Subseries A: Administrative Files

This subseries contains the general administrative files of the Mix staff. Included are expenses (i.e. invoices, bills, receipts), festival statements (i.e. press releases and calls for film submissions), mailing lists, hospitality and guest accreditation info, information relating to programming decisions (i.e. film scoring sheets), program guides, appointment books and miscellaneous notes and memos.

Subseries B: Correspondence

This subseries contains the correspondence between the Festival and outside parties. General correspondence is grouped into folders which are alphabetically organized by the sender's last name; extensive correspondence or correspondence from or amongst staff members is given its own folder.

Subseries C: Entry Forms/Press Kits

This subseries contains entry forms and press kits that the filmmakers supplied along with their festival entries. For all years, the press kits are arranged alphabetically by filmmaker. Beginning in 1993, when the Festival began scheduling thematically-linked films under program names, the entry forms are arranged alphabetically by the name of the program.

Subseries D: Database

This subseries contains the electronic databases created by the Mix staff which housed information for all the video submissions. These databases only exist for certain years, namely 1994, 1997, 1998, and 2000.

Subseries E: Press/Posters/Promotion

This subseries contains press, posters, and other promotional materials relating to the Festival or specific films and programs within the Festival. Press is generally listed first, followed by flyers, invites and posters, and items are listed alphabetically within each grouping.

Subseries F: Special Programs

This subseries contains information about special programs and showings relating to the Mix Festival. "Special programs" is loosely defined as: Mix touring programs at other venues, special installations and workshops, and international extensions of the Festival, such as Mix Brasil and Mix Mexico. This subseries contains press, posters, and correspondence pertaining to these events.

Subseries G: Media

This subseries contains the media files from the Mix Collection. The media files contain mostly videotapes Like the paper files, the media files are viewable on an appointment-only basis. Media files may not yet be accessible for research purposes, pending the creation of access copies; for more information, consult the Library.

Subseries H: Ticket Sales

This subseries contains information relating to ticket sales and box office records from the Mix Festival. There are some ticket stubs from the Festival as well for particular years.

Subseries I: Outreach

This subseries contains materials, such as correspondence and newsletters, relating to Mix's outreach efforts to community-based groups and organizations (i.e. AIDS awareness groups, queers of color, etc.).

Subseries J: Grants/Fundraising

This subseries contains materials relating to fundraising efforts conducted by the Festival. The bulk of the information contained in this subseries is generally catalogs from and applications to grant foundations. In later years, when the Festival began pushing for corporate sponsorship, there are materials, largely correspondence, pertaining to potential sponsors and advertising opportunities.

SERIES XVI: Photographs

This series contains photographs pertinent to the Mix Festival.

Subseries A: Film Stills

This subseries contains still photographs from films submitted to the Festival by the filmmakers. The stills are arranged in rough chronological order.

Subseries B: Catalog Shoots

This subseries contains photographs from photo shoots that were used in the program guide and advertising for the Festival.

Subseries C: Mix Events and Parties

This subseries contains photographs of Mix benefits, afterparties, and related events.

Subseries D: Miscellaneous

This subseries contains miscellaneous photographs taken by Mix staff members.

SERIES XVII: Preservation Project

This series contains documents concerning the Memorizing Mix Preservation Project, which took place in 1999.

SERIES XVIII: Other Festivals

This series contains catalogs, flyers and posters for other film festivals.

SERIES XIX: Miscellaneous

The miscellaneous files in the Mix Collection are further divided into 11 subseries, which are as follows:

Subseries A: Non-Mix Press/Flyers/Posters

This subseries contains miscellaneous newspapers, magazines, flyers and posters that do not mention or are not related to the Festival in any concrete way. The magazines and newspapers are arranged alphabetically. The flyers and posters are grouped by interest, e.g. film showings, performances, art galleries, etc., and are arranged alphabetically within those categories.

Subseries B: Catalogs/Film Programs (non-festival)

This subseries contains film distribution catalogs and other types of catalogs, in addition to film programs for non-film festival venues. Catalogs are arranged alphabetically by title; film programs are arranged alphabetically by venue.

Subseries C: Jim Hubbard

This subseries contains some of Jim Hubbard's personal items, the bulk of which consists of personal correspondence with friends. There are also some items to do with Hubbard's work with the Berlinale and his own film projects.

Subseries D: Sarah Schulman

This small subseries consists of writings either by or about Sarah Schulman from various periodicals.

Subseries E: Shari Frilot

This small subseries comprises a couple of folders pertaining to Shari Frilot, such as personal correspondence with friends and flyers for parties.

Subseries F: Karim Ainouz/Latino Collaborative

This series contains personal correspondence to/from and miscellaneous items possessed by Karim Ainouz, in addition to materials relating to his stint with the Latino Collaborative film/art project.

Subseries G: Rajendra Roy

This small subseries contains a few folders pertaining to Rajendra Roy, including personal project information.

Subseries H: Jack Waters/Allied Productions/Naked Eye Cinema

This subseries contains folders pertaining to Jack Waters, his production company Allied Productions, and his film distribution company Naked Eye Cinema. The bulk of this subseries consists of grant applications for various projects that Waters undertook under the banner of Allied Productions.

Subseries I: Anthology Film Archives

This small subseries contains three folders with information relating to showings at the Anthology Film Archives, the Festival's traditional venue and Jim Hubbard's one-time place of employment.

Subseries J: Miscellany/undated files

This subseries contains miscellaneous and undated items which could not be grouped into any of the above subseries.

Subseries K: Books

This subseries consists of one box's worth of books which were found amongst the Festival's donation.

Subseries L: Media

This subseries consists of media, mostly video, for which a screening or submission date could not be found.

Jay Blotcher Papers.

Dennis Cooper Papers.

Jaime Davidovich Collection.

The Downtown Flyers and Invitations Collection.

Guerrilla TV Archive.

Sarah G. Jacobson Papers.

Alan Klein Papers.

Heather Lewis Papers.

Michelangelo Signorile Papers.

Jack Waters Papers.

David Wojnarowicz Papers.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Director of Fales Library and Special Collections. For more information, contact

The Mix Festival donated their collection to the Fales Library in 2003.

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); The Mix Collection; MSS 143; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.

[The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.]