Six months after Cincinnati City Council voted to give a small but growing film festivalin Avondale $100,000, some in the neighborhood want the city to yell "Cut!"
For the past two years in the fall, the Avondale Film Festival has drawn about 100 to 200 film buffs and filmmakers from Cincinnati and elsewhere to an auditorium in the Avondale Town Center to watch short films and learn filmmaking.
But this year the festival, which also features a film camp for aspiring filmmakers, finds itself causing its own drama.
Residents at a City Council meeting earlier this year asked council to not approve the money, revealing a schism between the nonprofit Avondale Development Corporation and the neighborhood's community council. That the former development
corporation director's son runs the festival doesn't sit well with some in the neighborhood. The president of the community council has asked the city to suspend funding the festival for now "until this matter has been fully reviewed."
City leaders have looked to the Avondale Film Festival as a key piece of what they hope will be a renaissance for thispredominantly Black neighborhood. Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, in a council meeting in February, said the festival won't just help Avondale, it but will also raise the city's profile in the film community, something particularly important after the city lost its bid for the Sundance Film Festival.
"People involved said that they are now considering a career in film, and Cincinnati is becoming Hollywood East," Kearney said before council approved the funds.
The festival is still a go for Oct. 24 and the film camp for Oct. 10. The city signed a contract with the management firm on Aug. 19 for the $100,000.
But not everyone in Avondale is pleased with how the festival is run.
Leaders asks city to halt funding the festival
Sandra Jones-Mitchell, who's president of the Avondale Community Council, wrote a letter July 27 to the Cincinnati City Council saying Avondale hasn't benefited as much as it should from the festival. She asked city leaders to stop any payments to the management of the Avondale Film Festival over concerns about a lack of input from residents.
"Based on previous festivals, community members have expressed concerns that local hiring opportunities were limited, and that the anticipated economic impact within the neighborhood was not fully realized," Jones-Mitchell said in the letter. The Enquirer obtained the letter through the community council.
What is the issue?
Despite the dramatic letter, community leaders in Avondale were reluctant to talk to The Enquirer about the festival. When The Enquirer stopped by the festival's venue,the Holloman Center for Social Justice, a receptionist referred questions tothe Avondale Development Corporation, which launched the inaugural festival in 2024. The Avondale Development Corporation is one of about 20 nonprofit neighborhood development organizations in the city.
The Avondale Development Corporation and its board chair, Royce Sutton, did not return messages.
Jones-Mitchell eventually agreed to an interview after several attempts, then cut the interview short because she said The Enquirer was asking too many questions. During the brief interview, she told The Enquirer the crux of the issue is who runs the film festival, California-based Capital Heights Consulting.
Capital Heights Consulting is owned by Russell Hairston Jr., a Clifton native who moved to Los Angeles to work as a filmmaker. He has also moved into event management.
Russell Hairston's father is Russell Hairston Sr., who headed the Avondale Development Corporation until February, when he retired.
It was Hairston Sr. who asked council for the festival money. That gave community leaders the impression the money would go to the development corporation, not an outside entity, Jones-Mitchell told The Enquirer. In reality, she said the money was going to the Los Angeles-based son of the development corporation director.
"That just raised some red flags for the community council and the community at large," she said. "We were not really included in that decision, and we would not have agreed to the city giving this outside entity – in fact, he lived in California forever – the $100,000."
Organizer wanted to draw tourists to Avondale
Hairston Jr. said while the development corporation has provided support and hosted the film festival, the film festival was his project. The idea for the festival is to bring some of the vibrancy to his hometown of Cincinnati that the movie industry brings to LA.
"That's the whole point of film festivals that run out of Los Angeles," Hairston said. "Every neighborhood has their own festival, and it draws tourism, which is why LA is such a melting pot of a destination. And I believe we have been doing that in Avondale so far the last few years, and we continue to grow."
Local filmmaker Ares Giovanni said Hairston Jr. called him to help develop a program for the film camp and festival. The goal of the festival and camp is to bring something positive to Avondale, said Giovanni, 34, of East Price Hill. He said film can save people's lives. Giovanni has two films spotlighted on Capital Heights Consulting's Avondale Film Festival website: "Through the Rift" and "Automated Agenda."
"Film saved my life," Giovanni said. "Like a lot of young Black men, I just have one of those pasts that, you know, it's not very pretty but it makes for great television ... It gave me an outlet. It gave me a medium. It gave me something to escape to."
Rift in Avondale
Drama surrounding the festival spilled into the open back in February when Cincinnati City Council voted 7-to-1 to give the Avondale Film Festival the $100,000, with Councilman Jeff Cramerding the lone "no" vote. Two Avondale residents pleaded with city council to delay approving the money, saying the community doesn't have confidence in the neighborhood's development corporation.
One of thoseresidents was Ozie Davis. He said the issue wasn't about the film festival – he supports the film festival in his neighborhood. He said residents feel the development corporation has cut the community council out of the loop.
"I'm not certain that $100,000 for an event in Avondale is what the community wants because the community council hasn't had a say into that," Davis said at the Feb. 17 council meeting. He did not respond to follow-up messages from The Enquirer seeking comment.
Hairston Sr. told the City Council the disagreement had to do with who would succeed him as executive director.
Film contract sets goal for 'self-sustainable' film festival
Two days later, the city passed the motion in support of the funding. Council a few weeks later passed the ordinance 8-0 to transfer the money for the festival, this time with Cramerding voting in favor.
The $100,000 contract between the city and Capital Heights Consulting sets a goal that the film festival will find enough funds and other partners to be self-sustaining in four years. The Enquirer obtained the contract through an open records request.
The city will pay Capital Heights in installments based on the work done. As of Aug. 28, the city has not paid Capital Heights anything, said Mollie Lair, spokeswoman for the Cincinnati city manager.
Capital Heights will get paid in three advance installments of $40,000, $40,000 and $20,000, with each installment being paid once 90% of the previous installment is spent.
The city will require Capital Heights to submit receipts, affidavits and expenses showing where the money is going.
Within a month of the event, Capital Heights will have to submit all receipts and expenses as well as total festival and film camp attendance as well as the participation of local vendors and businesses and the youth mentorship that comes out of the film camp.
How important are the city funds to Avondale Film Festival?
Hairston wouldn't say how much the city's $100,000 is of the overall budget, but said the city is "our premier sponsor." His father, before Cincinnati City Council in February, said the money is to help the Avondale Film Festival become self-sustaining by raising an additional $200,000 more.
What is the Avondale Film Festival?
City leaders and local filmmakers have praised the film festival for giving local artists a platform and bringing in national talent.
The festival shows about 10 short films over the course of one day. Each film is under 30 minutes long. Some can be as short as five minutes.
Neither Councilman Scotty Johnson nor the vice mayor, who sponsored the motion to fund the film festival, responded to messages from The Enquirer.
But in February, just before council approved the funding, they spoke of the importance of the film festival.
"Cincinnati is on the rise when it comes to filmmaking and film producing," said Councilman Scotty Johnson in a February Cincinnati City Council meeting. "And I think it would be a good investment to invest in the Avondale Film Festival."
He said he attended the 2025 film festival and was impressed with the quality of films produced by both local and national filmmakers.
"We talk about moving young people off the street and giving them something different other than sports to look forward to," he said. "The Avondale Film Festival provides that."
A spotlight for local artists
Local artists also get a spotlight at the festival.
At last year's festival, Fort Thomas resident Megan Benzing screened her short film "In the Middle" about a woman who wakes up in a purgatory where there's no escape or ability to communicate with anyone else.
"I'm a bit morbid, I guess," said Benzing, 32, who shot the film in an unused Downtown office room and hallway on a $1,200 budget. It was her senior thesis as a film student at the University of Cincinnati. "I was raised Catholic, so I always thought about, you know, purgatory, that in between space if you don't go to heaven or hell."
She stumbled upon the Avondale Film Festival searching online for a venue to showcase her 23-minute film. "In the Middle" played to an audience of about 100 people at the Holloman Center for Justice. It was one of two student films to win a $500 award.
"The festival was great," Benzing said. "It was very refreshing to see local filmmakers in the area and the work that they had done."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati film festival attracts movie buffs and community backlash
