Indie Memphis seeking new executive director
Shelton steps down after barely year on the job
Indie Memphis is seeking a new executive director – only the third salaried director in the organization’s 25year history, but the second in a year.
The Indie Memphis board announced in a press release Friday that Knox Shelton, who was hired in March 2021, “will step down as Executive Director in late March to pursue other interests.” The press release carried the headline: “Indie Memphis board announces a leadership opportunity.”
Shelton, 32, a veteran nonprofit administrator who recently had served four years as executive director of Literacy Mid-south, had been hired to replace Ryan Watt, who had served five years as Indie Memphis executive director. Watt left to be a partner in Zio Matto Gelato, a Memphis-based artisanal gelato company.
Watt was preceded by Erik Jambor, Indie Memphis executive director for seven years. Prior to Jambor, the organization had been run by volunteers.
Indie Memphis is primarily known for its annual Indie Memphis Film Festival, a multi-day celebration of independent cinema that in the pre-pandemic era brought filmmakers from all over the world to Memphis. The festival’s 25th edition is set for Oct. 19-24.
But Indie Memphis also organizes numerous other activities and opportunities intended to “create community through independent film and support the development of filmmakers.” Some of these include the Youth Film Fest, the Black Creators Forum, the “Shoot & Splice” public talk series, various film screenings and numerous grants and residencies for filmmakers.
Anton Mack, executive director of the Explore Bike Share cycling program, is the chair of the Indie Memphis board. Mack will assume “a more active role in leadership” while the search for a new executive director is underway, according to the press release.
Shelton came to Indie Memphis at a particularly fraught time, overseeing a festival limited by the lingering prohibitions of the COVID-19 shutdown that had caused the 2020 festival to be an outdoors-and-online-only event. The Indie Memphis budget and staff were smaller than what Shelton had worked with in the past.
“I want to thank the Indie Memphis board and staff and supporters for the opportunity to lead a truly exceptional organization,” Shelton said Friday. “I look forward to continuing to support Indie Memphis’ vision... I’m really excited for the 25th annual film festival.”
He said he left Indie Memphis to pursue other “opportunities,” but had nothing to announce at this time.
Said Mack, in a Friday interview: “Sometimes things just change, and people want to do different things.”
“We’re really going to take a broad look at what the options are,” he said. “Indie Memphis has grown so much in the past five or six years, and we really want to capitalize on that and make sure we’re planning for the future.”
He said the Indie Memphis board has not set a hiring “time schedule,” but he expects a new executive director to be in place before the October festival.