Mentors: Press & Bloggers
As a filmmaker, the press can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Learn how to make nice. Or, if you're an aspiring journalist, learn how to make a living.
Sign Up Here: http://mentor.sxsw.com.
Mentor session signup is open to all Film, Gold and Platinum badge holders at a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants who signed up online must check-in 30 minutes before your mentor time slot to guarantee your spot. Limited on-site signup is also available for a small number of mentor sessions spots and will begin 30 minutes before the first time slot of each session.
Presenters

Agnes Varnum
Dir of Events
The Texas Tribune
Agnes Varnum produces events for the nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet, The Texas Tribune. She joined the Tribune after five years in marketing at the Austin Film Society. Before moving to Texas, Agnes held positions with Icarus Films, the Center for Social Media at American University, as a freelance writer for Indiewire.com, Documentary magazine and had a successful 3-year run with her doc blog, Doc It Out. She has worked in various roles with AFI Fest, Independent Film Week, Silverdocs, Newport International Film Festival, AOL True Stories (now Snag Films) and SXSW.

David Hudson
Writer
Fandor
Blogging, tweeting, and tumbling about movies for over a decade now (GreenCine, IFC, The Auteurs/MUBI), David is the editor of Keyframe Daily for Fandor.

Jette Kernion
Editor in Chief
Slackerwood
Jette Kernion founded Slackerwood in 2006 to cover all aspects of the Austin film scene. The site has grown from a single-person blog to a daily news and features site with more than 10 regular contributors, and is now published by Austin Film Society.
Kim Voynar
Features Editor
MovieCityNews.com

Mark Peranson
Head of Programming
Festival del film Locarno
Head of Programming, Festival del Film Locarno. Editor and Publisher, Cinema Scope magazine. Director, La última película.

Robert Koehler
Critic
Film Journey
Robert Koehler is a Los Angeles-based film critic, programmer and North American manager for the film sales and distribution company, FiGa Films. His film criticism can be read at Cinema Scope magazine, cinema-scope.com, Cineaste magazine, Indiewire.com, Film Comment magazine, filmcomment.com, Artsmeme.com, Sight & Sound and Filmjourney.org. His blog column analyzing film festivals, “Festival Circus,” can be read at Indiewire.com. His film criticism has previously appeared in Variety, The Christian Science Monitor, Cahiers du Cinema (France and Spain), L’Espresso and Die Tagezeitung, and has been translated into many languages. He has served as Director of Cinematheque Programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Director of Programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles. As partner in Festworks, Koehler has served as programming consultant to several American festivals, including the Santa Fe Film Festival. He was instructor/programmer for UCLA Extension’s Sneak Preview program from 2003-2007. In 2003, he developed the successful, innovative film program, “The Films That Got Away,” an ongoing series presenting significant recent work that has previously not screened in Los Angeles. Institutions with which the series has collaborated include UCLA Film Archive, the American Cinematheque and the Los Angeles Film Festival. In 2009, he was appointed director of programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles, where he helped create a new and focused competition section titled “New Lights,” as part of AFI Fest’s programming concept as a festival-of-festivals. A graduate of UCLA, Koehler was a theater critic for the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times during the 1980s and 1990s. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics, and has served on festival juries in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Indie Lisboa, Copenhagen, Riviera Maya, Montreal, FICCO, Guadalajara, FICUNAM, Santiago, Palm Springs, Bermuda and Miami. Among his published work are chapters in the books “Cine Argentino 1999-2009,” “On Film Festivals” from Wildflower Press, “American Comedy,” published by the San Sebastian Film Festival and “10 Years with New Danish Screen,” published by New Danish Screen/Danish Film Institute.

Stephen Saito
Writer/Editor
MoveableFest.com
Stephen Saito is a writer and founder of The Moveable Fest, a site about good movies. He has written for the LA Times, Premiere and IFC.com.