The mission of the festival is to showcase artists, designers, craftspeople, collectors, curators and makers from around the world while entertaining, educating, and reflecting on the influence art and design have on community, history, politics, personal expression and our contemporary landscape.
Emily Steffian Artistic Director
Emily has been a maker of things her whole life and believes that art and design have the power to impact our culture by engaging and connecting people. With a degree in Art History and Anthropology, her early work was in galleries and museums. She continued on to get a metals degree from the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, after which she worked as a jeweler and metalsmith showing at galleries around the country.
After meeting her husband Daniel and moving to Rhode Island in 2001, they engaged in a collaborative effort to created the Revival House Cinema, where they forged original and innovative ways to connect audiences with film. In 2008 they bought the Cable Car Cinema in Providence and saw it as an opportunity to build on their strengths. During the early years at the Cable Car, Emily completed a Masters Degree in Industrial Design from RISD where her work focused on the impact of Design on social systems.
In 2015, Emily and Daniel received the RI Innovation Fellowship which helped support the formation of the Providence Center For Media Culture a 501c3 devoted to engaging and educating community through film and media programming. The Art & Design Film Festival is PCMC’s first program.
Brenda Shannon Managing Director
Brenda has a diverse background in media and film production. Before joining the team of the Providence Art + Design Film Festival, she co-founded and led the Providence Children’s Film Festival through four consecutive and successful festival years. Previously, she developed specialized nature and science based television programming for clients such as The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Association of Underwater Instructors(NAUI) and large scale media installations for NASA and ESPN2.
Her background also includes educational programming and fund development for non-profits and community organizations, such as the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; Friends of Brown Street Park and College Visions, Providence, RI.
Daniel Kamil Program Director
Daniel Kamil has been working in film and television for 25 years. He has worked at 20th Century Fox, CBS and on various independent films before moving to Rhode Island. In 2003, he created The Revival House in Westerly, Rhode Island with his wife Emily Steffian.
In 2008, they bought the Cable Car Cinema located in Providence, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. The Cable Car Cinema specializes in showcasing the best independent, international and documentary films.
Daniel received a Masters degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research. In 2015, Emily and Daniel won the Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship which helped support the founding of The Providence Center for Media Culture, a 501C3 which is dedicated to exhibiting underrepresented filmmakers and to promote the medium as an educational tool. as art and to educate as an educational medium. The Providence Art & Design Film Festival is the first program developed by the Center for Media Culture.