RIIFF 2017 Team

Shawn Quirk

Program Director

Shawn Quirk is an independent filmmaker, artist and scholar who has directed a number of short films and short documentaries. His film “Ouroboros” won the Audience Choice Award at the Spokane International Film Festival in 2008 and his film “The Coast” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. After receiving his Bachelors of Science in Film Production from Boston University, he worked for two years as an English assistant in France for l’Éducation nationale. During his time abroad he became involved with a number of film productions in both Belgium and France, which included camera work for the two-time Palme d'or winning Dardennes Brothers on their film “Le gamin au vélo” (The Kid with the Bike).

In addition to teaching English to both French high school and middle school students, Shawn also worked in collaboration with the regional English inspector, Christine Minetto, of the Champannes-Ardennes Academy to create a pilot cinema education program for high school seniors. As part of this program, Shawn worked with local film producer, Benoit Giorgini, to create a hands on film workshop in which students collaborated amongst each other to create a series of short documentaries that explored the livelihoods of local shopkeepers and café owners in the Ardennes community and their struggle in competing with large chain retailers.

After his time abroad, Shawn then went on to work as a teaching assistant at the New York Film Academy at Harvard University, where he taught both high school and college students the technical and theoretical aspects of 16mm and digital filmmaking. He also worked as a high school French substitute teacher, and freelance newspaper photographer. Currently, he is pursuing his MFA from Lesley University.

Shawn became a part of the Flickers team in the Fall of 2011, and is now the Program Director for Flickers and oversees the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival. Shawn has been a guest lecturer in both film and French language studies courses at a number of Universities including Dartmouth College, Harvard University, RISD, and UMass Boston. As a filmmaker and noted editor in his own right, Shawn's goal is to help discover the next generation of auteurs, the new voices of independent cinema.

To email Shawn: click here