Jonathan Kieran Joins Atlanta Film Society Staff as New Programming Director

Jonathan Kieran is a film programmer hailing from Essex County, Massachusetts. After making a start as an amateur filmmaker at the tender age of 22, he moved across the country to take a spot at the Master of Fine Arts program in Film Production at the University of New Orleans. At the same time, he started as a volunteer for the New Orleans Film Festival, which slowly grew to become his professional home over the next decade and where he wore many hats, from organizing panels, to assisting the festival’s technical department, to finally settling into the role of Programming Manager. He also lent a hand at other regional festivals including Court 13’s Always for Pleasure fest in New Orleans, Borscht Corporation’s “Borscht Diez” in Miami, and the Camden International Film Festival. He was also a longtime contributor to online indie-film showcase NoBudge.

In 2021 Jon returned to New England to serve as Director of Cinema Programming at Cinema Salem, an independent three-screen cinema located in Salem, MA. In between programming jobs, he had side-gigs as a pedicab driver in the French Quarter, a sound recordist on indie film crews, and a tour guide in Salem, where he educated the public about the city’s notorious witch trials. When he’s not working, Jon is a slow reader, bike rider, drink mixer, Letterboxd try-hard, Eurovision superfan, sometimes diarist, novice synthesist, and cat person.