Miguel Rodriguez(XIX)

Miguel Rodriguez has decades of film festival experience, going all the way back to his teenage years. After nearly a decade cataloging and timestamping reels of film and VHS submissions (those were the days), he became a programmer and curator of film events. Starting in 2009, Rodriguez founded and directed the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival in Southern California. For 13 years, the award-winning Horrible Imaginings represented the largest gathering of genre enthusiasts south of Los Angeles. During this time, he helped found the Film Geeks San Diego, a group of repertory programmers whose mission is to preserve the memory of film history and put them into the context of the age and circumstances in which they were made. He has programmed for or co-presented cinema with the San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Diego Italian Film Festival, FilmOut San Diego, the Pacific Arts Movement, and The Frida Cinema. As a panelist, he has contributed to cinema discussions for countless events, including San Diego Comic Con, Art House Convergence, FilmEX, Chattanooga Film Festival, and FilmQuest.

In 2016, The San Diego Film Critics Society recognized Miguel Rodriguez with their annual Kyle Counts Award for advancing film awareness, education and entertainment in the county.

Favorite movie: Gojira (1954) - you can find his essay outlining why in the first volume of the My Favorite Horror Movie book series. Favorite concession: Popcorn with (you know it!) pickled jalapeño slices