Meet Molly Kreuzman | Program Director of Ohio Goes to the Movies and filmmaker/Ohio film industry advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Molly Kreuzman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Molly, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Just how broad and deep the film industry is across our state and how deep our role has been since the very beginning. Legendary actors like Lillian Gish, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Dorothy Dandridge and Paul Newman are all Ohioans. Today we can add to that prestigious list the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Sheen, Halle Berry, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monae and Ellen Griswold herself, Beverly D’Angelo. But before there were stars there had to be films and a way to show them. Thanks to a guy named Thomas Edison of Mylan, Ohio, who invented the Kinetoscope, we were on our way.
Next there were studios, did you know the Warner Brothers were from Youngstown?
And the studios landed in Hollywood but Hollywood was just land until an Ohio woman named Daieda Wilcox Beveridge of Hicksville, Ohio and her husband moved to Southern California in 1887 and purchased 120 acres of land. They named their land Hollywood and began in earnest to layout streets, parks, and recreation areas for their new town…thus Hollywood was founded.
Ohioans have added just as much behind the camera, with great directors like Steven Spielberg, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Douglas Miller, not to mention my personal Shero, documentarian Julia Reichert and her beloved partner Steve Bognar of Yellow Springs. Henry Mancini of Maple Heights is often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film and one of Disney’s most famous animators is Mark Alan Henn of Dayton who created Simba, Mulan and Tiana, among others. And the Russo brothers of Cleveland are considered one of Hollywood’s most successful directing duos with several Marvel movies under their belts. The list goes on and on. All of this is to say that we Ohioans have a lot to be proud of!

While Ohio Goes to the Movies is looking back, we are also thinking forward. We are bringing focus to the next generation of Ohio greats in the film industry. Many of Ohio’s colleges and universities have film degrees and the variety of employable skills on a movie set are nearly endless. From screenwriting, costuming, and set design, to actors and composers, to lighting, sound engineers and camera operators, we graduate some of the very best and with the help of the Ohio Film Tax Credit, we have the opportunity to make more movies here than ever before. So let’s keep the camera’s rolling, let’s fill our theaters and we’ll see you at Ohio Goes to the Movies!!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have always been involved in the arts with a Mom who went back to school in the early 1970’s to become an art teacher and my Dad who was by profession a mechanical engineer but was incredibly creative as well. I tell people about sorta growing up in the art department at the Ohio State University in the early 70’s as this skinny buck-tooth kid that the aIl the hippie artist loved to teach their crafts too. From little experimental films to pottery, batik and painting, I got to try everything and was made to feel really special. I also have a very strong memory of helping my Dad build these large 2 x 4 frames that we hinged together and covered with chicken wire, which were placed on the statehouse lawn for artist to hang their artwork, for some of the earliest Columbus Arts Festivals. I also remember my Mom and Dad being very involved with the Beaux Arts Ball at the Columbus Museum of Art and Zoofari at the Columbus Zoo. “So as you can see, I’m a huge arts advocate.”

Fast forward to 2004 when I moved to Oregon and landed in Bend in central Oregon. I got a job helping restore the town’s historic Tower Theatre and through that met Katie Merritt who was starting the BendFilm Festival. I loved BendFilm! The energy, the creativity, the fun of it all was undeniable. I was part of BendFilm until moving to Ashland, Oregon where my then husband and I had a wilderness camp. Our culminating class was were you got to spend an entire year living on the mountain and in 2014 we had 5 young women sign up and no young men. After sharing this with dozens of people, I kept hearing “Five girls can’t live alone in the woods for a year”! I got so mad I said “well I’ll just have to show you” and so I made my first documentary Earth Seasoned…#GapYear which is now in international distribution. I was smart enough to know that I needed to surround myself with seasoned professionals to help make the film I wanted to make, and we did! I then got to take it to festivals and fell in love with that whole process. Next, I helped co-produce a narrative feature, Phoenix, Oregon which we decided to take around the country ourselves…60 cities in 3 months! It was hard work but man was it fun. I ended my time out west as part of the Ashland Independent Film Festival which became the second festival in the country to go online due to the pandemic which was another incredible learning experience.

I moved back home to Columbus 3 years ago and was hired by CAPA (Columbus Association of the Preforming Arts) to create the Cinema Columbus Film Festival. In its second year we got 10 venues across the city to join in the fun! My tagline was 5 days, 10 venues, 42 screenings. From there I made the leap to become the Program Director of Ohio Goes to the Movies a signature event of America 250-Ohio and I am still pinching myself! We had our launch event May 1st with Governor and Mrs DeWine and it was a great success. Now the real work begins and so far there has been an incredible response across the state of theaters and communities that want to be involved!

Ohio Goes to the Movies is a statewide celebration of movies showcasing Ohioans: actors, directors, writers, composers, locations, and topics, shown in all kinds of venues across the state. This will happen as part of the America 250-Ohio celebration beginning in early in 2026, lasting roughly 100 days. We will highlight Ohio’s many contributions to the American film industry. Our goal is to have at least one film in all 88 counties. Ohio Goes to the Movies is a signature event of America 250-Ohio.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Here’s the thing, while I absolutely adore Columbus, why limit myself when all of Ohio has so much to offer?! Let’s make a list of a few of my favorite things to do and seezipping and zapping across the state. It would start with Hocking Hills and we’d then travel over to Yellow Springs for dinner at the Winds Cafe. How about a Reds ballgame in Cincinnati and a jaunt to any of our marvelous little river towns on the Ohio River. Indian Lake and the Airstream factory would be on the list, then over to Dayton and up to Toledo (traveling only the back roads, of course) for a stop at the incredible Toledo Art Museum. Then it’s Lake Erie and the islands and onto Cleveland for stops at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame and the Flats for a concert. Then to Cuyahoga National Park and onto Malabar Farm, down to The Wilds and over to our UNESCO world heritage site The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks with a tour of Roscoe Village before returning to Columbus. And with all this we have barely scratched the surface of all Ohio has to offer. What’s most exciting for me is how so many places in Ohio are directly connected to film! And I have the unbelievable privilege to highlight and share this history through Ohio Goes to the Movies beginning in early 2026.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
A huge shoutout goes to Stephen George who is the creative visionary behind the whole Ohio Goes to the Movies idea. The entire America 250-Ohio staff and Commissioners who are all working diligently to create an unforgettable statewide celebration for America’s Semiquincentennial. And to Betty Weibel and her team who have donated their time to help OGTTM get organized.

Finally, I’d like to dedicated my shoutout to my friend Katie Merritt who started BendFilm in central Oregon and brought me into the fold from its very beginning. She truly opened my eyes to the indie film world and how to throw a festival that everyone from central Oregon to Hollywood wanted to be part of. Also, her parties for BendFilm were unparalleled in scope and imagination!

Website: https://america250-ohio.org/ogttm/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohiogoestothemovies/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OhioGoestotheMovies

Other: We are just getting started so sign on early to stay in the know 🙂

Image Credits
Terry Gilliam and Dan Mitchell photos from the Launch Event of Ohio Goes to the Movies May 1st, 2024 at the historic Lincoln Theater in Columbus, Ohio with Keynote by Governor Mike DeWine and America 250-Ohio co-chairs Doug Preisse and Michael B. Coleman. The film was the international award-winning documentary Apollo 11 Directed by Columbus native Todd Douglas Miller and scored by Columbus native Matt Morton. The Q&A featured both Todd and Matt and highlighted, JoAnn Morgan, the only female engineer at Kennedy Space Center and the only woman in the firing room during the launch of Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969.