Gary Kaboly, who for decades has programmed Filmmakers’ movie theaters and its Three Rivers Film Festival, was one of three full-time employees fired this past Friday.
Pittsburgh Filmmaker/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts interim executive director Pete Mendes confirmed the layoffs to City Paper this afternoon. Mendes said the layoffs were part of an ongoing restructuring at the financially troubled organization, and were not cost-cutting measures.
Also let go were Chris Smalley, who headed Filmmakers’ equipment-lending office, and equipment-office employee Dan Whitmore.
The lay-offs were about “putting the right people in place to move the organization forward,” Mendes said. He added that other staffers were moved from part-time to full-time status.
Kaboly was perhaps Filmmakers’ longest-serving remaining staffer. He was hired in the mid-1980s, when Filmmakers, then known mostly as an educational organization, opened its first off-campus screening room. The Fulton Mini, located Downtown in a side room at the Byham Theater, showed foreign-language, art and indie films.
The Mini later closed, but by the late 1990s, Kaboly was programming three theaters: the Regent Square Theater, in Edgewood; Downtown’s Harris Theater; and the Melwood Screening Room, at its then-new headquarters in North Oakland.
Kaboly also programmed the annual Three Rivers Film Festival and the Regent Square;s long-running Sunday-night series of classic-films screenings. Over the past 20 years, it’s safe to say, he’s influenced Pittsburgh’s exposure to art films, foreign-language films, indie cinema and classics on the big screen more than anyone. The barrel-chested Kaboly, with his distinctive muttonchops, was himself a frequent presence at the theaters.
Reached for comment yesterday, Kaboly said his firing “was kind of a shock” but declined to comment further.
Kaboly, who co-owns Squirrell Hill’s iconic 61C Cafe and Edgewood’s 61B Cafe (a block from the Regent Square), said he is hoping to find another use for his film-programming talents locally.
Mendes said Kaboly’s role at Filmmakers will be filled by Kaboly’s longtime assistant Matt Wright.
The layoffs came nearly a year after 2015’s massive round of layoffs
at Filmmakers/Center for the Arts, which then-executive director Charlie Humphrey attributed to a temporary cash-flow problem. (Those layoffs included Filmmakers Director of Education Brady Lewis, possibly the only person at Filmmakers with more tenure than Kaboly.)
In December, Humphrey himself resigned following the submission to the group’s board of a staff petition calling for his firing.
Last month, the Filmmakers/PCA board (the two venerable groups merged in 2005) voted to adopt new by-laws to facilitate decision-making. Mendes, who became interim executive director in January after being hired as a consultant to the group this past fall, says the group continues to restructure.
This article appears in May 4-10, 2016.
I am currently in Italy working on a new film and I just saw this article posted on Facebook. I find it interesting that the interim executive director says the firing of Gary Kaboly was not a cost cutting measure. It seems that PF/PCA is going the same route of a lot of for profit corporations when they say they are reorganizing and that is to eliminate employees with opinions and higher salaries. Once again employees suffer because of prior bad decisions made the Board and Executive Director.
I find the unceremonious dismissal of Brady Lewis and Gary Kaboly unconscionable. These two dedicated individuals helped build the organization and brought Pittsburgh Filmmakers into national prominence. I question the interim executive director on his use of the phrase “right people” to move the organization forward. Maybe he is not the “right” person for this job.
Because of the treatment of its employees and the direction Pittsburgh Filmmakers appears to be taking I can no longer support this organization. I will not renew my membership and I will look into alternative venues to screen new works and encourage other filmmakers to do also.
Tony Buba
Wow…. this is a shock for sure. All these gentlemen were extremely hard working a dedicated employees. As a student and member of Pgh Filmmakers, I got to see them at work. I am wildly disappointed in this decision to let them go. I can’t imagine how the “right” people to step forward could be any better at keeping that incredible institution than they have already been doing. The restructuring is throwing out the baby with the silver chemical bath….getting rid of the people who helped make it the special place it is….. I am beyond disappointed. I was putting together my money to re-enact my membership dies…. this makes me doubt seriously whether I need to be a member of an organization of a group who doesn’t value their greatest human resources.
I am so shocked and absolutely sick to hear of the firing of Gary Kaboly. I have worked with him for about 10 years and he is a consummate professional and friend. What is going on with this interim director?