Pierson herself has indie cinema flowing in her veins since her start in the film business. After two years at Hampshire College, she transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute for her higher education and graduated in 1977. Immediately upon graduating, at the tender age of 20, she was tapped to take over the Canyon Cinema co-op, a Bay Area filmmakers organization that continues to this day. The organization filled in a gap for adventurous distribution by creating the Canyon Cinema label, which she ran for several years. In 1980, Pierson moved to New York City to take a job at the celebrated New York arthouse cinema complex Film Forum as executive director Karen Cooper’s assistant. Not only did she have a prized job at the nexus of indie cinema, she also met her future husband John Pierson there, who was working as the house manager.
After working at the Film Forum from 1981 to 1986, both Piersons left when the Spike Lee film SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT became a major indie hit of its era. Both had been early investors in the film and also provided the finishing funds when Lee hit a wall with getting the film finished. They became the beneficiaries when the film became a box office sensation, giving Pierson the freedom and courage to leave her job. During this period, as she co-founded Grainy Pictures, she made the decision to start a family and the Piersons eventually moved to Cold Spring, a bucolic hamlet on the Hudson River about 90 minutes north of Manhattan. From this base, they hosted staging the Cold Spring Film Workshop, a mini-Sundance-like event for the indie community that includes film screenings, workshops and outdoor parties (a good preparation for her current job). Grainy Pictures also became producers and producer reps for over two dozen original American independent features, including the landmark films PARTING GLANCES, SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, MY LIFE’S IN TURNAROUND, GO FISH, CRUMB, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, CHASING AMY, ROGER & ME, SLACKER and CLERKS. Janet also was a silent contributor and editor for her husband’s celebrated 1997 memoir of the indie film industry, “Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema” published by Hyperion Press and Miramax Books.
After the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, American indie film went into a kind of creative and financial slump, which was only exacerbated by the economic malaise following 9/11. The Piersons also needed a big change and made the gusty move of relocating to the Pacific island of Fiji in 2002, where they ran the island nation’s first independent cinema……a cultural dram that was captured in the Steve James documentary REEL PARADISE. When they returned to the United States, the Piersons executive produced a magazine-format cable series SPLIT SCREEN that focused on indie and international cinema. Ready for another bold move by 2004, the Piersons relocated to Austin, Texas, where John joined the teaching staff at the University of Texas and Janet served a six-year term on the board of the Austin Film Society. In 2008, she was offered a dream job that pulled together all her knowledge and experience. In April of that year, she accepted the position as Producer of the SXSW Film Conference and Festival, making this month’s 2012 event her fourth at the helm.