Ninfa Dawson: The World’s Busiest Volunteer
By Joan Gibson

Ninfa Dawson has a philosophy about managing the volunteers she works with: Never ask a volunteer to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. This practice has served her well during her 25-plus years as an incredibly active Film Society member and volunteer extraordinare.

Like most people who get involved with the Film Society, it was a love of movies that compelled her to volunteer her time. She traces her love of film to her childhood when she worked as an usher in her home town of Brownsville, Texas. Her filmic passion is the work of Ingmar Bergman. She loves Bergman and has seen all his films.

She began volunteering for the Festival in the mid-1970s, under the direction of Claude Jarman and Albert Johnson. Back then the Festival was held at the Palace of Fine Arts. "I remember what a big event it was at the time," she recalled, "Complete with huge spotlights outside the theater on Opening Night."

At first she did a little of everything: Wherever help was needed during the Festival, she would pitch in. Eventually, a membership department was created, and Ninfa took on the task of managing the membership table on-site at the theater and at all events associated with the Festival or the Film Society. In those days there were big gala fundraisers leading up to the Festival, and she would work at those parties, recruiting new members and volunteers and helping to raise awareness of the Film Society. She always preferred working on-site where the action was.

For many years Ninfa volunteered exclusively for the San Francisco International Film Festival. In the early ’90s however, she began to work with other organizations, including art museums. She continues to work with the membership department here at the Film Society as well as scheduling volunteers for many of our off-season events. She has done mailings, assembled press kits and stuffed many thousands of envelopes throughout the years.

Before her retirement in 1991, Ninfa spent 20 years as a therapist in private practice, and 20 years before that as an operating room nurse’s supervisor and teacher. She jokingly stated that in the ten years since she’s left her practice she has done more therapy than she did in all her years as a professional. This just comes naturally to her since people are inclined to want to talk and share their thoughts and feelings.

Curiously, for someone who spent so many years as a therapist and analyst, she has no desire to dissect or analyze films. "Movies are therapy for me, an escape from reality," she says. "I’ve never wanted to analyze films." When she’s watching a film, she’s fully absorbed and in a trance-like state. Ninfa has probably seen thousands of films over the years and in all that time has only walked out of one, but can’t remember what it was. She believes in giving a movie—and by extension, a filmmaker—a chance, and can almost always find something to like in a film. And in a volunteer.