Betsy Magruder, Felix Limardo and festival favorite Victor Miller to speak
Published in the April 13-26, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCHEDULE OF 2016 POPPY JASPER FILM FESTIVAL EVENTS AND MOVIES
By Staff Report
Photo courtesy Poppy Jasper Film Festival
The documentary ‘A Struggle for Home: The Crimean Tatars’ will be shown at this year’s Poppy Jasper Film Festival held at Gavilan Community College in Gilroy.
The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival just announced its line-up of guest speakers for this year’s South Valley cinema extravaganza event, which will be held April 22 and 23 at Gavilan Community College’s Gilroy campus.
Festival organizer Bill Leaman said he’s excited about the three headliner filmmakers who will attend the 12th annual film festival.
“We have some really amazing talent from Hollywood coming this year that will be terrific for our audiences. And we have a lot of neat new ideas to try to promote the film festival,” he said.
Betsy Magruder is a first assistant director who works regularly with the Coen brothers, most recently on 2010’s “True Grit” and 2013’s “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Among her first steps in the film industry is the classic Roger Corman sci-fi film “Battle Beyond the Stars” made in 1980 about a young farmer who sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by an evil tyrant and his armada of aggressors.
Photo courtesy the Poppy Jasper Film Festival
The documentaries ‘Bizarre: A Circus Story’ will both play at this year’s Poppy Jasper Film Festival, scheduled for April 22 and 23 at Gavilan Community College’s Gilroy campus.
The Dominican Republic-based award winning director, Felix Limardo, is another featured guest at this year’s Poppy Jasper. He has been producing and directing film, television commercials and music videos for over 20 years. Recently, he directed and produced the feature film “Before The Darkness,” a drama inspired from a play by Leo Tolstoy.
A festival fan favorite famous for frightening filmgoers with his “Friday the 13th” flick, screenwriter Victor Miller is another featured guest at this year’s Poppy Jasper.
He has also written for several daytime television series, for which he has won three Day Time Emmy Awards. His television work includes “Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live,” “Another World” and “All My Children.”
“Betsy’s been with Coen Brothers for many years. There are probably about 40 films to her name which is unique,” Leaman said. “And Felix has been a producer and director for many years and he brings a lot to the festival. And we have Victor Miller coming as a professional screenwriter.”
Poppy Jasper Film Festival
A panel discussion at the festival will feature the three guest speakers discussing their work and give advice on getting into a film career, he said. The date and time has not yet been set, but Leaman said people interested can visit the Poppy Jasper’s website to find out when it will be held.
The speakers also will present film-making workshops, he said.
This year’s festival will be held for the first time outside of Morgan Hill because no local venue was available and Gavilan offered its campus as a site. Organizers hope that the festival will return to downtown Morgan Hill when the Granada Theater now undergoing renovation is finished with its remodel job and ready for entertainment events.
Films at this year’s festival will include short films, medium-sized films of about 40 minutes, and full-length feature films.
Some of the filmmakers whose films will be shown at the Poppy Jasper will be attending the festival to talk about the process involved when they made the films, Leaman said.
