2019 festival included filmmakers from eight countries

 

Mattie Scariot

By Mattie Scariot

A very successful 2019 Poppy Jasper International Film Festival firmly established the South Valley event as a truly regional film festival and a force in the world of independent filmmaking. This past April an estimated 3,000 filmmakers, film buffs and locals attended screenings and events in Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill over a five-day period. They enjoyed activities at 10 events and screened 105 films from 28 different countries.

We invite you to visit us at www.pjiff.org to find out what we’re planning for the 2020 festival, which runs from April 1 to 8. Filmmakers and filmgoers will have the opportunity to meet with industry professionals and discuss their craft. We even plan to expand the festival to Hollister and San Juan Bautista.

With what we’re planning, we’re sure the upcoming Poppy Jasper will surpass the 2019 festival, which had the largest attendance of filmmakers in our 14-year history. It included filmmakers from eight countries: Portugal, Russia, Canada, Iran, France, Australia, Mexico, and Norway. Domestically we had filmmakers from Chicago, New York, Minnesota, and throughout California.

If you love movies, I encourage you to come to our 2020 festival to chat with industry professionals representing different aspects of the filmmaking process attending the festival. We’ll welcome back Randy Spendlove, Paramount Studios President of Motion Picture Music.  Randy is a Gilroy native. At last year’s festival he put together a band of Grammy Award-winning and nominated musicians. They played at the opening gala to a standing room only crowd.

Doeri Welch, director of recruitment at DreamWorks Animation, is also a Gilroy native and will attend the 2020 festival.

In keeping with our commitment to encourage new and emerging filmmakers, the festival has ongoing educational programming to explore and develop the skills of both young and old. With our Young Filmmakers (4 to 14) we partner with CMAP, the Youth Alliance and both the Gilroy and Morgan Hill Libraries to produce short films that will have special screenings at the film festival.

We are also proud of our Millennial Music Video program where we worked with international musician Jordan T who collaborated with us to make a music video for his single “Closer to You.” The video premiered at the 2019 film festival and Jordan T even played live along with three other bands at Golden State Brewery in downtown Gilroy. Our 40 & Up program successfully wrote, directed and edited a short comedy that also showed at the festival. The 70 & Up program is an opportunity for us to work with seniors and partner with the YMCA and both Gilroy and Morgan Hill Senior Centers to teach them about documentary filmmaking, this film also was shown during the festival.

This year we will be adding another program where we will be working with veterans to work on a special documentary focusing on their personal stories from the Vietnam War.

We will be showing the “Best of PJIFF” at the Morgan Hill Playhouse Nov. 1 and 2. Both nights will have a 5 and 7 p.m. showing. For more information visit us on Facebook, our website www.pjiff.org or email me at [email protected] for information on volunteering or sponsoring PJIFF.

Mattie Scariot is the director of the Poppy Jasper Film Festival.