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Cinequest of San Jose

© Rachel Lindley

Toronto, Los Angeles, Sundance, Cannes. All of these festivals are ranked among the highest of the high when it comes to newcomers marketing their films. All of them are known worldwide for their diversity in film and filmmakers and are considered the spirit of the indie world.

However there is another festival that is ranked right up there with the honchos but isn’t spoken about as much as the others. That is San Jose’s Cinequest Film Festival.

This is quite surprising considering computer companies in Silicon Valley. This year was the premiere of Cinequest 11 from February 22 to March 4 citing the festival’s decade old lifespan. More than 47,000 came in droves to pack the houses of the Camera Cinemas located in downtown San Jose and thanks to the San Francisco Chronicle’s word of mouth, screenings reached to downtown Palo Alto at the Landmark's Aquarius Theater.

The camera cinemas have offered a wide variety of independent films to international and re-released classics to underground for since 1975. Movie buffs and aspiring filmmakers James Zuur, Jack NyBlom, and Dennis Skaggs opened the Camera One in downtown San Jose due to long drives to Berkeley for good films. Since then the cameras have extended to Camera 3, also downtown, the Towne 3, on the Alameda near the Rose Garden, and the Los Gatos Cinema, in downtown Los Gatos. They have also developed, designed and built the Osio Plaza six plex in downtown Monterey, which they sold to Resort Theaters of America in 1999.

Cinequest officials reported more than half the panels and screenings were sold out. It’s not surprising considered such A-list indie filmmakers and stars came out for the honor of Cinequest’s Maverick Spirit Award: Richard Leacock, Spike Lee and Billy Bob Thornton was scheduled, but could not appear due to a “personal emergency.” The filmmakers joined the recipient list that included Alec Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Jackie Chan, Rod Steiger, Kevin Spacey, John Waters, Peter Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Cinequest is preparing for its Cinequest 12 February 21- March 3, 2002. The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide joins the best of the best as one of the world's top ten film festivals, as ranked by the prestigious Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide:

"Receiving an award from any of the Top Ten (festivals) results in much-needed publicity and the attention of the industry, which can go a long way toward launching a career… And, of paramount importance for independent filmmakers, these fests also act as back-door film markets—movies that are shown at these festivals have a greater chance of getting picked up for distribution."

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