San Jose City Living

Check out this awesome video recap on Cinequest 19:

Yes it’s true, Diablo Cody came to The Vault Soiree with Inside Cinequest after her public interview with a Q&A where audience members could ask questions.

The interview was informative but the sad part was the man asking the initial questions talked only about himself.  From what I heard from others attending the Q&A was that he is a film professor from Stanford.

Only 5 or so minutes into the interview the crowed was yelling, “LET HER SPEAK!”  Diablo couldn’t get a word in, nor would Mr. Talksalot even ask her a question.  With more and more people yelling to silence the man, he finally gave in and began asking her questions, which of course, each sent him back into a tizzy of self directed talk.

Some neat things I learned about Diablo Cody, other than the fact she wrote the movie ‘Juno‘ as well as the new hit Showtime series ‘United States of Tara‘, Diablo got discovered by a blog she wrote.  While she didn’t go into exactly what the blog was about, she did mentioned through her writing talents, someone suggested she write a screen play.  Coincidentally her very first screen play was was Juno.

Each night Cinequest hosted an after party.  The night Diablo was here for her Q&A  and to receive the Maverick Award she was given, she came down to spend time with Inside Cinequest at The Vault Soiree.

We had a great time!  Diablo is a down to earth, tell it like it is kind of person.  FYI, she’s looking at getting a new lap dog but secretly wants a big Great Dane.  We took shots of taquila (as some of you may have read about on my Twitter posts) and just relaxed.  It was an honor spending time with her and I’m glad to have met her.

I spent some time with Inside Cinequest during the film festival and had the honor to see, first hand, interviews with producers, directors, and everyone in between.

So far I have had the privilege of meeting with Jeff Lam (Producer) and Timo Chen (Music Producer) from the film Why Am I Doing This, Mary Haverstick (Director/Producer/Writer) and Michele Mercur (Executive Producer) from the film Home, as well as Wayne Lachman (Director) and Scott Macgregor (Executive Producer) from the documentary film Life For A Child. One thing each of these people shared was a personal passion of the art of film making and conveying a message.

Cinequest is a great launching point for many films. While speaking with the Director of Corps Run (John Michael Thomas), he mentioned that just by being a part of Cinequest, his movie was going to gain traction it wouldn’t achieve by any other method. The recognition and prestige of having a film at Cinequest is something in and of itself.

On average there are 3000 independent films made each year – of those, only about 1000 find their way into a festival. Beyond the 1000 in festivals only a 100 get any sort of recognition. Only a few, maybe 1-5 of the top films get distributed to the rest of us once passing the rigorous battery of judging sessions and peer reviews.

Films like Slumdog Millionaire are an example of the top percentile that truly makes headway into the big time blockbusters. However, can we really call films with huge 10+ million dollar budgets, Indies? It’s a tough concept to lock down but some have characterized it by the amount invested to create a film, others have defined it by a film, which isn’t supported by a major studio. The definition isn’t as clear as one might think but one thing we can agree on is that Indie films are becoming more the rave than anything before as the big studios and actors are taking on Indie film roles to gain popularity and grab a piece of the growing audience.

One thing we can be sure of is that Cinequest 19 has been one of the best we’ve seen. To top it off, it was just a few steps from out backyards – or balconies for those of us in high-rises.

Keep in touch, as I’ll be writing more about the experience and the films I’ve seen along with my experience hanging out with the crew of Inside Cinequest.

Tomorrow is the day that I’ll be interviewing Sinohui Hinojosa, CEO of EXIT Stage Left, VP of Home Entertainment for Cinevolve Studios, and Senior Producer/Creative Director for Emerging Artists Productions.

The one responsible for the twitter posts you’ve been following (www.twitter.com/insidecinequest) and the video you’ve been viewing (www.insidecinequestblogspot.com) is ready to speak frankly about the ins and outs of Cinequest.

I’m excited and I know he is too so be ready!  Also coming up is my reviews on the recent films I’ve seen at Cinequest.

If you haven’t you really need to! Cinequest is one of the greatest events to hit Silicon Valley each and every year.Want to get inside Cinequest? Here are a few options for you:

Visit the Inside Cinequest website and get up to date interviews and reviews.

Follow them on Twitter to see what they’re up to throughout the day.

On the other hand you can also visit the Cinequest site directly at www.Cinequest.org.