It’s fitting that Chris McGilvray, a Los Gatos native, made his first documentary feature about Mount Eden Vineyards in Saratoga. He began working on the film seven years ago and now, like opening a bottle of fine Cabernet Sauvignon, he’s eager to find out how the public reacts to “Eden.”
He’ll get that chance Saturday when his movie is screened at the palatial California Theatre during Cinequest — the Silicon Valley film and creativity festival where filmmakers often get their first opportunities and world premieres of independent films have become a hallmark. “Eden” is among more than 80 world and U.S. premieres that will be screened at Cinequest, which opens Thursday night in downtown San Jose with “The Island Between Tides,” which is also a world premiere. (The lineup, tickets and passes are available at cinequest.org.)
“I’m really excited to see the reactions of people,” said McGilvray, 43, who lives in Soquel. He’ll be taking the film to different festivals following its Cinequest debut and hopes to get a distributor. “I would just like as many people as possible to see this film.”
Cinequest co-founder and festival director Halfdan Hussey knows how he feels. Hussey was a first-time filmmaker himself, who persuaded Cinequest co-founder Kathleen Powell to produce his first film, “He’s Still There,” which debuted at the prestigious Venice Film Festival in 1990. That experience created both the spark for Cinequest and its ongoing philosophy on discovering new voices.
“Every individual is different but for me that experience was life-changing,” Hussey said. “I was a young punk kid, and I was very nervous. I wanted to collapse, but I will never forget it.”
Over more than three decades, Cinequest has gained a reputation for premiering films, especially from artists making their first or second films. “What is really unique about how we do our festival is when we do program films, we have a very high ratio of films from our open submissions,” Hussey said. “We love to find and give people voice that haven’t already been discovered.”
Cinequest co-founder Halfdan Hussey says Silicon Valley’s intelligent movie audiences provide good reactions for filmmakers at the festival. Cinequest runs March 7-17, 2024 in downtown San Jose. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
Cinequest’s Silicon Valley audience is also part of that process, being open to seeing something new and giving feedback to the filmmakers in person during panels after screenings or other events.
“We have a very intelligent audience, and I think their reaction to the films is very encouraging to the filmmakers,” Hussey said. “A lot of them are making something that’s very special, and it requires an audience that can get it and understand what they’re doing.”
McGilvray will have a good opportunity to hear from audiences Saturday. There’ll be a Q&A session following the 4:30 p.m. premiere of “Eden,” and there’s also an after-party planned at 7:30 p.m. at the Westin San Jose where the filmmakers and members of the Patterson family — which owns Mount Eden and is the primary focus of the movie — will be pouring their wine. Tickets are available for $50 at edenfilm.info/screenings.
Coincidentally, the Cinequest experience will be a bit of a homecoming for McGilvray and his San Jose-based cinematographer Isaiah Flores. They both were volunteers at Cinequest when they were in high school, though they didn’t know each other at the time. Hussey said he didn’t learn that bit of trivia until January when McGilvray introduced himself.
“It was very fulfilling to me when they told me they were inspired by Cinequest,” Hussey said.
MORE MOVIES: Cinequest won’t be the only opportunity to have an interesting movie experience this weekend. Symphony San Jose’s orchestra will be performing the score to Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” while the magical movie plays on a big screen behind them on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the downtown Center for the Performing Arts. Get tickets at symphonysanjose.org.
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Meanwhile, this year’s 12th annual Watsonville Film Festival will put the emphasis on Latino filmmakers and movies during its March 7-9 in-person run at the Green Valley CineLux Theater. Peter Bratt, the director of the featured film, “La Mission,” will be honored at Saturday’s screening of his movie, which stars his brother, Benjamin Bratt. Get details at watsonvillefilmfest.org.
That movie also inspired an art exhibit, “More Than Cars: Celebrating Lowrider Culture” at the Pajaro Valley Arts Porter Building in downtown Watsonville. An opening reception will take place March 10 at 1 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. car show. The exhibit will be up through June 30.
HONORING WOMEN’S HISTORY: The second annual Women’s Heritage Day celebration at History Park in San Jose on Saturday should be a day packed with activities. Mosaic America will showcase cultural performances and workshops in front of the Pacific Hotel, there’ll be a display of women-owned lowriders and La Raza Historical Society will host a poetry lounge at the Empire Firehouse.
A focus of the free event is to highlight the contributions of women throughout the history of the Santa Clara Valley — including Mary Sutton, Sophia Mendoza, Janet Gray Hayes, Lillian Gong-Guy and Kristi Yamaguchi. If you don’t know who those women are or what they did, you can find out Saturday from noon to 3:30 p.m. Go to historysanjose.org for more details.