Say Goodbye to the Cinequest Happy Hour
Posted by Cynthia Corral
WHAT?? Happy Hours are OVER??
You may not believe this, but Friday is the very last Cinequest Happy Hour! For all of you who thought you might go “next time”, that time is now here. Cinequest has pulled out all the stops for this last CQHH and you will not want to miss it!
From Cinequest:
Prepare yourself for a fun and provocative time when Cinequest brings you Bingo Bin Laden during this Friday’s Cinequest Happy Hour. But if you think this is your ordinary bingo game, guess again. Join us this Friday, July 10th, 4:30pm-7:00pm at Eulipia (310 S. 1st St, San Jose) as we challenge your movie, politics, and Cinequest knowledge. Also, prepare your questions for special guest Osama bin Laden as we invite him to candidly divulge his darkest Maverick secrets.
Cinequest Happy Hour participants will get an opportunity to meet filmmaker, Scott Sublett, as well as enjoy the irreverent bin Laden festivities. PLUS…Scott has directed a second film that Cinequest will release, Generic Thriller, so expect cast and crew to be on hand to help us lampoon terrorism and politics.
This month, Build-the-Fest asks you to tell us your all-time favorite Cinequest Film Festival movies. Cast your votes and debate the nominees on our Facebook or Twitter pages. Next month, we will vote on the top 10 finalists, pick the all-time favorite Cinequest film, AND it will be showcased at the upcoming 20th Anniversary Cinequest Film Festival (Feb. 23 – Mar. 7, 2010). *Subject to film availability.
Curious to see who won last month’s vote for the top Maverick Spirit Guest? Find out on Facebook, Twitter and the Cinequest homepage.
It's not goodbye, just See ya later!
CQCentral will be sad to see these fun Fridays end but we have all made many new friends and cemented old ones. Cinequest 2010 is surely going to be the most fabulous of them all. Come join us on Friday to say hello to Summer and goodbye to the Cinequest Happy Hours – but it certainly will NOT be a goodbye to our new Cinequest friends and family.
Tags: Bingo Bin Laden, cinequest, CQ Happy Hour, Eulipia, GENERIC THRILLER, Scott Sublett.
CQ Happy Hour to be at Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge & Restaurant
Posted by Cynthia Corral
This week’s Cinequest Happy Hour will be held at Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge at 99 E. San Fernando Street, downtown San Jose. Visit their website and feast your eyes on their delicious sounding menu. I hear they have excellent food and good Happy Hour prices.
Once again I urge everyone to spend an hour or two visiting with the Cinequest Family. We have all had a great time at each of these events and have been made to feel very welcome. I must confess that I am a somewhat shy person in social situations, but I have always felt comfortable and welcome at the CQHHs and have easily made new friends each time. Whether you come with a group of friends, with your significant other, or all by yourself, I can assure you a great time will be had by all. We have had games and drawings, great food and drink, and the company of some really incredible people.
Celebrate the end of another work week, and another week closer to Cinequest 20, by spending time with us this Friday, June 26 from 4:30 – 7pm. Why not give it a try this time?
Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge & Restaurant
99 E San Fernando Street
San Jose, CA
408 998-9998
Cuisine: Modern Global Fusion
CQHH at Billy Berk’s included everything from Film Directors to JawBones
Posted by Cynthia Corral
Last night Cinequest family and friends all came together for Happy Hour at Billy Berk’s in downtown San Jose. As usual it was a great time with friends, food and drink. Billy Berk’s is becoming one of my personal favorite places, especially their outside patio. It was a lovely and cool summer night for getting together with friends, and the table where I sat enjoyed sharing almost every item from the extensive Happy Hour Appetizer list.
Dierdre and Chris enjoy appetizers
We were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Jeffrey Goodman, director of a Cinequest favorite, The Last Lullaby. This was an excellent suspense movie starring Tom Sizemore as “a former hitman [...] struggling to cope with retirement.” If you never got a chance to see this film at Cinequest, or if you would like to see it again (as most of us plan to), it is playing at Camera 3 downtown for this week only. You may not get another chance to see this excellent movie – although we cross our fingers we all do! – so you should try to get out to Camera 3 this weekend or sometime this week. It was very nice of Jeffrey to stop by and talk to us, and we wish him all the luck in the world with this film and future films.
Jeffrey Goodman, director of The Last Lullaby
Last night’s event included filling out voter cards choosing our top three picks for Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award winner. We could put a check next to our top three choices, and turn in the ballot for a drawing entry. The prize: a Jawbone headset! I have wanted one of these since watching their most hilarious ads before the films at Cinequest a couple years ago. Alas, I was not the winner last night. The fabulous Art won instead!
Art with his Jawbone prize and Casey
Do not forget you only have until the end of this month to get your votes in. You can place a vote through Facebook, or Twitter, or send an email to Publicity@Cinequest.org. Your choices are:
Drew Barrymore (actor/prod: Donnie Darko, Never Been Kissed)
Tim Burton (dir: Ed Wood, Beetlejuice)
Bruce Campbell (actor: Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep)
Don Cheadle (actor: Hotel Rwanda, Ocean’s Eleven)
Ethan & Joel Coen (dirs: No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski)
John Cusack (actor: High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank)
Johnny Depp (actor: Pirates of the Caribbean, Sweeney Todd)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (actor: Charlie Wilson’s War, Capote)
Sean Penn (actor: Dead Man Walking, Milk)
Natalie Portman (actor: V for Vendetta, Garden State)
The next Cinequest Happy Hour will be June 26 at Fahrenheit at 99 E San Fernando St. We hope you will join us!
Tags: Billy Berks, CQHH, Happy Hour, Jeffrey Goodman, Last Lullaby.
The SJ Rep met their goal, will get new carpet!
Posted by Cynthia Corral
Great news from the San Jose Repertory Theatre:
In the span of two months, thanks to the support of donors like you, we have raised the $22,000 match to the grant put forward by our Emeritus Trustee, John M. Sobrato for new lobby carpet. We will now be able to install new carpet in our lower and upper lobby in time for the start of Rick Lombardo’s Inaugural Season in September.
This is really incredible news, and I would like to personally thank each and every person who made a donation, including Emeritus Trustee John M. Sobrato, even if your personal donation was only $1. As you can see, it all added up and we will now have a beautiful Repertory Theatre to show the world and be proud of during Cinequest 20.
Help Needed for SJ Rep Challenge Grant
Posted by Cynthia Corral
SJ Rep Lobby
If you are a Cinequester, chances are you have seen a film or two at the San Jose Repertory Theatre even if you have never seen a live performance there. The SJ Rep has been an outstanding and generous contributor to Cinequest over the years and it is time we repaid the favor.
I noticed at a recent performance at The Rep that the carpet was in really terrible condition. I never would have pointed this out if I didn’t have great news to share, but the truth is the carpet is worn, threadbare and sad. It was a terrible contrast to the rest of the theater which is really so beautiful. The good news is that the SJ Rep has received a Challenge Grant to replace the carpet! Emeritus Board member John Michael Sobrato has pledged to pay half the cost of new carpet if The Rep can bring in the other half with contributions.
The SJ Rep is a fabulous addition to San Jose year round with its own theatrical performances and their work with youth in the community. But they are also a priceless addition to Cinequest. For several years now The Rep has allowed Cinequest to use their venue to show films and interview Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award Winners, and this year it also served as Cinequest headquarters. The filmmaker lounge was set up upstairs and the hospitality extended by The Rep went way beyond expectations.
Think about how many people must walk through the theater every year. Think about the important people from the film world – who come from all over the world – who visit during the Cinequest Film Festival. Cinequesters really should help contribute in maintaining the beauty of The Rep in return for their generosity over the years.
The Rep has already raised one third of the matching funds. The other 2/3 must be raised by June 30, 2009, and despite their very generous regular donors, they need funds specific to this fundraising goal. If you could contribute just five dollars it would be so appreciated. If you could contribute $20 or $50 it would bring them even closer to their goal. They only have one month to collect donations in order to receive this Challenge Grant; I hope we can all pull together and help The Rep achieve this goal.
Time is of the essence.
Please contact Development Associate Janet Herrington to make a donation to this cause. She can be reached at 408-367-7264 or or JanetH@sjrep.com.
CQ Happy Hour: The Loft – More success and Special Announcements!
Posted by Cynthia Corral
We had another really great time at CQ Happy Hour last night. Friendships made last week were cemented this week, and more new friendships were made again. One thing for sure, Cinequest 20 will no longer have audiences comprised of nameless familiar faces; the Camera Theaters will instead be packed with best friends!
I arrived at The Loft by 5pm and the $5 plates of fried calamari and onion strings were already being passed around. Drinks were flowing, both alcoholic and non. And once again the Cinequest team had found a way for us to mingle and meet each other.
Cinequest's Stephanie Le and Dashiel Pare-Mayer
This was the night that the Top Ten nominees for Audience Choice Cinequest Maverick were going to be announced. We were all given bingo cards with a cinema trivia question in each square. The trick was that we were not allowed to answer them ourselves; we had to find someone else who knew the answer. Then they filled in the box and signed their name. As soon as you had achieved a trivia Bingo you brought it to one of the Cinequest family and received a prize! There were Cinequest T-shirts given out and all sorts of Peet’s Coffee products. As awkward as these games can be at other parties, once again the friendliness of Cinequest fans, friends and family came through and even the shyest attendees were able to easily get answers and meet someone new.
There is something about the Cinequest family that is so relaxing, charming and fun, it just makes it impossible to feel like an outsider at an event like this. Maybe you have attended the Opening and Closing Night parties where the venues are packed full of strangers looking for the free food and alcohol and you can’t hear yourself speak. Those parties are not the easiest places to meet someone or even have a conversation. These Happy Hours are the opposite. They are held in smaller areas, are more intimate in nature and more raucously fun at the same time. It is virtually impossible to feel like a stranger for more than two minutes. The purpose of these Happy Hours is for everyone to get to know each other, to get rid of the “stranger factor” inherent in sitting in a dark theater. And the Cinequest team has set these events up perfectly to do so. As many steps up the festival evolutionary ladder I felt Cinequest climbed at CQFF19, they are just leaping up that ladder this year.
What I am trying to say is: You really should come to a Cinequest Happy Hour.
Jason and Chris never have any fun
And now on to the announcements!
As I said, we were given Trivia Bingo Cards to help clue us in to the Top Ten nominees for Cinequest Maverick. I have to say that I was pleased with the results. Without further ado, in alpabetical order the Top Ten are:
***drum roll***
I, for one, am really pleased with these nominees. I think it would be very exciting to have any of these people attend the Cinequest Film Festival, and I think they would bring many new people to the festival to see them. In June we get to vote for the one nominee we want to invite. It will not be an easy task to pick just one, that is for sure. We will let you know how to vote just as soon as we know.
The next Cinequest Happy Hour will be June 12 at A Perfect Finish at 55 S. First Street in San Jose. There will surely be more exciting times to be had. We definitely hope you will join us.
Tags: cinequest, CQ Happy Hour, the loft.
Cinequest News Update 05-26-2009
Posted by Cynthia Corral
A few very important items this week:
Time running out to nominate 2010 Cinequest Maverick!
You have only until Friday at noon to send in your suggestion for Cinequest Maverick 2010. Who would you like to see speak at the festival next year? Denis Leary? Don Cheadle? Sam Rockwell? Jane Adams? Just send off an email to Publicity@Cinequest.org listing your preference for Maverick 2010. At the end of this month Cinequest will ask us to vote on the candidates with the most votes. So get out your cinematic wish list and send your email!
Cinequest Happy Hour
The next Cinequest Happy Hour is coming up this Friday, May 29.
This time head over to The Loft Bar and Bistro at 90 S. Second Street in Downtown San Jose. Remember that you don’t need a ticket or an invitation, just come on down and join the fun. Drinks are at great prices, Cinequest friends are free, and you may get some inside scoop on next year’s festival! This week we will get to vote on the top 10 nominees who have been suggested for the Maverick Spirit Award so you definitely don’t want to miss out.
The Loft is actually a really great place to have a Cinequest Happy Hour. Draft beers, wine and well drinks are all $5.00, and there are seven different Full Order appetizers available from 3pm – 7pm for $5.00 as well. You can eat and drink heartily without breaking the bank AND you get to spend time with Cinequest friends.
Top-Secret (not really) Cinequest 2010 Information!
At last week’s CQ Happy Hour we were given some top secret information about the 2010 festival dates. Should we share?
The truth is, we would have shared with you LAST week, but those darn Bloody Marys at Mezcal were so good they kind of blew our memories for a few days. So here is the not-really-so Top Secret Info:
Cinequest 20 will be held from February 23, 2010 to March 7, 2010. What’s different is that it’s starting on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday. The reasoning is that March 7 is also the Oscar Awards, so to avoid any conflicts with movie fans who wish to see both, the actual Cinequest films will play from February 23 to March 6, and the Cinequest Awards will be held on March 7. They may also replay some of the award winning films for those who wish to see them. This way we can all party on Closing Night (Saturday) as long as we want, and then nurse our film-addled hangovers on Sunday morning before CQ Awards/Oscars. And then Reality will hit us on Monday morning – but sans hangover! Genius!!
So mark off February 23 to March 7 on your 2010 calendars, and we’ll see you this May 29 at The Loft!
Cinequest Happy Hour at Mezcal – Success!!
Posted by Cynthia Corral
All you really need to know is if you weren’t there tonight, you missed out on a lot of fun. And alcohol. And prizes! And voting! And movie talk! WOOOooOOoOOOOO!!!
“Let’s get this party started!” ~ Morgan from Cinequesting
Mezcal was the very gracious host of the CQ Happy Hour tonight and it was definitely a success. Thank you to Halfdan Hussey, Michael Rabehl, Matt Opsal and so many others from the Cinequest organization for putting on this event and inviting the entire community. I met a lot of new people from Cinequest tonight, and I am so sorry that I didn’t write down everyone’s names. Hopefully by next Happy Hour I will know you all better!
“So there was this film about dogs…” ~ Michael Rabehl from Cinequest
Besides the very nicely priced and delicious drinks served, we were also asked to fill out ballots for the next Cinequest Maverick. We had to write down who we wanted and then get three other people to sign off on it in order for it to be counted. This brought about much discussion about who we would like to come to CQ20. Bill Plympton? Morgan Spurlock? Jane Adams? Danny Elfman? Sean Penn? Sam Rockwell?
“Can I request Chevy Chase for CQ Maverick?” ~ Matt Opsal from Cinequest
At the end of Happy Hour they pulled out three random ballots and gave those lucky guests a wristband to Left Coast Live! Very cool. Thank you, Cinequest! There was also discussion about former Cinequest films which are out on DVD or at other film festivals, what films never made it to the festival (we’re not discussing the dog movie, no, we’re not going to mention it), and really any old movie in general. We’re Cinequesters! We love movies! Luckily, by the time we’d had enough alcohol that we thought some fried grasshoppers would be a tasty treat – DARN IT they had sold out of them. Who would ever believe the fried grasshoppers would be sold out???
This was a really fun time, with promises of even more fun and more surprises to come at future Happy Hours. If you could not make it tonight, remember – they are every two weeks! The next one will be held at The Loft (90 S. Second Street) on May 29. So come on down and say hi! Besides, the last thing you want to do is upset Jason…
“Chris G and Vince L – You better show up next time!!” ~ Jason from JasonWatchesMovies
CINEQUEST 19 FINAL RANKINGS (MichaelVox)
Posted by MichaelVox
Originally posted at MichaelVox
My 12th year. Will be remembered as the year the Twitter took off and updates were sent back and forth while the festival was in full swing. My biases are away from low-budget films in English and towards foreign dramas. I rarely find film festival comedies funny, which I believe is what they set out to be.
Countries represented this year: Hungary, Serbia, Switzerland. Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Norway, Pakistan, and Turkey. Where else do you get a chance to see this kind of variety without the help of Netflix?
My final count was 28 films and one shorts program.
Best Fiction:
1-HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS — Argentina — Three characters and their stories are told by an unseen narrator
2-SOF SHAVUA B’TEL AVIV (FOR MY FATHER) — Israel — Suicide bomber has 48 hours to live among, learn about, and fall for, the Jews he set out to kill
3-JOHNNY MAD DOG — Liberia — Boy soldiers ruthlessly kill and rape while overseen by older violent men
4-THE PHOTOGRAPH — Indonesia — Nightclub singer attempts to improve her life by becoming the assistant to an ancient photographer
5-FIRAAQ — India — Intertwining stories of Hindus and Muslims unsuccessfully living together in the era of terrorism
6-A NYOMOZO (THE INVESTIGATOR) — Hungary — Humorless pathologist is offered a payday if he kills someone he believes he has no tie to
7-MANNEN SOM ELSKET YNGVE (THE MAN WHO LOVED YNGVE) — Norway — A boy in a high school rock band is conflicted when he finds himself attracted to the new tennis-playing, artistic, beautiful boy even though he knows he has an almost perfect girlfriend
8-PAZAR-BIR TICARET MASALI (THE MARKET: A TALE OF TRADE) — Turkey — Struggling businessman tries to bring much-needed medicine across the border even though he won’t make a profit
9-BE HAMIN SADEGI (AS SIMPLE AS THAT) — Iran — Housewife and mother feels invisible and artistically stiffled
10-CE QU’IL FAUT POUR VIVRE (NECESSITIES OF LIFE) — Canada — Inuit man taken from his home and family for TB treatment in Quebec City in 1952
11-NOME PROPRIO (CAMILA JAM) — Brazil — Passionate young woman with no sense of privacy exposes her thoughts, secrets, dreams, and body to an eager online readership
12-UN AUTRE HOMME (ANOTHER MAN) — Switzerland — Man with no opinions of his own becomes film critic in small village by copying better-known critical material
13-FINNISCHER TANGO (FINNISH TANGO) — Germany — Con man pretends to be disabled and falls in with a group home and learns a little something about himself
14-RAMCHAND PAKISTANI — Pakistan — Father and son are taken into custody for wandering too near the Indian border and adjust to life in prison
15-TANDOORI LOVE — Switzerland — Indian chef on a film location falls for Swiss woman working in an alpine restaurant
16-EL CAMINO — Costa Rica — Children flee abusive grandfather and attempt to cross the border into Costa Rica from Nicaragua, but the dangers are at least as great on their journey as they were back at home
[Avoid the ones below here]
17-LOS (CUT LOOSE) — Belgium — Journalist wants more serious stories to report on and begins writing about immigrant’s experiences coming to Belgium and falls for a beautiful Palestinian
18-UN ROMAN POLICIER (A POLICE ROMANCE) — France — Arab rookie and French police chief investigate drug dealers and a relationship with each other
19-ESZTER HAGYATEKA (ESTHER’S INHERITANCE) — Hungary — Woman with family home falls a second time for her scoundrel brother-in-law
20-CORPSE RUN — USA — Tech-savvy youth play videogames and talk incessantly about their generation
21-TURNEJA (THE TOUR) — Serbia — Semi-famous theater troupe takes a tour of the war-ravaged countryside
22-CAPERS — USA — Three different bumbling crime gangs filmed in three different cinema styles
23-NA LEPOM PLAVOM DUNAVU (THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE) — Serbia — Cabaret + Shortbus + Irreversible = Loveboat with value added sexual favors
24-WAKE — USA — Young woman tries her luck dating people she meets at funerals. I tried my luck watching this. I got through 30 minutes
Documentaries:
1-WITCH HUNT — USA — Working-class couples unjustly thrown in prison based upon coached evidence of children
2-JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON — USA — Landmark live album has interesting back story
3-ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A GEEK TRAGEDY — Canada — These people take Rock Paper Scissors very seriously
Impossible To Categorize Or Review Without At Least A Half Dozen More Viewings:
1-CANARY — USA — Replacement organs are sometimes repossessed if the host doesn’t follow their care and feeding correctly?
Fell Asleep But Heard It Was Terrific:
1–YE CHE (NIGHT TRAIN) — China — I have no idea
The Mob Ranks CQFF19 Films Thus Far (Sunday Morning Edition)
Posted by MichaelVox
Hey. MichaelVox here.
Today, Sunday, is the 4th full day of Cinequest 19. It’s time to see how some veteran Cinequesters have ranked what they’ve seen so far this year. Feel free to add your own comments. There are more than 150 films this year, they can’t all be spectacular. By the same token, you don’t want to be the only person who didn’t experience the movie everyone’s talking about this year. These lists are changeable and preliminary and grouped together in “clumps of quality”.
Without further ado, a few ordered lists:
MichaelVox (12th CQ):
FOR MY FATHER
HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS
WITCH HUNT
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
ESTER’S INHERITANCE
ANOTHER MAN
CORPSE RUN
A POLICE ROMANCE
CAPERS
WAKE
—–
Mike Weston:
DANCERS
THE MAN WHO LOVED YNVGE
THE MARKET
WAKE
—–
Annette M. (13th CQ):
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
THE MARKET
TRUFFE
SALUTE: THE PETER NORMAN STORY
THE FRIEND
SHORTS: COME TOGETHER
ROCATERRANIA
SHORTS: THE HEREAFTER
HOW AM I NOT GOING TO LOVE YOU?
BITTER AND TWISTED
A POLICE ROMANCE
FINNISH TANGO
NIGHT TRAIN
—–
Steve Rhodes (13th CQ):
WITCH HUNT
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
WAKE
DANCERS
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
CAPERS
NIGHT TRAIN
BITTER & TWISTED
—–
Pischina (11th or so CQ):
WITCH HUNT
CAPERS
TWO MILLION STUPID WOMEN
HOW AM I NOT GOING TO LOVE YOU?
HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS
THE SKEPTIC
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
CORPSE RUN
—–
RandomCuriosity:
CAPERS
NIGHT TRAIN
—–