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: 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!