Jan and Sofia Laskowski have been attending Cinequest since the first festival fifteen years ago, “back when it was easy — it was just three days,” as Jan puts it. The long-time Mountain View residents have kept up with the changes since then, developing a complicated system to choose which movies they want to see at the festival. They see about 150 movies a year at theaters like the Camera 7 and Camera 12, and they have attended Cinequest every single year, including the one year it was in Milpitas!
The festival has changed a great deal since that first three-day weekend. Cinequest has grown tremendously, both in terms of length and the scope of the films. “One thing you can say about Cinequest,” Jan observes, “you end up traveling to a different country every year.” Sofia agrees. She travels for business all over the world, and says that films let you see a country “as a local sees it, not as a tourist [does].”
At the Opening Night Gala party, they discussed some of the films they are planning to see. They rate the films themselves, then listen to word of mouth reports from their friends and read the reviews at the official Cinequest website. Finally, they merge those ratings and pick out the films they want to see. “There are so many!” Sofia exclaims, when asked which in particular she’s looking forward to. Jan agrees. One thing Cinequest can guarantee: even picky cinephiles will have a wealth of films to chose from.