Cinequest, San Jose’s film festival celebrating maverick filmmakers, ended Sunday, March 9th with a gala including a screening of the film “Take” and a party at San Jose nightclub Motif. The festival had over 80,000 attendees this year, a new record. Thirty-seven of the features were US or world premiers and over 100 first-time filmmakers from 34 countries had their work showcased.
At the gala, the audience and jury award winners were announced and Public Relations Director Jens Hussey was honored. After nine festivals, he is stepping down to pursue a career in psychology. Hussey was presented with a gold watch inscribed “Maverick Legacy” and made a heartfelt speech thanking the many people he has worked with over the years to make Cinequest a success. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,” he said, “but also a lot, a lot of fun.”
Cinequest does more than just the film festival. During the rest of the year, watch for their Camp Cinequest, a five-day summer camp for middle-schoolers interested in film making; Cinema San Pedro, which features films shown outdoors in the middle of San Pedro Square, a screenwriting competition, and other events — not to mention cinequestonline.org, the distribution website for maverick films. You can buy CDs or watch downloads of a broad sampling of films on the website.