Cinequest Film Festival
The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It is produced by Cinequest, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is also responsible for Picture The Possibilities and the distribution label Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC. Cinequest awards the annual Maverick Spirit Awards. In addition to over 130 world or U.S. premieres from over 30 countries, the festival hosts writer's events including screenwriting competitions, a shorts program, technology and artistic forums and workshops, student programs, and a silent film accompanied on the theatre organ. Founded in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival, the festival was rebranded in 2017 as the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and expanded beyond downtown San Jose to Redwood City. It took its present name in 2019. History Filmmakers Halfdan Hu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 population of 1,013,240, it is the most populous city in both the Bay Area and the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 9.7 million people respectively, the List of largest California cities by population, third-most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego and ahead of San Francisco), and the List of United States cities by population, tenth-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of . San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County and the main component of the San ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fairmont San Jose
The Signia by Hilton San Jose is an 805-room high-rise hotel at 170 South Market Street in San Jose, California, located on the Plaza de César Chávez in Downtown San Jose. Opened in 1987 as the Fairmont San Jose, the hotel closed on March 5, 2021, and filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization. It reopened as a Hilton property on April 7, 2022. Description There is a swimming pool and associated deck on rooftop, with a specially designed windscreen to create a microclimate designed to be acceptable for sunbathing and swimming. The analysis of this rooftop environment was carried out in the early planning stages using a computer simulation of air flow in the presence of the then existing and proposed Fairmont structures. There is also an indoor cabana/bar on the rooftop. The 13-story, 264 room annex was constructed on the site of the historic Hotel Montgomery, that was moved to the south and restored to what is now the Four Points by Sheraton San Jose Downtown hotel at a cost ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, obtaining supporting roles before gaining a leading man status in film and television. Spacey has received various accolades for his performances on stage and screen including two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He received nominations for a Grammy Award as well as twelve Primetime Emmy Awards. Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, and was named an honorary Commander and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010 and 2015, respectively. His first film roles were Mike Nichols's ''Heartburn'' (1986) and ''Working Girl'' (1988). He continued to act in independent films such as '' Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1992) and ''Swimming with Sharks'' (1994). Spacey gained prominence for his villainous roles in 1995 crime thriller films ''Seven'' and ''The Usual Suspects'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow; February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough as Stacy Hamilton in ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982). She later received critical praise for her performances in ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' (1989), ''Miami Blues'' (1990), ''Backdraft'' (1991), ''Single White Female'' (1992), and ''Short Cuts'' (1993). Leigh was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in '' Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' (1994). She starred in a 1995 film written by her mother, screenwriter Barbara Turner, titled ''Georgia''. In 2001, she co-wrote and co-directed a film with Alan Cumming titled ''The Anniversary Party''. In 2002, Leigh appeared in the neo-noir crime drama film ''Road to Perdition''. In 2007, she starred in the family drama film ''Margot at the Wedding''. She had a recurring role on the Showtime comedy-drama series '' Weeds'' as J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luis Valdez
Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and theater, Valdez is best known for his play '' Zoot Suit'', his movie '' La Bamba'', and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community. Biography Early life Valdez was born in Delano, California, to migrant farm worker parents from Mexico, Armeda and Francisco Valdez. The second of 10 children in his family, Valdez began to work the fields at the age of 6. One of his brothers is actor Daniel Valdez. Throughout his childhood, the family moved from harvest to harvest around the central valleys of California. Due to this peripatetic existence, he attended many different schools before the family finally settled in San Jose, California. Education Valdez began school in Stratford, California. His interest in theatre began in the fir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and ''Female Trouble'' (1974). He wrote and directed the comedy film ''Hairspray'' (1988), which was an international success and was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical. He has written and directed other films, including ''Polyester'' (1981), ''Cry-Baby'' (1990), ''Serial Mom'' (1994), '' Pecker'' (1998), and ''Cecil B. Demented'' (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism. As an actor, Waters has appeared in ''Sweet and Lowdown'' (1999), ''Seed of Chucky'' (2004), '' 'Til Death Do Us Part'' (2007), '' Excision'' (2012), and ''Suburban Gothic'' (2014). More recently, he performs in his touring one-man show ''This Filthy World''. He often worked with actor and drag queen Divine and his regular cast of the Dreamlan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films. Herzog started work on his first film ''Herakles'' in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God'' (1972), ''The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser'' (1974), '' Heart of Glass'' (1976), '' Stroszek'' (1977), ''Nosferatu the Vampyre'' (1979), ''Fitzcarraldo'' (1982), ''Cobra Verde'' (1987), ''Lessons of Darkness'' (1992), ''Little Dieter Needs to Fly'' (1997), ''My Best Fiend ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Russ Meyer
Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that featured Camp (style), campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, such as ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!''. Meyer often named ''Beyond the Valley of the Dolls'' (1970) as his definitive work. Early years Russ Meyer was born in San Leandro, California, the son of Lydia Lucinda (Hauck) and William Arthur Meyer, an Oakland police officer. His parents were both of German Americans, German descent. Meyer's parents divorced soon after he was born, and Meyer was to have virtually no contact with his father during his life. When he was 14 years old, his mother pawnbroker, pawned her wedding ring in order to buy him an 8 mm film camera. He made a number of amateur films at the age of 15, and served during World War II as a U.S. Army combat c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carl Franklin
Carl Franklin (born April 11, 1949) is an American filmmaker. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986. Early life Franklin grew up in Richmond, California. He never had the opportunity to know his biological father, who had died before Carl was born. Franklin was raised by his mother and stepfather. While Franklin speaks highly of his stepfather and has called him "very loving", he has spoken out about his stepfather's abusive tendencies, linking his outbursts to alcohol use. Problems at home combined with life in a tough neighborhood fueled Franklin's ambition to be the first in his family to attend college. He was awarded a scholarship to University of California, Berkeley. Franklin's initial desires to become a teacher or lawyer led him to study history upon his arrival at the university. However, after two years, Franklin changed his majo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paul Bartel
Paul Bartel (August 6, 1938 – May 13, 2000) was an American actor, writer and director. He was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy ''Eating Raoul'', which he wrote, starred in and directed. Bartel appeared in over 90 movies and TV episodes, including such titles as ''Eat My Dust'' (1976), Hollywood Boulevard (1976 film), ''Hollywood Boulevard'' (1976), ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (1979), ''Get Crazy'' (1983) and ''Amazon Women on the Moon'' (1987). He frequently co-starred with friend and former Warhol girl Mary Woronov; the pair appeared in 17 films together, often as husband and wife. Bartel also directed 11 low-budget films, many of which he also acted in or wrote. He started in 1968 with the short ''The Secret Cinema'', a paranoid delusional fantasy of self-referential cinema. He graduated to features in 1972 with the horror-comedy ''Private Parts (1972 film), Private Parts''. He would go on to direct such cult films as ''Death Race 2000'' (1975), ''Eatin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lena Stolze
Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in Østre Toten municipality in Innlandet county, Norway * Lena, Asturias, a municipality in the Principality of Asturias, Spain Russia * Lena, Russia, a list of names of several rural localities in Russia * Lena (river), the easternmost of the three great rivers in Siberia * Lena Cheeks, a stretch of the river Lena with peculiar rock formations in Kirensky District, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia * Lena Pillars, a natural rock formation along the banks of the Lena River in far eastern Siberia * Lena Plateau, a large plateau in Siberia * Lena-Angara Plateau, a large plateau in Siberia United States * Lena, Illinois, a village in Stephenson County * Lena, Indiana, an unincorporated community in Parke County * Lena, Louisiana, an unincorporated communi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jon Jost
Jon Stephen Jost (born 16 May 1943 in Chicago) is an American independent filmmaker. Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college. In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years and 3 months for refusal to cooperate with the Selective Service system. On his release, he became engaged in anti-war activities primarily by working for the draft resistance, Chicago Mobilization, and helped found the Chicago branch of what became Newsreel, the New Left Film production and distribution group. Career Self-taught as a filmmaker, he made his first full-length film in 1974, and has since that time focused on a wide range of American issues in his films, at present having made 40 long-form films. Jost's work has shown since 1976 in major film festivals around the world. The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, screened a complete retrospective of his work from J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |