The Poppy Jasper Film Festival is back and bigger than ever for its 11th year, as volunteers are ready to kick off the juried event May 12 with a big-screen tale of Morgan Hill’s best-known swashbuckling seadog, the “Benevolent Pirate” Rich Firato.
This year’s festival—traditionally a short film festival—will screen feature-length films for the first time, according to PJFF Chair Kim Bush. And this year’s festival will be longer than ever, running through May 17 at the Granada Theater in downtown Morgan Hill.
“We’ve been around 10 years, and this is to freshen it up,” Bush said.
Categories of films to be shown during the juried competition and festival include foreign films, music/animation/science fiction, documentaries, dramas, feature-length and family films. A new category this year is “edgy” films, which are more adult themed, Bush said.
The annual festival is not just a competition and a chance for filmmakers to show off their latest work, Bush explained. It has an educational mission and allows those in the industry to network.
These efforts will be facilitated by two workshops to take place next-door to the theater at Grinds, Vines and Automobilia coffee shop, starting at 12 p.m. Mattock Scariot and Nils Myers, founders of 152 WEST Productions, will lead a workshop on how to produce visual effects on a budget; and award-winning filmmaker Rupert Hitzig will host a workshop on developing a film idea from a “dream” to a movie.
Specifically, Hitzig will share his year-long experience developing his latest work, an unreleased pirate film based on Morgan Hill resident Firato.
Firato and his band of consultants and associates were the subject of a documentary that premiered at the 2013 Poppy Jasper Film Festival. That film was about the creation of Firato’s backyard pirate-themed paradise in northeast Morgan Hill, complete with meandering creeks and waterfalls, buried treasure, majestic pirate ships and even the remains of scallywags from eras past.
Firato, who is chair of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, often produces and hosts fundraising events at his cove.
In fact, Firato is also in the midst of production on multiple upcoming film projects. Aside from Hitzig’s film, Firato and local producers are working on a television series to be titled “The Pirate Theater, hosted by The Benevolent Pirate.”
The show will replay a classic pirate film, with Firato—dressed in his most authentic pirate garb and surrounded by props—interjecting at select breaks to offer unique history, criticism and insight into the film or the pirate life in general.
The first episode will feature 1945’s “Captain Kidd.” The show is designed for late-night television, and the 2015 PJFF will kick off with a trailer previewing the series, followed by an encore of Firato’s documentary that debuted in 2013.
“We’ve been doing a lot of research and development, trying to come up with the right concept,” Firato explained. “We think what we came up with is unique and unusual.”
Firato, along with producer William Leamon and acting coach Donna Cowan, will be shopping for a vendor for “The Pirate Theater” at PJFF.
“There are 340 films about pirates,” said Leamon, who is also a co-founder of PJFF. Thus, there should be no shortage of episodes for “The Pirate Theater.”
The first three days of PJFF, May 12 – 14, will feature free screenings starting at 6:30 p.m. each night. Tickets to the blocks of competition films May 15 – 17 cost $10 per block, or $35 for a festival pass that allows access to every screening. Each block of films features a question and answer session with the filmmakers.
Screenwriting legend Victor Miller, who wrote the original “Friday the 13th” horror flick, will present the 2015 PJFF keynote speech 7 p.m. May 15.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit poppyjasperfilmfest.org. The Granada Theater is located at 17440 Monterey Road.
