Feel-good times at fest

The Granada Theater has opened up for audiences only a few times since it was shuttered as a full-time movie venue in 2003, but the crowds who filled the theater’s northern auditorium for the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival’s Friday night “Local Showcase” screening acted like they were sitting in a neighbor’s living room.
“Arrrrr!” viewers playfully shouted from scattered locations throughout the audience when the opening credits rolled for “Morgan’s Cove,” a 30-minute documentary about a Morgan Hill resident who turned his dream of an intricate pirate-themed backyard/playground into a reality.
When the next film, “Crooked as [Expletive],” another short documentary about San Martin-based punk-rock band Sad Boy Sinister started, black-leather clad, tattoo-covered fans let out a roar of loving profanities and displays of obscene hand gestures toward each other.
It was the biggest crowd ever gathered for a single film block in the 10-year history of the Poppy Jasper Film Festival, according to PJIFF board member Bob Snow, one of the event’s co-founders. And the Friday night local film screening only kicked off the three-day festival, which continued through Sunday with screenings of more than 30 short comedies, dramas, science fiction films and more from all over the world.
“Attendance (overall) was probably a little better than last year,” said Snow, who also served as a juror for the 2013 PJIFF, helping select which submitted films make it into the festival.
The festival also featured a slate of workshops on film production hosted by seasoned Hollywood professionals, including “Friday the 13th” writer Victor Miller and famed producer, director and writer Rupert Hitzig. The festival also included a Sunday fundraiser for nonprofits Honor Flight and Operation Freedom Paws, for which the festival raised about $200 each. A documentary about Honor Flight, an organization that flies veterans from all over the country to Washington, D.C., also screened Sunday.
The “Best of Show” winning film, as selected by the festival’s panel of jurors, was the nine-minute animated film “Light Me Up.”
The “Viewer’s Choice” winner for the weekend was “Wade Krause: Pinball Artist,” a 16-minute documentary.
Rich Firato, a producer of “Morgan’s Cove” and owner of the pirate paradise of the same name at his home in east Morgan Hill, said his first foray into film-making at the 2013 PJIFF was an encouraging one.
“There’s a lot of room to improve, and you learn that as you do it,” Firato said. “We were very fortunate to have people in the industry critique (“Morgan’s Cove”). It was a very good learning experience.”