Ash Kalra, City of San Jose CouncilmemberFans of Cinequest come from all walks, circles. Ash Kalra, a San Jose Councilmember now in his second term, was gracious enough to spend a few minutes with us talking about the upcoming film festival.

Sometimes these can be quite predictable, for all the right reasons: everyone raves about what a great event Cinequest is. Kalra also talks about the positive economic impact on the city of San Jose, and gives some advice to first-time festival go-ers.

Asha Kalra says, “I love Cinequest! I love film and art, and I’ve been coming to Cinequest for years.”

You may wonder why Loni springs onto the screen with all that Kool-aid-like, amped energy.

I think the green “Maverick Moose Pie”—inspired by Sarah Palin according to owner and “Chief Psycho” Jordan Zweigoron—from Psycho Donuts might have given her a massive adrenaline rush just before I flipped on the camera. There’s enough sugar in those things to, well… launch Woody Allen into orbit. Or maybe it was just us—half as smart—having fun on location, yet again, with Loni trying to figure out another name, term; this time “councilman” or “councilmember.”

Again, thanks to Ash Kalra for the time, and possibly risking his career by appearing on SSC! We have more coverage to come. And, now that some of the theatre rush is behind us, we have a little bit of free time to work through screeners from the media launch party. It’s Cinequest 20 + Web 2.0 + Social Media… thanks for tuning in to Stark Insider. Mavericks on the mavericks.

Clinton shoots videos for Stark Insider. San Francisco Bay Area arts, Ingmar Bergman and French New Wave, and chasing the perfect home espresso shot 25 seconds at a time (and failing). Peloton: ClintTheMint. Camera: Video Gear