It’s hard to believe how fast Cinequest has grown in the last 20 years. Halfdan Hussey, co-founder and executive director, told us the original festival drew about 3,000 fans. Last year, even in a tough economic environment, over 80,000 showed. Being in Silicon Valley I’d say Cinequest itself has a bit of Google DNA, at least in terms of growth.
In this segment, Loni asks Halfdan what makes Cinequest unique. And, more importantly, how he has maintained the original brand and identity of the festival over the years.
Carry Cinequest on your smartphone. You can access the schedule, daily events, forums, as well as Cinequest Distribution titles on your smartphone with the new Cinequest app (generously developed by the San Jose State University computer science department), available for Apple iPhone and BlackBerry. Unfortunately, us Androids will need to just use our browsers to access the Cinequest site, or borrow a friend’s phone… there is no version for smartphones running the Google mobile OS. However, good news, the cinequest site is specially formatted for mobile devices, so it should work well on your phone, or other browsing device (early iPad users?).