This Saturday, throughout the VIP reception for the third-annual CreaTiVe Awards at the California Theatre, several roving youth reporters will immerse themselves in the crowd and video-interview attendees for 10 to 20 seconds a pop.
They will shoot, edit and show the results during the entire ceremony—just one background process of many that will unfold throughout the evening. Everyone will be a star, before, during and after the event.
Organized by CreaTV and with financial help from various Silicon Valley corporations, the CreaTiVe Awards will transpire somewhat differently this year, in the sense that the evening won’t be a simple, play-by-play awards ceremony with a private party afterward.
Performances will take place between some of the honors, with several local celebrities presenting the awards, and everyone is welcome at the afterparty—across the street, at the restaurant formerly known as Eulipia.
As a nonprofit, community-access media operation, CreaTV and its tentacles reach into so many different nooks and crannies that it’s hard to qualify or quantify everything. Through grants and sponsors like Adobe, CreaTV supplies video equipment, field kits and computer-editing suites to elementary schools.
They hold TV production classes and workshops. Thanks to their efforts, along with their sponsors, hundreds of children throughout the city have new ways to create, collaborate, solve problems, enhance their communities and acquire knowledge-based skill sets—which makes a hell of a lot more sense, to me, than some selfish, mean-spirited asshole arguing to supply teachers with guns.
So allow me to regale you with just a tiny sample of the variety of inventive and inspiring work up for honors at this year’s hoedown. Hundreds of attendees in formal attire shall walk away inspired no matter what happens. A quick taster, if you will:
In People in Glass Houses: The Legacy of Joseph Eichler by Monique Lombardelli, Andrew Corpuz and Kyle Chesser, architects explain how, in their minds, Eichler homes enabled denizens to live inside a work of art, blending shelter with nature, and that they were as revolutionary as iPods and iPhones are now.
Healthpoint TV Episode 111 on San Mateo’s Emmy AwardÐwinning Channel 26 was titled Cardiology, and it illustrated advancements in cardiovascular surgery, as well as enlightening viewers on the connections between diet and exercise to heart health. The episode is a finalist in the category of Bay Area Community Access TV Series Professional.
Over in the concrete and chaos of Campbell, Art Cervantes and Duncan Cook of C&C Creative Media Group put together a video walking tour of downtown, which goes up against the Eichler documentary. A symbolic battle it shall be, I think. Jonathan Straus of Lautze & Lautze and San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen will be the presenters for that one. Other celebrity presenters include Emmy AwardÐwinning producer of Deadliest Catch, Doug Stanley, and KEZR morning personality Sam Van Zandt.
Similar awards include those for director, editor and producer, as well as educator and teen honors. Speaking of teens, the roll call for this affair is extensive. Adobe Youth Voices, a global network enabling middle- and high-school students with technology and creative skills, now has its own category where students compete against each other. And for those interested in pop culture, San Jose’s DeAndre Brackensick, an Oak Grove graduate who took eighth place on the 11th season of American Idol, will perform live, in addition to presenting the winner of the Teen Studio category.
Most apropos of all, the Community Champion Award is now renamed after Mercury News columnist Leigh Weimers, who passed away earlier this year. Presented by Weimers’ widow, Gerry, the award will be given to another legend, one still with us, the incomparable Mr. Bob Kieve, who has owned KLIV longer than I have been alive. For the last half century, there probably doesn’t exist anyone in San Jose, in any media, more than a few degrees of separation from Bob Kieve.
In summary, many parallel San Jose universes will fill the California Theatre Saturday. I suggest you consider attending.
