LAST YEAR, the heroes at CreaTV, a nonprofit community-access media operation, staged the first annual CreaTiVe Awards, which thoroughly rocked the San Jose Repertory Theatre.
CreaTV already orchestrates a slew of public access and educational shows on a few different television channels, through its facility at 255 Julian St., overlooking the beleaguered Fallon Statue in Pellier Park. The station offers workshops and classes, as well as providing equipment to elementary schools.
The CreaTiVe Awards, though, are the creme de la creme. A variety of finalists in a variety of categories parade their stuff at the reception and awards ceremony, which goes down this year on Jan. 7 at the California Theatre. The afterparty will take over Eulipia immediately following the ceremony.
Categories include Creative Excellence awards for directors, producers and editors. Awards will go to best Bay Area Public Community Access TV Series, as well as PSAs, short documentaries and works from students aged 13 and up. Tuxedo rental shops will make a fortune.
Even better, this year’s CreaTiVe Awards will officially merge with First Fest, a virtual awards ceremony that usually takes place every New Year’s Day, offering a lighthearted mashup of new, novel and pioneering achievements in Silicon Valley.
Each year, anyone can nominate the “first” of anything across a handful of categories, as long as it happened in San Jose or Silicon Valley.
Some examples: San Jose native and rock promoter Paul Catalana was the first promoter to bring the Beatles to the Bay Area. Barbara Day Turner founded the first professional chamber orchestra in San Jose in 1991. In the late ’60s, Doug Englebart invented what became the computer mouse at the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute.
On the 1,939-acre Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara, Christopher Shelton introduced the first honeybees to California in March 1853. And long before he invented the Wave at some other sport up the freeway somewhere, Krazy George revolutionized the pro sports experience at Spartan Stadium during San Jose Earthquakes matches in the ’70s.
This year will be the fourth incarnation of First Fest. About 100 to 150 nominees each year are whittled down by several judges, including Steve Wozniak. 1stACT Silicon Valley, a venture-ish organization that seed-funds specific initiatives and projects, helped with the initial funding, took part in each fest on previous New Year’s Days and now envisions CreaTV as the partner that can rightfully embed the First Fest and manage it for the long term.
“So much of First Fest has become a matter of how do you archive all this stuff, how do you maintain it,” said Joshua Russell, 1stACT’s director of communications and emerging initiatives, “which is, for us, the reason CreaTV is such a great partner. We usually focus our energy around the time of the festival itself. And then it falls back after that. With CreaTV, they have the desire to promote it, find ways to include different firsts throughout the rest of the year, and it gives the whole thing a lot more life, a lot more legs.”
On the First Fest website (www.firstfest.org), one can view all the nominees and winners from the last three years, as well as those up for glory this time around. Six categories of firsts comprise the competition: Personal, Business & Tech, Sports, Arts & Culture, Historical and People’s Choice.
We learn, for example, that Alan Simpkins from San Jose invented the first leak detector for the U.S. space program, and that he also invented the first scramble phone for the White House. We discover that Antoine Delmas, for whom the street is named, was the first to bring the zinfandel grape to Northern California in 1852 and later won many awards for his wine grape varieties.
And so much more: TiVo, of course, was founded in Alviso. The first Togo’s sat on William Street between Seventh and Eighth streets in downtown San Jose. The Mirassou family has been making wine since 1854 and has the proud distinction of being America’s oldest continuous winemaking family.
“I’m sure every region has its own unique firsts, and that’s what then becomes a rallying point for that area,” Russell declared. “Our unique firsts are our own. So let’s celebrate them. If we don’t do it, nobody else will.”
That’s right. Start shaking your fists and your firsts. CreaTV will rock the house again.
