 Hi, welcome to the show. I'm your host Kevin Dawson and today we're interviewing the director of education of the Sarasota Film Festival, Joshua Jacobson. How are you today Joshua? I'm pretty good. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty well. Thank you. So for those who don't know, what is the Sarasota Film Festival? The Sarasota Film Festival is a 10 day event where we show independent films at the Hollywood 20, which is found in downtown Sarasota. It's not only an event where we show movies. We also have parties. We have opportunities to do Q&A with filmmakers and we also just have a lot of fun. So when answering the question, what is the Sarasota Film Festival, it is a magical experience is what it is. Sounds beautiful. So how did you get involved with this magical party at your time? It's actually a very interesting story. Back when I was a child, my mother used to take me out of school during the Film Festival, which nobody should do unless you're an awesome parent. And we used to go see films while school was going on and I just loved movies so much. I was blown away by the ability that you could tell whatever story you wanted to. I like the escape, but I also like to relate. And what ended up happening was when I had the opportunity to come home from college during spring break one year, there was the festival going on. And my mom said to me, why don't you volunteer and just see what's going on? So I said no, because they weren't going to pay me. But after I gave it a chance and I went through with the volunteer process, which was extremely easy, I had an opportunity to meet people that worked at the festival. And not only did I like the hustle and bustle of the 10-day event, but I liked the people I was working with as a volunteer and the other volunteers. So from that I kind of got in contact with one of the people who ran operations there and I said, do you guys have any job opportunities? And they said call back in a few months. So naturally I called back next week after that and they said call back next month. And then I called back the next week and eventually I got a meeting and they hired me as the lobby manager. So that's how I got my start. I worked in the lobby for the first two years, eventually working my way to theater manager and then from that point on I became the director of education. Very nice. So what do you do as the director of education? It's a pretty hefty role, the director of education. My job as the director of education is to teach a film academy over at Poker High School, which we established this year. The film academy is a course that teaches all levels of production from pre-production to production to post-production, but we also teach about script writing, formatting, those types of things. We do PSAs. Beyond the film academy, we also have about five other programs that we run at other schools throughout Sarasota and Bradington. They are geared from anywhere, people in fourth grade to high schoolers in twelfth grade. Some of those programs are analytical where the kids get to talk about movies as opposed to making movies. They learn about gender bias in film, stereotypes in film, things that younger kids may not necessarily get when they watch movies, but it'll make them more educated viewers and they can speak more intelligently about the movies. So as director of education, I'm basically making sure that film education is present and existent in Sarasota and Manatee County. So like you said, the Sarasota Film Festival is for ten days. What does the company, I guess I could say, do you prepare for the rest of the year for the festival? Well, we're not necessarily a company, we're a non-profit, so we really do work for the community and it is a year-round thing. Even though the festival is ten days, like you say, we have stuff going on year-round. In order to prepare for the festival, we have to have our programmers, the people that select the movies, go out and find our films. And one of the ways they do this is they go to film festivals that happen year-round. A lot of our film programmers just came back from Sundance to look for movies that they want to bring to our festival. So part of the year is spent looking for films. Another part of the year is actually watching those films and judging which ones we want. Part of it is setting up education programs that exist and happen during the festival, which we'll talk about more later. And also we have moonlight movies. So we have events happening during the year that get the festival still in people's minds. We show movies on the beach. We have parties out in downtown Sarasota. When you guys are old enough, I hope that you join us for these parties, so yeah. We're a year-round organization and a non-profit. Very nice. So what does the film festival do to care to students and student films and such? We offer multiple opportunities during the festival for students to showcase their work. So there's Hollywood Nights, which is a red carpet event, April 3rd, 2016 this year. And we showcase the student works from Sarasota and Bravington. So that's one way we cater to the community. We also have the Film Academy at Booker, which really gives high schoolers an opportunity to look at film as a career opportunity before they even get to college, to really test it out. And here at your school, you guys have an amazing program that does a very similar thing. We also have all these programs that we offer to schools in Sarasota and Bravington that do production, that do critique, that do screenwriting. So in order to cater to the students, we offer free programs to any school that wants them. And I'm willing to meet with anybody at any time. That's not like a threat or anything. I'd like to meet with people. Very nice. So even though you're catering to students very well in these two counties, is the interest in film for students rising? Are lots more kids getting interested in making films, being a part of the filmmaking process and such? Definitely. I definitely think students are getting more involved in the filmmaking process because everybody has the opportunity to make movies these days. We all have cameras on our phones. We all like to tell stories online, on Facebook, on our walls. We write out these long novels about what's happening in our lives. So everybody's already a filmmaker. All they need is the direction. So the interest is definitely growing among the youth because of not only the availability of the technology, but also the availability to watch the films themselves. We can watch it on our iPads, our iPhones, on the computer. You can download movies if you'd like. You can buy movies off the internet, off these different services. So because of the availability of the technology, the services, the increase is tremendous in the youth. And that's why we have such amazing kids producing such amazing quality products. And what can students and anyone else do to get involved at the Sarasota Film Festival? That's a very good question. The first thing I would say is visit our website at www.sarasotafilmfestival.com. It will give you any information you need in terms of looking at what we're doing for the festival. If you want to volunteer, we have a volunteer page. You can email our volunteer coordinator, Marlene, at sarasotafilmfestival.com or myself, Joshua at sarasotafilmfestival.com. And I'll connect you with Marlene. The volunteer program is fantastic because it connects you with other people that are interested in film. And not only that, you get to meet filmmakers. So I highly, highly, highly request everybody to check that out and get involved with the program. Well, earlier you already also said that it starts on February, April 3rd, the Sarasota Film Festival? The festival is April 1st through the 10th of 2016. But our youth fest, Hollywood Nights, is April 3rd. Oh, okay. And how much do tickets cost for the festival? The tickets right now, we're debating between $12 and $14 for regular admission for tickets, but I know that for students it'll be cheaper than that. So if you're a student, you know, we hope to get you out there because the tickets are in fact cheaper and we want to make it easier for kids to get to the movies. And if you get in contact with me and you're a volunteer, you also get opportunities to see movies for free. So volunteering has its perks. Very nice. And is there anything else you would like to talk to us about the festival? It is an amazing opportunity. If you're looking for a place that really legitimately cares about not only the artist, but the direction of the film industry itself, the film festival is the place to go. It's the place to check out. It's a safe haven for young filmmakers, old filmmakers, independent filmmakers, artistic filmmakers, filmmakers that want to take a chance. We show all kinds of movies. We, you know, really do have a wide demographic here in Sarasota. And we try and cater to that variety of people. Diversity is our theme this year and our films, I think, reflect that. So if I had anything to say to the people about the festival is come check us out. Give us a chance. Tell your friends about us. We're an amazing nonprofit organization with a team that really cares about movies, that cares about, you know, the nonprofit world and cares about the community. So, you know, it's a great place. All right then. Well, thank you so much for coming on with us today. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. You're a great interviewer. Thank you. All right.