SVJFF President's letter

The forming of the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival or more appropriately, the reshaping of the 16 year-old San Jose Jewish Film Festival, was to make sure that top quality Jewish and Israeli film and film events will be presented in this area for many years in the future.

To accomplish this, we made the determination that the SVJFF needs to have three operating components:

1. Executive Board - This Board would spend the majority of its time and energy focusing on strategic issues such as how the organization will operate, financial resource acquisition, film distribution options, and programming goals. Our previous all-volunteer organization did a great job getting film festival out, but relied too heavily on a few people's time to the point where they could no longer contribute to the festival and enjoy their experiences. Now the Executive Board will plan the future growth areas and programming and raise the funds in order to accomplish those goals.

2. Paid Staff - Starting this year, the SVJFF recognized that paid professionals were needed to become the central core of activity for festival operations. With that, we hired our first part-time Executive director, Mark Levine (former SJJFF President). Along with that there is a half-time administrator, part-time film search researcher, with the desire to have grant writing, audio/visual, web developer, and marketing specialists hired in the near future. As you can see , we are proceeding toward this goal in a very measured manner. Until new resources have been found, we want to make sure the financial foundation is in place while we experience our new growth.

3. Volunteers - As the Festival grows in the coming years, we will continue to work with new partners. Our programming is transitioning to produce more Jewish and Israeli film events than in previous years and we will need new support from others who would enjoy committing their personal time to bring unique programming to the Silicon Valley. New volunteers are important because we are still relying heavily on people who have been volunteering for years. They need some relief!

With this framework and vision in place, it is important for all who read this to know that the organization is still small enough that it gives new members the opportunity to exert an important influence on the Festival's future direction. You can make a difference and have fun doing it!! We are certainly a democratic group. Not every film the President, Board member, or film selection member wants makes it to the festival. Instead, we try to take into consideration the wide variety of tastes of our diverse community for our programming selections. So one time it may be mainstream or the next very challenging. We know that generational tastes require special attention. Not every film will appeal to everyone, but we hope we can present some films that all members of our community can appreciate.

So participate as a volunteer, a patron, an audience member, or a web viewer. We hope to build an organization that you will want to support today and in the future.

Lorin Fink, President
Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival