Film premiere draws hundreds, contest winners announced
ARCATA – Hundreds of people turned out on Feb. 13 for the Love, Humboldt and Humboldt Made short films premiere hosted by Humboldt County Economic Development Division at the Arcata Theatre Lounge.
“We were blown away by the support of the business community and the community at large for this project,” said Humboldt County Economic Development Coordinator Jacqueline Debets.
Love, Humboldt actress, Sharon Tavola and her date arrive at the premiere of the Love, Humboldt and Humboldt Made films.
At the premiere Debets outlined the finer points of the two-year branding project created to market Humboldt as a haven for specialty food and agriculture products. The short film series Love, Humboldt and the mini documentaries featuring local entrepreneurs, called Humboldt Made, she said, are“the crowning jewels” of the project.
Love, Humboldt Writer and Director Maria Matteoli said the premiere encapsulated the best night of her life and was grateful to share the stage with all of the talented film makers and actors that helped bring the films to life.
The 10 entrepreneur profiles will be posted online at www.HumboldtMade.com along with the six-part film series Love, Humboldt. All 16 segments will be slowly rolled out once a week on the Web site. A follow up screening of all the films is currently in the planning stages to accommodate those that weren’t able to attend, or unable to get into the venue due to capacity constraints on premiere night.
As part of the event, the top entries for the I Love Humboldt short video contest were screened and winners were announced live by KHUM radio’s Cliff Berkowitz, and Mary Cruse of the Humboldt Film Commission, which co-sponsored the contest. The entries were posted on the KHUM Web site for the community to vote for their favorites. The 30-second video entries were supposed be creative and reflect what the filmmaker loved about Humboldt.
Arcata Mayor Alex Stillman walks the red carpet of the Love, Humboldt short films premiere at the Arcata Theatre Lounge on Feb. 13.
Berkowitz, who announced the awards with his wife Amy, said that the station logged more than 600 votes from the community on the films and the Web site traffic rivaled the unprecedented levels that followed the 6.5 earthquake last month. Friends on Humboldt Made’s Facebook page also surged to over 1,200 after the event.
The first place winner for best overall video was submitted by Steven Vandermeer, the best on location award was given to Rowdy Kelly and best anchor video was awarded to Matt St. Charles. All 12 video entries can be seen online at www.KHUM.com and www.HumboldtMade.com.
Food for the event was provided by donations from local food producers and caterers Celebrations Catering, The Looking Glass, Northcoast Co-op, Murphy’s Market & Deli, Loleta Bakery, Bless My Soul, Cassaro’s Catering, Wildberries Marketplace, and Old Town Coffee & Chocolates. Judges for the tapas offerings included the authors of recently published cookbook Locally Delicious and food writers from The North Coast Journal.
