As you’re a reader of the Gilroy Dispatch, you might have
recently perused an article about how CMAP’s staff has been very
busy this summer: teaching middle schoolers media literacy and
video production four days a week through a summer school
partnership with the Gilroy Unified School District, working with
eight youth in our summer youth jobs program, producing new video
content now airing on our cable channels and online, and
coordinating our community coverage of the 31st annual Gilroy
Garlic Festival.
As you’re a reader of the Gilroy Dispatch, you might have recently perused an article about how CMAP’s staff has been very busy this summer: teaching middle schoolers media literacy and video production four days a week through a summer school partnership with the Gilroy Unified School District, working with eight youth in our summer youth jobs program, producing new video content now airing on our cable channels and online, and coordinating our community coverage of the 31st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.
This year we have big plans to harness this talent and energy for the festival through our “Garlic TV Crew,” who will be covering all three days of the event, and through an interactive digital storytelling booth.
With so many visually interesting activities, the Garlic Festival provides an interesting project to tackle as a producer/director. Having only attended my first Garlic Festival last year, I rely heavily on CMAP’s talented programming manager, Jan Janes, who has produced our coverage of many past festivals.
This year we have a trained crew of staff and volunteers who are eager to capture the flavor of year 31 and produce the highlights of this community story to be aired on Channel 20 and online at www.cmap.tv.
The “Garlic TV Crew” is scheduled to shoot garlic flame-ups, interview notable luminaries – including this year’s Garlic Queen, Jessica Brewka, the garlic queen’s court and kitchen heartthrob Fabio Viviani – and cover both the Great Garlic Cook-Off and a local celebrity chef event on the cook-off stage.
Other volunteers will interview festival-goers and locals on camera at various locations around the festival, including at the children’s area, full of arts and crafts, and discuss Epicurean exploration at Gourmet Alley. The footage gathered will be edited into a two-hour feature about the festival by CMAP’s production coordinator, Daniel Howell, with help from our interns and volunteers.
Our “Clove Hall of Fame” will capture community video of festival attendees at the CMAP booth behind the cook-off stage where you can poke your head through an old-fashioned wooden display made by CMAP staff and volunteers. Share your “garlicky” stories on camera as “Mama Clove,” “Baby Clove,” or “Papa Clove.” These unusual festival videos will be posted daily online.
CMAP plans to use both this year’s content and previous years’ coverage for an eventual documentary about the Garlic Festival, including the event’s history, how the festival promotes volunteerism, and how other communities could learn from the broad, well-organized approach to community event planning and non-profit fundraising.
This year’s efforts will once again feature the ingenuity of CMAP’s government access technician, Seth Love, who will shuttle tapes via motorcycle from the festival to CMAP. The coverage will air Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. and throughout the week following the festival.
After a fun day at the festival, you can relax at home with your garlic ice cream, and relive the fun by tuning in.
Kathy Bisbee is the executive director of CMAP TV, a non-profit community media center located at Gavilan College.
Visit www.cmap.tv to see the full Garlic Festival programming schedule, view video clips made at the CMAP booth or join the CMAP Gilroy Garlic Festival Facebook group.
