Morgan Hill’s growing Poppy Jasper Film Festival hopes to celebrate its ninth year by moving back into the downtown Granada Theater.
Festival organizers will know by Wednesday evening if they can screen entries to the international short film celebration to audiences at the theater which has been closed and mostly empty since 2005.
The Poppy Jasper Film Festival directors applied for a temporary use permit for the venue from the Morgan Hill Economic Development Corporation, which owns the theater which was purchased by the city’s redevelopment agency in 2008.
The EDC board of directors will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday to consider its approval of the permit, which would only apply for the four-day festival, from Oct. 11 to 14.
Even if it’s used for such a short duration, the theater’s use and the accommodation of potentially large audiences would require some minor repairs to remove safety hazards, and would require extensive cleaning, according to city and EDC staff.
Costs for the repairs and cleaning would be the responsibility of the festival organizers, and would not be extensive enough to open the Granada Theater for repeated or long-term use after the Poppy Jasper Festival, according to a staff report.
Poppy Jasper Film Festival chair Bob Snow said the costs of the repairs and cleaning would be about $5,000.
The film festival started at the two-screen Granada Theater, Snow said. In recent years it has been held at the Tennant Station CineLux theater.
The Poppy Jasper Film Festival features four days of new international short film screenings, workshops, special guests, a student film showcase and local filmmakers screenings.
Wednesday’s EDC meeting will take place at 5 p.m. at 100 Edes Court.
