At last night’s meeting of the Yucca Valley Town Council, the council heard a presentation on the efforts to have the entire 78-mile length of State Route 247 declared a scenic highway.
The council then recognized Jim Ricker for his two years of service as a member of the Revenue Measure Oversight Commission. After approving the extension of the lease of the California Welcome Center for a year, and approving funding for the center in an amount not to exceed $70,000, the council awarded a $2.9 million contract for the renovation of the old PFF Bank Building into the new county library. In part one of this two-part report, Managing editor Tami Roleff says the council members were enthusiastic about bringing an international film festival to Yucca Valley in November. Tomorrow, in part two, the council discussed regulations and murals on buildings in Old Town…
Matt Beurois, a French filmmaker who has started numerous film festivals in France and Los Angeles, moved to Yucca Valley in April, and approached town staff about starting a film festival in Yucca Valley.
“So we want to attract to Yucca Valley filmmakers from all over the world.”
The Yucca Valley Film Festival would be held in November, and Community Services Manager Sue Earnest said while out-of-towners would be welcome at the festival, that’s not who it’s geared for.
“Let’s keep in mind the Yucca Valley event is primarily for our residents. When the Community Services does programming, it’s our residents first.”
Beurois explained how the Yucca Valley film festival would differ from the Palm Springs film festivals.
“We want to do screenings with movies from all over the place, we want to have Q and As (questions and answers) talking to the audience so they can explain the movie, what they wanted to achieve, and create a connection with the audience, and what’s always best for the filmmaker, sharing the feelings that the movie just created. And we would love to do a red carpet in Yucca Valley.”
Beurois also said there would be a workshop to teach teens and adults how to write a script, find locations, and film the movie, and then their films would be shown in the festival.
Earnest said the initial start-up costs would be high, but hoped that revenue would offset some of the costs in future years.
“For this inaugural event, the estimated costs right now are a little over $20,000. That doesn’t include offsetting revenue, admission fee. We’re launching a new event and we want to make sure we fund it properly for this inaugural event.”
Tomorrow, in part two, the council members discuss the town’s mural regulations.
