Welcome to the East Palo Alto 20th Anniversary Film Festival. We are proud to have been able to assemble a program of films looking at both our challenges and successes as a City, and at the other aspects of life that define a community. Here you will find out about our cultures, our youth and our efforts in areas of economic development, housing, public health and education. You will both meet the activists who worked so hard to make East Palo Alto into a City and you will hear the voices of the youth who will inherit that city.

The Festival looks at where we have come from and where we hope to go. I can promise you -- whether you are life-long resident or first time visitor -- that you will see some very surprising things in these 26 films ranging from local efforts to nationally broadcast PBS documentaries to an award-winning dramatic feature.

I hope you enjoy this unique visual journey through the different experiences that are
East Palo Alto. Thank you for coming to celebrate our City.

Patricia Foster
Mayor, City of East Palo Alto

The Festival consists of 10 thematic programs, each being a look at East Palo Alto through a different lens. For a small city of 2.5 square miles and 29,500 people, you wouldn't expect to find so many films that you could program a three-day festival! East Palo Alto is a complex and contradictory place, and a microcosm for changes happening all over the country. Metro Online described us as "the city with as much history as an ordinary-sized state."

This Festival is the first and probably only time that so many films on East Palo Alto have been assembled and will be shown together. The Festival programs present a wide range of films, from the truly excellent to those primarily of historical value. Especially of interest are the films made within the City by youth and adult filmmakers.

A lot has happened since a decade ago when East Palo Alto was stigmatized in the media and the community did not have the tools and forums to speak for itself. We now have local filmmakers, a local digital filmmaking training program, a community website (EPA.net), the City website (cityofepa.org), a local newspaper in the works and actually two film festivals. (The East Palo Alto Black History Film Festival will take place for the second time early next year). We have artists, poets, musicians, writers, photographers, dancers and even Swedish meatballs. Listen to East Palo Alto, shop in East Palo Alto and stay tuned for more!