Meet Our 2012 Film Jurors

Cindy Gobin	Lucinda received a BS in developmental psychology from the University of Oregon; an elementary teaching certificate with a special education endorsement for mainstreaming handicapped children; a MS in curriculum and development and began a PhD program in 1983. She and her family moved to Israel where they lived on a chicken and prune farm for a few years. Upon returning to the US Lucinda filed a patent (1987) for an educational reading toy, and illustrated four books for the project as well as drawing numerous greeting cards. She moved to Morgan Hill in 1989 with her six children and joined the American Association of University Women, chaired their Wildflower run for several years as well as volunteering in her children’s schools. In 1992 she and husband Dale started an architectural metal manufacturing business. She also took numerous courses in Chinese herbal medicine, Native American herbal medicine, organic gardening and cooking classes. In 2009 she joined the staff of the Poppy Jasper Film Festival as the special events planner. Lucinda hopes to incorporate her diverse background as an effective juror.
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Andrew Junker	Born in Gilroy, California, Andrew Juncker has been a filmmaker since he was a child. He is an alumnus of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he studied experimental cinema, animation, and new media. His short film Micheal’s Storm won the Juror’s Choice Award for Best Drama at Poppy Jasper, which subsequently earned him a seat as juror for the festival the following year. His works have screened as nearby as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to as distant as the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009, Andrew co-founded French Press Films with two other filmmakers. He has directed commercial work for television and the web for Chevron, Levi’s, Hearst Publications, Paramount Pictures, and Google. He does not like walks on the beach. He does like sushi. This is Andrew’s seventh year as juror.
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Edward Taylor	Edward’s interest in film spans the spectrum of enjoyment to the production of movies with the use of low-end PC based video editing equipment. Edward is currently employed by Google as an Engineering Director and is focused on testing and quality issues across Google’s software properties. Edward’s present responsibilities include testing of the Ads and Commerce system and Infrastructure. Edward has more than 20 years in the software industry, most which was spent with IBM’s Santa Teresa Lab (now called Silicon Valley Lab) where he held various technical and management positions in the Data Base organization. While with IBM, Edward was also responsible for developing and delivering such diverse software products as a (first of its kind) SGML Document formatter for the publishing industry, and an architecture and products for the definition and implementation of Information Warehouses. Also, prior to joining Google, Edward was Director of Quality for Verity Software, a leading Enterprise Search software company, and Director of Engineering Services for Legato systems, a leader in storage management products. Edward holds a BS degree in Business Administration and a MS degree in Computer Information Systems.
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Vicki de Mey	Since 2003 Vicki de Mey has been making industrials, music videos, short films and features. Vicki is currently a Partner/Producer/Director at Fathom-One and r&r studios. Recent independent feature film credits include Producer/Director on The Dead Sleep (dist. Anthem Pictures) and Producer on Generic Thriller (dist. Cinequest Distribution). Vicki is currently Producer on the short concept film Project Arbiter, preparing to produce and direct the short film Buried Secrets in fall 2012 and developing new projects with fellow filmmakers in the Bay Area and LA. Prior to working in film, Vicki spent a number of years in the software industry as a researcher, software designer, project manager and entrepreneur. Vicki received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. As a juror at the PJFF Vicki looks forward to supporting and encouraging fellow filmmakers and celebrating the results of all the hard work they’ve put in to making their films.
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Donna Brodsky	In 2002, Donna Brodsky, an avid film buff, embarked on a screenwriting career. She has had her projects optioned twice and has a short film credit as Producer/Writer on The Hail Mary, a comedy screened in 2009 at the Pare Lorentz Film Festival and Poppy Jasper Film Festival . She has co-written and will help produce the short film Buried Secrets in fall 2012 and is currently working on a script, The Charmings, a dark fairy tale about what happened to Cinderella after she married Prince Charming. For the last five years Donna has been a participant in the Poppy Jasper Film Festival as a volunteer, panelist, scriptwriting competition juror, and co-chair of the festival in 2010. Donna is excited to view potential films for the 2012 Poppy Jasper Film Festival and easily understands that to make a film of any length is a project of love and hard work.
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Walter Von Tagen III	.Once upon a time, long, long ago, Walter von Tagen III owned a video store. It was full of VHS tapes, over a thousand. And one year Walter wondered how many movies and tapes he could watch that year (not counting the ones he saw more than once). At the end of the year, he found he had watched three hundred and seventy films. And that’s when he decided to go to film school. Soon after film school, Walter came back to his hometown. He has worked on commercials, feature films, short films (about yea high), local theatre, and in television, where he works and teaches today as a director, lighting designer, and camera operator for San Jose’s CreaTV. He still enjoys watching films, but doesn’t keep count anymore.
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Dario Salcido	Dario is a California native who has attended and volunteered for the Poppy Jasper Film Festival since 2006. He studied English Literature and Latin at San Jose State University, and holds a degree in Interior Design. He has a passion for writing novels and short stories for young adults and hopes to expand that interest into screenwriting. He makes a hobby of analyzing how film and literature combine to create compelling movies that remain in our thoughts long after the feature has ended. Modern film especially fascinates Dario with its ability to embrace ancient archetypal images and successfully translate them for the contemporary audience. His hope is that the Poppy Jasper Film Festival will introduce regular people to movies that they otherwise would never have a chance to see.
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Bob Snow	Bob is proud to be part of the group that founded the Poppy Jasper Film Festival and since its inception has volunteered in various positions. One of those positions has been the primary graphic artist for the festival including designing the logo, posters and the marketing materials to date. He also spent a year as co-chair of the 2010 festival. Bob’s first taste of the film making world was as a junior high student way back in the ’70s creating a very short claymation film spoof inspired by the big box office hit The Towering Inferno it was called The Towering Outhouse. Needless to say, it didn’t have quite the same box office draw as its inspiration. Years later after spending time focusing on his art and music he again began creating commercials, documentaries, PSA’s and whatever kind of films he had the chance to produce through his company Design Factory Graphics. He also directed the short film The Hail Mary, a comedy screened in 2009 at the Pare Lorentz Film Festival and Poppy Jasper Film Festival.

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