Arts & Entertainment
Napa-Born Filmmaker Comes Home for Festival
Vintage High School graduate Adam Fenderson and his wife Jaye bring their first documentary to the Napa Valley Film Festival.
Big-name directors and stars like Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio and James Cromwell are attracting major-league media attention to the inaugural this weekend.
But only one filmmaker, out of more than 100 represented in the festival, is enough of a celebrity to be able to walk onto the campus of without an appointment and be met with open arms by everyone from the principal’s secretary to band director Bill Gantt.
That big man on campus is 1999 Vintage graduate Adam Fenderson, a Napa native whose father is Napa Patch blogger and local dentist .
Find out what's happening in Napa Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
With his wife Jaye, Adam Fenderson has directed and produced a documentary, , that made its debut at an Indiana film festival last month and was also chosen for the Napa Valley Film Festival. It's the first of many films the two, who have a 9-month-old son, plan to make together.
Narrated by actor Blair Underwood, First Generation follows the paths of four diverse high-school students who aim to become the first in their families to attend college.
Find out what's happening in Napa Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Three of the four subjects of the documentary have made the trip to Napa to join the Fendersons at festival screenings, which began Friday night in St. Helena and conclude Sunday at 2 p.m. at in Napa.
The fourth, a college football player, can't attend because he has a game this weekend, Jaye Fenderson said.
Interviewed Friday in Napa, the filmmaking couple had nothing but praise for the organizers and volunteers of the Napa Valley Film Festival
"We'd like to come back to Napa every year and show our films," Jaye Fenderson said.
Asked his advice for aspiring filmmakers, Adam Fenderson had this to say:
"Go out there and do something," he said, instead of simply thinking about and talking about it.
And, he added, "meet people who want to do the same thing as you, and work with them ... Once you start doing it it will start taking off.
For more about the Fendersons' documentary, see firstgenerationfilm.com.
Rush tickets for the Jarvis screening are $10, available after passholders have been admitted.
