Who's Who in Sonoma: Kevin McNeely

Kevin McNeely works hard to produce movie magic in Sonoma.

McNeely, who was born in Minnesota, came to California for school, and after that went to New York, thinking “it would be the proverbial two years”. It turned into 20.

In 1992 he and his wife, Rosemary, moved to Sonoma. “It was rather a shot in the dark, and now we’ve been here almost as long as we lived in New York.”

McNeely is also in the wine business. He partnered with the Roessler brothers at Roessler Cellars in 1990, which they recently sold to Hall Winery in Napa. Today, they have partnered for a new venture called R2 Wine Company (they refer to it as R Squared).

Last year the awarded Susan Sarandon a Lifetime Achievement Award. Past recipients include Bruce Willis and Lauren Hutton. Stay tuned to find out who will come to Sonoma in 2012.

As he and his team gear up for the 15th anniversary, which will take place April 22-15, McNeely invited me to the festival offices located above Maya restaurant.

SP: What’s it like to run the Sonoma Valley International Film Festival?

Kevin: Sonoma always celebrates the very best in food and wine. We just add another element, film.

SP: Is most of your audience made up of locals?

Kevin: Sixty percent of our audience comes from the Bay Area and the other forty percent from LA, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York. In the beginning we tried to bring our pals here, and they came as a favor to us.

SP: I’m sure you had to twist their arms.

Kevin: Well, now they’re repeat customers.

SP: What are you most proud of?

Kevin: We offer films that audiences wouldn’t see anywhere else, and an incredible opportunity to meet the respective filmmakers. Last year we had 200 filmmakers from 14 different countries.

SP: How do you decide what films to show?

Kevin: We get from 800-900 film submissions.

SP: It must be daunting.

Kevin: We have a 15 person screening committee who travel to film festivals around the world.

SP: About how many do you personally screen?

Kevin: I screen a majority of the films and see one hundred percent of the ones selected for the festival program. And we have a 15 person screening committee.

SP: What’s new for 2012?

Kevin: As an outreach to the Hispanic community, and to celebrate our 15th anniversary, we’re putting on La Quinceanera, a “fest in a fest”- 15 Spanish-language films from Cuba, and Venezuela, and Argentina and Puerto Rico and Columbia. These are incredible films.

SP:  Films with heart, no doubt.

Kevin: And we have 15 hot winemakers and 15 hot chefs involved.

SP: How many people does it take to put on the festival?

Kevin: A permanent staff of three to four, and come January our staff will grow anywhere from fifteen to twenty.

SP:  You also have a great volunteer program.

Kevin: We wouldn’t be able to put on the festival if we didn’t have close to 125 volunteers. When they say it takes a village, that’s exactly true of our film festival.

SP: Sonoma is pretty amazing in that respect.

Kevin: This is the most philanthropic community I’ve ever been in.

SP: What makes this festival unique?

Kevin: All eight of our screening venues are within walking distance. Everything’s convenient.

SP: Still, the logistics must be quite a challenge.

Kevin: We provide housing for all the filmmakers. Last year there were 200-plus.

SP:  If you were stranded on a desert island with only one movie to watch, what would it be?

Kevin: It would probably have to be one of the Coen Brothers’ films. As sophomoric as that may appear. . .  I love The Big Lebowski.  Or maybe Dr. Zhivago.

SP: In that case, I hope you have Kleenex on the island.

(2012 festival passes are available now!)