CreaTV San Jose announced today the finalists of The Creatives, an interactive event celebrating the people and programs of CreaTV. The awards component of The Creatives recognizes the videomakers who produce content for CreaTV’s television and Internet channels.

“It’s time to shine the spotlight on San Jose’s own talented and diverse group of community producers," said CreaTV CEO, Suzanne St. John-Crane. “While we’ve enjoyed recognizing Bay Area videomakers for the past five years at The Creative Awards, we’re excited to showcase CreaTV’s community, as one of the most prolific and impactful access stations in California.”

Videomakers, whose videos aired on CreaTV’s channels in 2015, were eligible to enter the competition in one of five categories including: Creative Series, Special, Short, Student Elementary and Middle School and Student High School.

From Andrew Bigelow’s Exodus From the Jungle, about the closing of one of the country’s largest homeless encampments in the heart of Silicon Valley, to Mt. Pleasant High School Film Camp’s The Journey, about a Vietnamese teen struggling to leave a gang, the finalists represent a broad range of diverse voices.

Complete list of finalists: http://www.creatvsj.org/news/creatives-finalists.

Winners will be announced at The Creatives on March 3, 2016, at Club Auto Sport in San Jose. Each will receive a hand-blown glass award and a $1,000 prize. Tickets are $125 each and can be purchased at creatvsj.org. Proceeds support CreaTV San Jose, a nonprofit community media center.

About CreaTV San Jose: CreaTV San Jose is the member-based, nonprofit community media center that manages the public and education TV and Internet channels for the City of San Jose. We fulfill our mission to inspire, educate and connect San Jose communities, using media to foster civic engagement, by providing free airtime and low-cost training and tools that allow diverse and underserved communities to tell their stories through video.

Since its inception in 2008, CreaTV has aired more than 22,000 community videos in eight languages, helped hundreds of non-profits tell their stories and build capacity and served more than 20,000 youth through our MAP grant to San Jose schools and partnerships with Adobe Youth Voices, Silicon Valley Creates, Xilinx Educational Ecosystem and Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force.