Plus, no film festival would be complete without screenings of short and long-form independent movies, and the festival has those in abundance. One film, which will have two screenings on Saturday and Feb. 16, celebrates the work of a longtime Santa Cruz artist whose visuals are instantly recognizable in his hometown and beyond.

The documentary “Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips,” directed by John Edward Makens, tells the story of Phillips, a graphic artist who has left his imprint throughout Santa Cruz and beyond. He first had artwork published in Surfer Quarterly in 1962 and went on to design artwork for surfboards while working in local surf shops. This led to a job as art director for NHS Inc., a company that became famous with its Santa Cruz-branded skateboards, which Phillips and co-founder Jay Shuirman collaborated on to create the brand’s iconic red dot logo. With the company, Phillips also created another iconic image on his own: the screaming hand logo. The two logos have adorned countless T-shirts, hoodies and beanies, not to mention skateboard decks.

In addition, Phillips also created a lot of posters and album artwork for rock musicians, including posters for various concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium and Maritime Hall in San Francisco, a 1976 Jerry Garcia Band concert at the Del Mar Theatre, a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert at Madison Square Garden and the album art for “High Flying'” by The Ducks, a side project of Neil Young and Moby Grape vocalist Bob Mosley that played shows throughout Santa Cruz in 1977.

“Growing up in the 80s, I was constantly surrounded by the art of Jim Phillips,” Makens wrote in his director’s statement. “From my very first skateboard, to my old skate-magazine collection … Jim’s art was not just illustrations to me … They are memories … They are emotions … And they are inspirations.”

In 2011, Makens boarded a Volkswagen bus and headed to Santa Cruz, where he spent three weeks interviewing Phillips. He captured 60 hours worth of footage and spent the next 12 years whittling it down into a 90-minute movie.