Lea este artículo en español aquí.
The printed circuit board (PCB) provides the brains for thousands of products that impact our lives in ways that we might take for granted. But, shockingly, the number of companies producing them in the United States has shrunk from an industry high in the 1990s of over 3,000 companies to fewer than 150, lost to Chinese outsourcing.
“The New Frontier,” a short film included in the 2026 Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, explores the revival of the industry in this country, profiling three sites: K&F Electronics in Fraser, Michigan, the construction site in Ohio for an Intel multibillion-dollar project. and a plant in Hollister at 21 Hamilton Court, one of seven in the U.S. owned by Summit Interconnect.
The Poppy Jasper Festival runs April 8 -15 in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Juan Bautista and Hollister. “The New Frontier will be shown on April 11 at the Granada Theater.
Jon Lass, general manager of the Hollister plant, said the company is proud to be featured in “The New Frontier,” as it seeks to tell the story of that revival to a wider audience.
“The PCB industry often operates behind the scenes,” he said, “but it’s foundational to nearly every modern technology. Summit Hollister being part of the film helps bring visibility to that impact.”
Filmmaker Carl Kriss was led to Hollister following his work on two similar projects, “Bring It Home,” concerning the closure of a Lordstown, Ohio, auto plant, and “Relighting the Flame,” which showcases the resurgence of the U.S. steel industry.
Kriss said he has discovered many people view manufacturing as old and outdated, especially in America. But he said that this understates the quality of domestic PCB manufacturing.
“We lost some industries,” he said, “because we didn’t modernize. Other countries were more high-tech than us. But when we focus on microelectronics, we can see that the American factories are really high-tech, even more high-tech than factories in China and in India.”
The job of designing and manufacturing the boards is detailed in the documentary, from the first stages of burning the design onto film, then developing it onto a base plate. Patterns are etched, holes for components are drilled, and copper pathways are created to direct electrical signals and power.
It’s a complex process that has a built-in disadvantage, according to Kriss: as the industry slowly grows back, there are fewer people with the experience to do the work, as the older generation retires.
“They are trying to reach the younger generation,” Kriss said, “so there are enough people here to actually make them. And there is a huge worker shortage. It’s going to come down to the entrepreneurial spirit; it’s one thing that has always made America unique and helped us excel.”
Kriss said that reversing course from factories closing to major domestic reinvestment is critical: the need for circuit boards and the loss of US industry dominance have created a serious threat to national security.
“If we lose access to where we purchase the boards from,” he said, ”we’re really in trouble. We won’t be able to make computers or cell phones. Once other countries own the industry, then we’re suddenly at their mercy. They could charge us whatever they want.”
The Hollister location for Summit Interconnect is a division of the largest privately held PCB manufacturer in the US. Kriss said he chose to film there, in part, because it is a “demo” plant, where new designs are tested before mass production. This allowed for more “intimacy,” he said, without the high risk of exposing sensitive intellectual property.
But the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside fit perfectly into his vision of a restored and growing industry.
“I thought it was a great location,” he said. “The surrounding mountains are really picturesque, and we wanted to find a factory where you might not expect a factory to be. It has this feeling of newness, which went along with the themes of the documentary as a new frontier.”
Kriss said he also specifically scouted out the Poppy Jasper festival so that people from Summit could attend a showing in person, but the more he learned about the event, the more enthusiastic he became.
“What I like about Poppy Jasper,” he said, “is that it’s really decentralized, not just in one area. It’s really bringing the films to the people and the communities they’re about. It’s about empowering the community and opening it up to the stories of those who are from here.”
The Poppy Jasper Festival runs April 8 -15 in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Juan Bautista and Hollister. “The New Frontier” will be shown on April 11 at the Granada Theater in Hollister. Tickets are available through the Poppy Jasper website, as is the full film schedule.
Official Trailer: The New Frontier
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news!BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.
You must be logged in to post a comment.