A Visit to The New Frontier in Hollister, Where the Future Is Being Built

The latest AAM documentary screens at a film festival in the California town where much of it was shot.

There is something different about watching a film like The New Frontier in a place that is actually part of the story.

In early April I was in Hollister, California for a screening of this documentary, produced by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, as part of the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, and it ended up being one of those moments where everything really clicks. The policy conversations, the industry challenges and the people doing the work all come together in a very real way.

Film festivals always have a certain energy to them. You are not just watching something; you are talking about it, reacting to it and hearing how it lands with others. That is what made this screening stand out. The New Frontier may only be about 20 minutes long, but it tells a much bigger story about where the United States stands on manufacturing and where we go from here.

Hollister feels like the right place to continue that conversation. It has deep agricultural roots and that strong small-town identity but, at the same time, there is more happening there than people might expect. Advanced manufacturing is part of the story too, and it is playing a role in rebuilding an industry the U.S. once led.

Summit Interconnect is a big part of that story. The company’s Hollister facility is featured in the film and being there while watching it, alongside people who work there, brings a different level of perspective. It reinforces how national policy decisions directly impact local industries, workers and communities.

Summit is the largest privately held printed circuit board manufacturer in the United States, and its work sits at the center of modern technology. PCBs are what allow everything from everyday devices (i.e. toys, appliances, phones) to critical infrastructure and defense systems to function. And, like much of the semiconductor supply chain, this is an area where the U.S. lost ground over time.

That is what The New Frontier really gets at: It walks through how we went from leading in semiconductor innovation to offshoring much of that capacity, and what it is going to take to rebuild it. It also highlights companies like Summit that are doing that work now.

What stood out most being at the festival was how much this story resonated outside of policy spaces. You had filmmakers, community members and industry voices all in the same room, and people understood the stakes. Where we make things matters. Supply chains matter.

The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival itself adds to that experience. It is very much rooted in the community, but it brings in a broader audience too, which creates a space where local stories connect to national conversations.

Walking out of the screening, I kept coming back to how much of this work is already happening, just without much visibility. In places like Hollister, you can see that future starting to take shape.

The New Frontier is available in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Watch it below: