wff 04program - Woodstock Film Festival

Dedicated to Elmer Bernstein
(1922-2004)
It
was with great sadness that we recently marked the passing of Elmer Bernstein,
the legendary Academy Award-winning composer and great friend and mentor to the Woodstock Film Festival.
Elmer was a longtime Woodstocker whose artistry, integrity, and personal kindness will forever live on in
the magnificent scores he composed over a career that spanned more than half a century. Known as one
of the titans of Hollywood’s golden age, Bernstein was nominated fourteen times for an Oscar, having
written the scores for more than 200 films including The Ten Commandments, The Man with the Golden Arm,
The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, True Grit, The Great Escape, Animal House, and The Age of
Innocence. Elmer remained on the cutting edge of his profession into his eighties. In 2002, he was nominated for an Oscar for his brilliant score for Far from Heaven.
We join the world in celebrating the man and his music
and are thankful to have known him.
“For over a hundred years, Woodstock has been a place of dreams
and magic. It was a place of dreams for visual art, for crafts, for
music, for popular music, for theater, for political philosophy, for
alternative lifestyles, and it is entirely fitting that Woodstock
should become a place of dreams and magic for films at this
time.” (ELMER BERNSTEIN, COMPOSER, WFF HONORARY CHAIR,
FRIEND, MENTOR)
Catskill MOuntain Foundation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Join us for our Fiercely Independent
The Woodstock Film Festival is a not-for-profit, 501 (C)(3) organization with a mission to present an annual program and year-round schedule of film, music, and art-related activities that promote artists, culture,
inspired learning, and diversity. The Woodstock Film Commission promotes sustainable economic development by attracting and supporting film, video, and media production.
Contact info
FILMS & EVENTS
Woodstock Film Festival, Inc.
25
Narrative Features
47
Documentary Features
62
Animated Films
PO Box 1406, Woodstock, NY. 12498
e. [email protected]
w. www.woodstockfilmfestival.com
INFORMATION
Box Office Location:
Woodstock Film Festival
103 Mill Hill Road,
(Routes 212 & 375 in Woodstock)
Woodstock, NY. 12498
t. 845 679-6997 (box office)
t. 845 679-4265 (administration)
e. [email protected]
Tickets and up to date schedule info
are available online at
www.woodstockfilmfestival.com
**ALL INFORMATION IN THE
PRE-FESTIVAL PROGRAM IS
SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
65
Shorts
7
Introduction
80
Youth Initiative
8
Woodstock, Hunter & Rhinebeck
81
Special Events
10
Acknowledgments
82
Music
12
Sponsors & Contributors List
84
Panels
13
Thank You
87
14
About Woodstock Film Festival
Schedule
16
Sponsors
18
Advisory Board
21
Letters
23
Maverick Awards
44
Woodstock, Hunter & Rhinebeck
86
Ticket Information
95
Hospitality Sponsors
96
Print Source Contacts
92
Local Support
94
Listings
99
Souvenirs
100
How to Get Their
101
Maps
5
INTRODUCTION
Just five years ago two independent filmmakers, following their dreams and encouraged by community and filmmaker support, launched a grass roots film festival in
the beautiful arts colony of Woodstock, New York. Magic seemed to fill the air as
make-shift screening venues sprung up at galleries and community centers and lines of people waited
to see great indie films they couldn’t see elsewhere. The Woodstock Film Festival was born.
As the years went on, the festival grew and matured, doubling and tripling in size, establishing itself as
an important arena for emerging filmmakers. It provided just the right mix of industry know how, Alist participants and high quality filmmaking, in a friendly, casual setting, conducive to creativity, exciting opportunities and a good time!
As the Woodstock Film Festival reaches its 5th Anniversary, we are thrilled and astonished by the accomplishments of the festival itself and by those of the filmmakers around us.
The art of filmmaking continues to grow and reshape itself, breaking new grounds, reaching new heights.
As we look around us, awed by the success indie documentaries and narrative are having all over the
world, we are humbled now, more than ever, to be able to offer a platform for these brave new voices of
the filmmakers of today and of tomorrow.
During these next few exciting days you will have the opportunity to meet, talk, watch and listen to some of the best
voices of today’s independent filmmaking. We urge you to
take full advantage of the outstanding program, and to celebrate the beauty, the thought, the
bravery and artistry that is weaved within the works presented here. These filmmakers are trying
to make a difference. So lets all empower and encourage them to do just that. Because a good
work of art, be it film, music, painting, dance or a book, can and should change our perceptions,
our habits, our beliefs, our world.
To all the tremendous volunteers, staff members, board members, hosts, sponsors, industry, audiences and community supporters – a huge, heartfelt thank you!
Without you the Woodstock Film Festival could not have continued to flourish!
To the wonderful towns of Woodstock, Rhinebeck and Hunter – thank you for being gracious hosts
to the festival and its participants.
To everyone, during your stay with us, do visit the fabulous shops, the many galleries, restaurants
and stunning natural beauty that for more than a century has made the Hudson Valley Catskills
a true visitors haven.
See you at the movies!
Meira Blaustein
Laurent Rejto
7
WOODSTOCK, HUNTER & RHINEBECK
WOODSTOCK
HUNTER
RHINEBECK
Just two hours from New York City,
Only thirty minutes from Woodstock,
Hunter is a scenic area steeped in American
history and folklore. Including two incorporated villages, Hunter and Tannersville,
and the hamlets of Haines Falls, Elka Park,
and Lanesville, this spectacular area was a
mecca for tourism in the late 19th century,
when three railroads brought in hundreds
of visitors and Hudson River School
painters translated onto canvas the sublime
beauty of the area.
Today, Hunter is home to a world-class
ski area, Hunter Mountain, and a cultural
arts organization, the Catskill Mountain
Foundation, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit. The
CMF offers a variety of programs yearround, including live performances of
music, theater, and dance; gallery exhibits
of fine arts and crafts; a two-screen movie
theater; a bookstore, the annual Mountain
Culture Festival; Elderhostel programs; studio arts education programs; a working
natural agriculture farm and educational
facility; and a farm market featuring regional produce and specialty foods. Located in
nearby Maplecrest, Sugar Maples Center for
Arts and Education is a school for students
of all levels, offering an extensive fine arts
and crafts curriculum within state-of-theart facilities.
Hunter also boasts many fine lodging
establishments, from lovingly restored
B&Bs to fine resorts and hotels. Dining
options range from old-fashioned diners
and delis to funky eateries and fine restaurants.
Rhinebeck, ninety miles north of NYC
in Dutchess County, is often the focus of
features in the New York Times and New York
Magazine. An idyllic community, it is situated on the Hudson River, is easily reachable
by car or public transportation, and offers
relaxed yet sophisticated country living.
With its myriad of shops, antique stores,
restaurants, and cultural venues—including
Upstate Films, historic Rhinebeck becomes
increasingly more attractive each year to
those seeking a second home or a weekend
getaway.
Historically speaking, Rhinebeck owes
its culturally diverse background to the
Sepasco Indians, Dutch settlers, the
Underground Railroad, and Chief Justice of
New York and Chancellor Robert Livingston
(contributor to the Declaration of
Independence), among many others. The
Hudson River National Historic Landmark
District, in which Rhinebeck is located, has
been home to scions of business and industry, presidents, and statesman who built
their mansions along the Hudson River.
Many of these estates are today open to visitors, just across the majestic Hudson River,
Rhinebeck’s close proximity to Woodstock
enables visitors to easily visit both locations
during a short stay and both Rhinebeck and
Woodstock reward their visitors with a
memorable and magical experience.
Woodstock is the cornerstone of the reemergence of the Hudson Valley Catskills as a center for the arts, culture, alternative lifestyles,
eclectic shopping, and great restaurants. The
town has always been known for its illustrious inhabitants—writers, musicians, artists,
filmmakers, and other creative folk—and first
gained notoriety in the early 1900s when residents were “greeted” by the arrival of freethinking bohemians and city dwellers.
The Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, founded at
the turn of the century by artisan philosophers who settled on the mountainside above
Woodstock to create a Utopian society based
on arts and crafts, continues as an active,
working artists colony with a year-round presence of music, theater, writing workshops,
martial arts, sculpture, painting, and pottery
classes.
Music has always been a popular part of
the town’s mystique, and in the late sixties,
resident musicians such as Bob Dylan, The
Band, and Jimi Hendrix (who recorded in
what is now the Tinker Street Cinema) placed
Woodstock on the rock n’ roll map. The legendary 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts
Festival remains etched in pop history, defining a generation and Woodstock’s countercultural nature.
From this wellspring of creativity, the
Woodstock Film Festival bloomed in the new
millennium as a natural outgrowth of the
town’s innovative spirit. The WFF carries on
the tradition, bringing together filmmakers,
musicians, writers, and artists to share in the
celebration of Woodstock’s cultural heritage.
8
Printing Services
PRE-PRESS
P R E S S D E PA R T M E N T
BINDERY
Full Service: Post Cards
Rack Cards
Brochures
Playbills
Posters
Flyers
Business Cards
Envelopes
Letterhead
Catskill Region Contact: Steve Friedman
(518) 263-4908 x230
New York City Contact: Ellie Cashman
(212) 593-6430
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FESTIVAL STAFF
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Executive Director/Cofounder
Director of Development/Cofounder
Office Manager
Office Staff
Executive Director Assistant
Meira Blaustein
Laurent Rejto
Amy Witkus
Emma McCarthy
Kirstin Steffen,
Nathaniel Edelman(intern)
Amber Plaut
FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING
Features
Ryan Werner (Head Programmer)
Tom Quinn (Co-Programmer)
Meira Blaustein
Shorts
Laurent Rejto
Animation
Signe Baumane
Bill Plympton
Youth Initiative
Dana Dorrity, David Epstein, Marjorie Leopold
Screeners
Meira Blaustein, Anne Canzonetti, Jeff Economy,
Nathaniel Edelman, Nikki Goldbeck, Joan Mack,
Emma McCarthy, Barbara Pokras, Barbara Sicuranza
FESTIVAL OPERATIONS
Operations Producer
Operations Manager
Assistant Manager
Personnel Coordinator
Technical Development
Hospitality/Food Services
Pamela Cederquist
Arnold Sitruk
Shelly Tumen
Anne Canzonetti
Diana Cassidy
Paula Gillen
Mason Dunbar
SPECIAL EVENTS
Events Coordinator
Opening/Closing Events
Fundraiser
Lauri Andretta
Victoria Langling
Lisa Protter
FESTIVAL SERVICES
Guest Relations-Industry
Guest Relations-Filmmaker
Hospitality
Registration
Transportation
Security
Nikki Goldbeck, Joan Mack
Gail Nussbaum, Barbara Silver
Paula Gillen
Tracy Cohen-Kamien
Gary Bielski
Armondo Bilancione, George DeWitt
MARKETING
Graphic Design (programs, brochures, ads) Naomi Schmidt
Publications
Laurent Rejto, Kirstin Steffen, Chris Cavanagh
Publication Editing
Barbara Ross,Tom Cherwin
Poster Design
Ford Crull
Database & Internet Development
Diana Cassady (Viva La Data)
Website
Laurent Rejto
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
Technical/Equipment
Lead Projectionist(video)
Communications/Radio/Walkie-Gods
Pipe and Drape
Print Trafficker
Set Design
Assistant Set Designer
Jeff Kantor
Jim Dodge
Greg Carttar, Char Harner
Phillip Levine
Jeff Economy
Josef Treggor
Drew North
MEDIA RELATIONS
Media Relations Director
Media Relations Deputy
Media Relations Assistant
National PR Firm
Photography
Video
Logo Trailer
10
Ilene Marder
Chris Cavanagh
Claudia Aleman
Dan Klores Communications
Ben Caswell (lead), Mizuyo Aburano, Gregor Trieste
Ian Ellerby, Dutchess Community College crew
Jayson DeBellis and Orion
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meira Blaustein, Laurent Rejto, Joan Mack, Eva Marie
Graham, Nicholas Adler, Cyrus & Nancy Adler, Don
Carmody,Tony Conza, Stuart Hammerman, Rose Koplovitz,
Ilene Marder
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
K.L McKenna
Barry Feinstein
Tonner Dolls
Fundraiser Thank You’s
Michael and
Tamara Lang
Margery and Irwin
Gaffin of
AmeriBag
Alexander Shingler
Allure Aveda
Anaconda Sports
Annabella Sciorra
Barry Cherwin, Auctioneer
Ben Caswell (photos)
Bobby Carnavale
Colony Liquors
The Emerson Inn & Spa
Gadaletos Seafood, New
Paltz
Geoff Harden & friends
(music)
James & Joan Quigley
Joan Mack
Lauren & Michael
Rosenthal
Mason Dunbar
Moet & Chandon
Molson Beer
Fundraiser
Committee
Oliver Kita Fine Catering
Paula Gillen
Sarah Chodoff (music)
Schieffelin and Co.
Stuart Jay Rothkopf
Richard J. Merck, CPA
Ruffino Wines
Tanqueray Vodka
Terry Yason
Tony and Yvonne Conza
Westwood Metes &
Bounds
William B. Higginson
Woodstock Percussion
Elliott Landy
Lauri Andretta
Meira Blaustein
Sara Carmody
Nikki Goldbeck
Rose Koplovitz
Gail Nussbaum
Donna Parisi
Lisa Protter
Mary Anne Erickson
Auction Donors
Please help us show our appreciation to auction donors by supporting their work and their establishments.Visit our auction donors online at http://woodstockfilmfestival.com/auction.htm
Robert Tonner Doll Co.
Lenny Kislin
Eilise Pittelman
42nd Street
Roz Balkin
Martha Frankel
Ellen Chenoweth
Aidan Quinn
Ruffino Wines
Martin Scorsese
Ellen Lewis
Allure Aveda
Sanchia Playfair
Mary Anne Erickson
Elliott Landy
Andrea Barrist Stern
Santos Solomon
Moet & Chandon
Emerson Inn & Spa
Annabella Sciorra
Sphinx Productions
Molson Beer
Exhale - Mind Body Spa
Annie Nocenti
Steve Buscemi
Movement Center
Forged and Fired Gallery
Barbara Tischler Hastie
Steve Heller’s Fabulous
New Video
Gary Ward
Barry Feinstein
Furniture
NY Knicks
The Golden Notebook
Blue Man Group
Sunflower Natural Foods
NY Nets
Harriet Iles
Bob Berman
Market
Peter Decker
Hillside Manor
Breathe Fitness
Terrapin Restaurant
P.J. McGlynn’s Steakhouse
Holiday Inn in Kingston
Cabin Fever Outfitters
Total Tennis
Planet Noise Records
Hunter Mountain Ski
Ceres Press
Ulster Performing Arts
Resort
Portia Munson
Chris Stein
Center
Hurley
Ridge
Wine
&
Raissa Bump
The Coen Brothers
Uma Thurman
Spirits
Randall Rissman
Colony Liquors
Walt Disney World
IXL Health & Fitness
The Red Onion
Criterion Video
WDST - 100.1 FM
Joe Pesci
Rekha Das
Dana B. Jewelry
Willow Mixed Media
Josh
Nussbaum
The Richard B. Fisher
David Baldwin of HBO
Wiltwyck Golf Club
Joyce
Arons
for
the
Center
David Blaine
Woodstock Copperworks
Performing
Arts
at
Julia
Santos-Solomon
David & Nikki Goldbeck
Woodstock Framing
Bard College
K.L
McKenna
Docurama
Gallery
Richard and Sherry
Kathy
Ruttenberg
Dreamweavers
Woodstock Golf Club
Gottschalk
5
Camera
Regan,
Ken
Earth, Glaze & Fire
Woodstock Tennis Club
Robert DeNiro
Laura Levine
11
VOLUNTEERS
VOLUNTEERS (AS OF 8/30)
Nancy Abrams
Frenchy Adami
Vanessa Ahern
Claudia Aleman
Josh Alkoff
Ed Allyn
Evelyn Alvarez
Anthony Amico
Pandora Apuzzo
Betsy Arlantico
Kelly Ashcroft
Susan Avery
Chrisso Babcock
Michele Baker
Josie Baucom
Ross Beckman
Deeber Berk
Lu Ann Bielawa
Nathan Bielski
Alicia Bock
Amanda Bonavita
Annie Borgenicht
Glenn Brown
Stephan Burlingame
Amanda Burton
Brian David Cange
Alan Carey
Eileen Caron
Patricia Carucci
Deborah Catalano
Kris Catalano
XueDi Chen
Barry Cherwin
Chimi Choden
Larry Christopher
Linda Clark
Eve Cohen
Tracy Cohen-Kamien
Kate Corkery
Joe Cosgrove
Marilyn Costello
Evan Crane
Lisa Cutten
Serena da Conceicao
Megan Daly
Melissa Davis
Shelley Davis
Denise DeBellis
Tim Deery
Lorraine Della Penna
Nathan Dembin
Allison Demorest
Lynn Dennison
Georgia Dent
12
Jean-Michael Desjardins
George DeWitt
Jim Dodge
Joy A. Dryer, Ph.D.
Kathy Duda
Kara Duffus
Barbara Ellman
Jacky Elmo
Renee Englander
Thomas Evans
Elissa Federoff
Joe Feldman
Alejita Jacobs Feliciano
Ted Finkle
Barbara Fox
K Francis
Denise A. Furlong
Carol Galione
Christopher Gallo
Clark Garnier
Michael Gaworski
Bob Glassman
Iris Glassman
Susan Goldman
Billy Goldstein
Matt Goodell
James Gorcesky
Scott Goren
Gerrit Graham
Shelley Graham
Alan Grayson
Judy Grayson
Paula Green
Kristi Habedanck
Richard Haffar
Lee Hairston
David Hanzl
Nicole Heidbreder
Hannah Heinrich
Edwina Henderson
Leslie Hill
Myrna S. Hilton
Julie Hough
Jamie Hull
Hilary H. Huntington
Julie Intellisano
Allison Irwin
Dianne Jabbour
Kate Jacobson
Louis Jargow
Katy Jordan
Risa Kamien
Laura Kandel
Lauren Kassirer
Darlene Kelley
Richard Kelly
Kate Kent
Tris Korol
Chloe Kramer
Cynthia Kudren
Jacalyn Kukle
Jane Laiken
Justin Lang
Susan Latham
Shirley Levy
Craig Linet
Pat Loggia
Julia Lukacher
Heather MacLean
Christine M. Maggio
Janielle Mahan
Patty Manfrates
Caitlin Markes
Debra Markes
Heather Marrin
Anastasia McCarthy
Ashleigh McCord
Jim McElroy
Mark McKenna
Deborah McMenemy
Lauren McTague
Deborah Medenbach
Jessica Medenbach
Jack Milgram
Barry Miller
Madeleine Molyneaux
Patrick Morales
Ellen Naney
Vicky Natland
Oliver Noble
Jason Novak
Keith Palese
Steven Parisi
Claudia Parker
Hillary Partridge
Kathy Pauker
Laurence Paverd
Laura Pepitone
Lisa Perez
Chase Pierson
Stephanie Pincar
Michael Platsky
Barbara Pokras
Pamela Power
Marv Pritchard
George Radel
Deborah Ramsden
Danielle Reisigl
Carly Repko
Vanessa Roberts
Liz Roche
Suzanne Rotondo
Tara Ryan
Amanda Schaper
Siobhan Schneidman
Judy Schultz
Angelique Schuster
Laurie Schwartz
Becky Sellinger
Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin
Greg Silver
Bill StittJosh Smith
Taima Smith
Beth Snodgrass
Jasper Speier
Judith Steinfeld
Bill Stitt
Theresa Sullivan
Erica Taylor
Noah Telson
Sarah Thomas
Juan M. Torres
Johanna Trimboli
Rachel Troy
Will Ulmer
Becky Vanderloop
Judith Velosky-Martell
Betty Vera
Marie Villavecchia
Jesse Vinicor
Gypsy (Rosanne) Vinicore
Heather Vomero
Glenn Warnock
Missy Weeks
Pamela Weisberg
Ilana Weiss
Carol Werner
Michael Werner
Michael White
Donna White-Davis
Elly Wininger
Myrah Wize
William (Bill) Wurst
Leah Wyszomirski
Kathy Yanas
Lydia Zamm
Merrie Zaretsky
Lisa Zarowitz
Gail Zwiebel
THANK YOU
Special Thanks
Mark Braunstein
Adam, Daniel and Julian
Amy Gossels
Annie Nocenti
Anthony Katagas
Bill Plympton
Carol Ricken
Clark Strand
David D’Arcy
David Dinerstein
David Fenkel
David Gingras
David Kwok
Diana Cassidy
Doreen Ringer Ross
Eamonn Bowles
Ellen Barry
Ellen Chenoweth
Elma Cremin
Ford Crull
Gill Holland
Grover Crisp
Haskell Wexler
Ira Schreck
James Schamus
Jason Makowski
Jeffrey Abramson
Joan Quigley
John S. Lyons
John Sloss
Judy Arthur
Julie Fontaine
Kate Pierson
Katharine McKenna
Katherine Meyer
Keith Weckstein
Ken Regan
Kevin A. Cahill
Kevin Hartman
Lauri Andretta
Lemore Syvan
Leon Gast
Linda Livingston
Lisa Gossels
Liz Garbus
Lydia Dean Pilcher
Mara Medoff
Mark Urman
Martha Frankel
Marvin Seligman
Mary Ann Hult
Maurice Hinchey
Melisse Seleck
Michael Lang
Michelle Byrd
Mike Stock
Mitch Pollack
Pamela Yates
Pat Lieske
Paul Hoffman
Perdita Finn
Peter Finn
Rie Norregaard
Robert Peacock
Ron Nyswaner
Ron Suman
Sabine Hoffman
Sara Finmann
Sherry & Rick Gottschalk
Signe Baumane
Stephen Hays
Steven Beer
Stuart Jay Rothkopf
Susana Meyer
Tamara Lang
Ted Wright
Thelma Adams
Town of Hunter
Town of Rhinebeck
Town of Woodstock
Victoria Langling
Ward Todd
Wayne Walrath
William B Higginson
Woodstock Guild
Woodstock Playhouse
Woodstock Police
Yvonne Conza
If we forgot to thank you, please forgive our oversight and
know that your help and support is very much appreciated.
Hospitality Thank Yous
Amy Menell
Avis & Greg Gebhart
Bar Scott and Peter
Schoenberger
Brynn Kelsey
Carla Smith and the Woodstock
Guild
Carol Ricken
Debi DiPeso
Deborah Ramsden
Dennis & Abby Bressack
Diane Collelo
Dick & Susan Goldman
Don Wright & Ronnie Shushan
Doreen Mar
Elaine Jaffe
Elise and Steve Pittelman
Ellen & Allen Zerkin
Ellen Bitterman and Richard
Caggiano
Ellen Shapiro
Eve & Art Cohen
Evelyne Pouget/Blue Pearl Guest
Cottage
Gabrielle Kleinman
Genny Abbot
Grace Bowne
Gypsy Vinicor/Cottages at
Rockcut Ledge
Habib Gardee/Bearsville Inn
Holli & Ed Gersh
Holly Beye
Holly Coe
Jacalyn Kukle
Jack Baran & Linda Leeds
Jane Laiken & Billy Goldstein
Janet Nelson
Johanna Tirmboli
Joy & Bob Hausman
Joy Dryer and Sol Moro
Joyce Beymer
Judy Dahl/Black Bear Cottages
Judy Steinfeld
Kate Pierson/Lazy Meadows
Lauri & Jay Andretta
Laurie Schwartz and Nathan
Brenowitz
Linda & Bruce Bodner
Lori Ylvisker
Maria Brown
Marita Lopez-Mena
Mark Braunstein & Katherine
McKenna
Marlyn Parks
Martin Torres & Joe DiThomas
Matt Rudikoff & Lola Cohen
Mitchell Milner
Nancy Caigan
Neil & Ilene Rubinstein
Patti Kurtz/Woodstock Inn on
the Millstream
Peter Cantine & Eric
Mann/Bearsville Suites
Randy & Barbara Rissman
Steve & Elise Pittleman (check
that they aren't on
Barbara's list-- once is enuf )
Suzanne Rotondo and Kristi
Habedanck
Tom & Elly Jackson
Village Green B & B
Woodstock Lodge
13
ABOUT WFF
The Woodstock Film Festival
celebrates new and established voices in independent
film with screenings,
seminars, workshops, and
concerts, throughout the midHudson Valley.
Founded by filmmakers Meira
Blaustein and Laurent Rejto,
the festival is centered in the
historic colony of Woodstock,
New York, with additional
events and screenings taking
place in the nearby towns of
Rhinebeck and Hunter.
As a not-for-profit, 501 (C) (3) organization, our mission is to present an annual program and
year-round schedule of film, music, and art-related activities that promote artists, culture,
inspired learning, and diversity. The Woodstock Film Commission promotes sustainable economic development by attracting and supporting film, video, and media production.
Every fall, film and music lovers from around the world gather here for an exhilarating variety of films, concerts, celebrity-led seminars, workshops, a closing-night awards ceremony, and
superlative parties. Visitors find themselves in a relaxed, receptive atmosphere surrounded by
some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.
Over one hundred feature films, documentaries, and shorts, including premieres from the
U.S. and abroad, will be screened, with many filmmakers present for Q & As. Specific programs
include the Feature Showcase, In Competition Narratives and Documentaries, Shorts, Youth
Initiative, Focus on Music, Exposure, and more.
The festival has drawn rave reviews
“In an ideal world (and Woodstock’s denizens
nationwide from filmmakers, industry
specialize in Utopian visions), these all-toomembers, film lovers, and the media. In
common celluloid celebrations shouldn’t just give
its yearly “Top Ten Film Festival
out-of-towners a chance to schmooze; they
Getaways,” Film Festival Reporter wrote,
should reflect and enhance the communities that
“Sure, you’ve heard about the historic
spawn them. And in that respect, as it nears the
rock shows, but film is the reason to
five-year mark, Woodstock is becoming one of
come to Woodstock.” The festival is also
the most distinctive festivals on the
proud to be listed in the travel guide
circuit.”(Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York)
1,000 Places to See Before You Die.
Youth Initiative
Exposure
Continuing an
extraordinary
lineup of
provocative
programming, the
Woodstock Film Festival presents
Exposure, featuring films from around
the world with an emphasis on social,
political, and environmental matters.
14
In addition to providing classes, internships,
and career opportunities for local schools
throughout the year, the WFF presents A Day
at the Roundtables at the annual festival. This
career day style event allows middle and high
school students from the region to learn about
filmmaking in one-on-one open
EDUCATION
exchanges with leading industry
Educational events include the Youth Initiative
members.
Past participants have “Career Day,” workshops, outreach, classroom
included United Artists presi- curricula, internships, and work opportunities.
dent, producer Bingham Ray; “Career Day” guest have featured six Oscar winAcademy Award winners cine- ners including the late legendary composer Elmer
matographer Haskell Wexler Bernstein, and documentary filmmaker Leon Gast
(One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), (When We Were Kings).
composer Elmer Bernstein (To
Kill a Mockingbird), documentary
filmmaker Leon Gast (When We
Were
Kings),
screenwriter
Zachary Sklar (JFK); and Ron
Nyswaner (Philadelphia); and
other representatives from diverse fields including casting, editing, producing, and more. This is an outstanding opportunity
for students interested in film and media.
Films by high school students are also presented as part of
the festival’s Youth Initiative.
ABOUT WFF
YEAR ROUND PROGRAMMING
As part of its dedication to yearround programming, the
Woodstock Film Festival presents monthly screenings and
scheduled workshops, including the “Can Film Festival,”
Pamela Yates
and Haskell Wexler (2004)
which features free screenings
where canned or boxed food is the price of admission, to
benefit local food pantries. Featured films have included The
Weather Underground, Farmingville, and Off the Charts.
The festival also tours all year long, with films and other
programming in five counties, including “Independent Film
on the Air,” a copresentation with WAMC–Northeast Public
Radio in Albany. Featured events included the Garbage,
Gangster & Greed Youth Forum; Medium Cool with Haskell
Wexler and Pamela Yates; and “Alternative Explorations for
Films That Matter.”
Beginning this December, the WFF will present bimonthly screenings in Manhattan at The Two Boots Pioneer
Theater 155 East 3rd Street in NYC.
Film of the Hudson
Valley/Catskills
Films with local ties are a significant
part of the WFF. The Hudson
Valley/Catskills is a hotbed of creative energy and home to many
established and emerging filmmakers. Film production in the Hudson
Valley/Catskills also attracts filmmakers from around the world.
The Woodstock Film Commission, under the
auspices of the Woodstock Film Festival, promotes
economic development by highlighting local talent
and attracting outside film, video, and media production to the region.
WOODSTOCK FILM COMMISSION
Since its inception, the Woodstock
Film Commission has acted as a conduit for preproduction, production,
and postproduction for filmmaking in
the Hudson Valley/Catskill region.
In conjunction with the film festival, the commission attracts filmmakers from all over the region and provides support throughout the year to
features, independent features, print, media, short films, and TV ads.
Recent films that have been shot locally
include the recent Ghost Dance, The Thing
About My Folks (starring Paul Reiser and
Peter Falk), Down to the Bone (2004
Sundance Award Winner), Patch (starring
Melissa Leo and Deborah Harry), Personal
Velocity (2002 Sundance Award winner),
Wendigo, Pagans, and many more.
Join us October 13-17,
then come back to visit
or to shoot your film in the
beautiful Hudson
Valley/Catskills.
For more info, visit
www.woodstockfilmcommission.com
Focus on Music
To honor its musical heritage, the WFF has made music an integral part of
its programming. WFF’s Focus on Music showcases films about music and
musicians while actively exploring its role in film. Many of the films emphasize music as a powerful tool for expression and conflict resolution.
Through workshops, seminars, and live concerts featuring musicians
with links to films in the festival, the WFF emphasizes film
scoring.
on
Each year, the festival also produces a special complimentary CD featuring
music from festival films.
15
SPONSORS
PRESENTING SPONSOR
MAJOR SPONSORS
KEY SPONSOR
SUPERSTAR SPONSOR
16
SPONSORS
SUPPORTING SPONSORS
COMPLIMENTARY CD SPONSORS
MEDIA SPONSORS
98.1
EVENT SPONSORS
TRANSPORT SPONSORS
EVENT SUPPORT
AIVF
Center for Photography at
Woodstock
EQUIPMENT/TECHNICAL
SPONSORS
3rd Street R&D Production Svcs.
Canus Major Productions
Gigi Trattoria
Viva La Data
Mediarights.org
STATE AND LOCAL SUPPORT
NYWIFT
FOUNDATION SUPPORT
The Dyson Foundation
Experimental Television Center
The Perry and Martin Granoff
Foundation
Ulster County Legislature
Ulster County Chamber of
Commerce
Woodstock Chamber of Commerce
The Woodstock Film
Festival event is made
possible with public
funds from the New
York State Council on
the Arts, a State
Agency
AWARD SPONSORS
Discmakers
Docurama
Kodak
Lowel Light
Showbiz Software
OFFICIAL WATER SPONSOR
Yasgur Farms Bottled H20
HOSPITALITY SPONSORS
Adriano Limousine (music)
Black Bear Deli
Bread Alone
Brices Discount Beverages
Burts Electronics (music)
Catskill Mountain Organic Coffee
Cibo Foods
Country Heritage Farms
HOSPITALITY SPONSORS con’d
Deising’s Bakery
Gadaletto’s Seafood
Hickory BBQ
Lachmans Bakery
Lox of Bagels
Mother Earth
Mirsa Smoked Salmon
Old Chatham Sheepherding
Company
Oregon Orchard Hazelnuts
Price Chopper Supermarkets
St. Claire’s Organic Sweets
Stone Pony Deli
Stonyfield Farm
Sunfrost Market (pumpkins)
17
ADVISORY BOARD
Elmer Bernstein
Griffin Dunne
feature film composer
(HONORARY CHAIR)
2004 would have been Elmer
Bernstein’s 53rd anniversary as a feature
film composer. His name will always be
synonymous with creativity, versatility
and longevity. He wrote music for over
200 major film and television scores and
was nominated fourteen times for an
Academy Award for such films as Far
From Heaven, The Age of Innocence, To Kill
A Mockingbird, and The Magnificent
Seven, among others. He was awarded
the Oscar for best film score for
Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Director, Producer, Actor
Griffin Dunne is a director, (Addicted to
Love, Practical Magic, Lisa Picard is
Famous) producer, (Chilly Scenes of
Winter, Baby it’s You, Running on Empty,
After Hours) and actor (Marie and Bruce,
American Werewolf in London, After
Hours). As a screen writer he co-wrote
with Adam Brooks the Academy Award
nominated short, Duke of Groove and
Spin for Dreamworks.
Judy Arthur
Public Relations consultant
Judy Arthur directs public relations and
marketing campaigns for the entertainment industry and cultural, international, and public affairs. She has
been a public relations executive at
PolyGram Films, Orion Pictures, and
HBO, directing campaigns for numerous Academy Award winning films.
Eamonn Bowles
President, Magnolia Pictures
Eamonn Bowles is president of
Magnolia Pictures, Guerrilla:The Taking
of Patty Hearst, A League of Ordinary
Gentlemen, Ong Bak, Capturing the
Friedmans, Read my Lips, Late Marriage,
and Control Room. Prior to Magnolia he
was president of Shooting Gallery
Pictures, Croupier, A Time For Drunken
Horses, Last Resort, The Day I Became A
Woman, Eureka, among numerous others. He has also served as senior vice
president of acquisitions and marketing
with Miramax and as head of distribution at The Samuel Goldwyn Company.
Ellen Chenoweth - Casting Director
Select credits include Mona Lisa Smile,
Intolerable Cruelty, Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind, Analyze This, Bandits,
The Man Who Wasn’t There, Meet the
Parents, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Diner, Avalon, Broadcast News, Arlington
Road, Liberty Heights, The Horse
Whisperer, Affliction, Lolita, Wag the Dog,
Bridges of Madison County, Nobody’s Fool,
Disclosure, Six Degrees of Separation, A
Bronx Tale, Terms of Endearment ...
18
Martha Frankel
Entertainment Journalist
Martha Frankel is an entertainment
journalist who has interviewed everyone
from Robert DeNiro, Sean Penn and
Elizabeth Taylor to Lee Attwater and
Mike Tyson for magazines as diverse as
The New Yorker, Fashions of the New
York Times, Cosmopolitan, the original
Details, as well as many other international magazines. She is a past winner
of a NYFFA Award in creative nonfiction, was the 1997 Philip Morris Fellow
at The MacDowell Colony, and the
2003 Artist-in-Residence at SUNY
Ulster.
Leon Gast - Filmmaker
Leon Gast - Filmmaker
Producer, director, editor and writer of
When We Were Kings, the Academy
Award winning documentary of the
1974 heavyweight championship bout
in Zaire between champion George
Foreman and underdog challenger
Muhammad Ali. Other film credits
include Hell’s Angels Forever, The
Grateful Dead Movie, Celia Cruz:
Quantanamera, and Only Love.
Stephen Hays - Executive Producer
Stephen Hays is partner and co-founder
of Seneca Capital, a New York-based
hedge fund, and has eighteen years
experience on Wall Street. Over the last
decade, he has invested in numerous
film projects and recent credits include
the following: Co-Producer They Are
Among Us (Allison Eastwood, Bruce
Boxleitner); Co-Executive Producer
Drop Dead Sexy (Crispin Glover, Jason
Lee, Pruitt Taylor Vince); Executive
Producer Loggerhead (Kip Pardue,
Melinda Dillon, Bonnie Hunt) and
Executive Producer Confess.com (Eugene
Byrd, Melissa Leo, Ali Larter) . Stephen
is presently involved in a half-
dozen other projects at various stages of
development. In addition, he has
recently partnered with UK-based
Paradigm Hyde Films (www.phfilm.com),
a gap lender/financier to independent
films worldwide, as a strategic investor.
Ethan Hawke
Actor, director, Author
As Director, Chelsea Walls — As Actor,
Training Day (nominated for BestSupporting Actor Oscar) Snow Falling on
Cedars, Hamlet, Joe the King, Great
Expectations, The Newton Boys, The
Velocity of Gary, Gattaca, Search and
Destroy, Reality Bites, White Fang II,
Floundering, Quiz Show, Alive, Rich in
Love, Waterland, White Fang, Midnight
Clear, Mystery Date, Dead Poets Society,
Dad, Explorers, Before Sunset, Taking
Lives, and most recently Before Sunrise.
Sabine Hoffman - Editor
Sabine Hoffman’s credits as film editor
include Rebecca Miller’s new film The
Ballad of Jack and Rose (to be released
by IFC in Spring 2005) She also edited
Mrs Miller’s Personal Velocity, winner of
the 2003 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance,
the Award for Best Cinematography and
the John Cassavettes Award. Other
credits include Morgan J. Freeman’s
Desert Blue and Hurricane Streets (winner
of Audience, Best Director and Best
Cinematography Award at the 1997
Sundance Film Festival), Alex Sichels All
Over Me (a Teddy Award Winner at the
Berlin Film Festival), Katja Essons Ferry
Tales (nominated for an Academy Award
in 2004), Bill Jennings Harlem Aria
(Audience Award winner at Urbanworld
New York, Chicago and Los Angeles)
and Rodney Evans’ upcoming Brother to
Brother (Special Jury Prize winner at
Sundance 2004 and the Showtime
Award ). Sabine also serves on the
Advisory boards of WERISE and the
Fusion Film Festival.
Gill Holland - Producer and Partner,
LaSalle Holland
Nominated for Spirit Award for Producer
of the Year 1998, Gill Holland produced
Sundance winning Hurricane Streets, the
FOX sit-com Greg the Bunny, “Spring
Forward,” and Emmy-nominated Dear
Jesse, among others. He produced three
volumes of cineBLAST!, the short film
video compilations.
Half-Norwegian, half North Carolinian
reformed lawyer and former adjunct
professor at NYU Graduate Film School,
Gill worked at the French Film Office.
He was on the jury for shorts at
Sundance and selection committee for
the Academy Awards, Student Division.
His music label sonaBLAST! Records’
first release, Mark Geary’s “331⁄3 Grand
Street” hit top 40 in Ireland.
Michael Lang - Producer, Promoter
Producer, Promoter updated
As the founder of Woodstock Ventures,
Michael is best known as the producer
and promoter of the Woodstock Music
& Arts Festival (1969, 1994 & 1999).
In addition to his core business of
event production and music management he is currently working on the
production of a film based on the
novel The Master and Margurita by
Mikeal Bulgakov. Other film credits
include Bottle Rocket, the debut film of
director Wes Anderson and actors Luke
Wilson and Owen Wilson.
Stephen Nemeth - Rhino Films
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up
the film division of iconoclast record
label Rhino Records. Nemeth produced
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, directed
by Terry Gilliam (Universal Pictures),
Why Do Fools Fall in Love, directed by
Gregory Nava (Warner Bros.) and
others. The Hollywood Reporter
Independent Producers & Distributors
Issue, named him one of the top ten
most prolific producers in Hollywood.
Prior to joining Rhino in 1993, Nemeth
worked as an independent producer
and as an agent at the William Morris
Agency.
Jeremiah Newton
NYU Industry Liaison
As Film and Television Industry Liaison
for the largest film school in America,
NYU’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film
and Television, Mr. Newton created The
Directors Series that takes place twice a
week involving the latest Hollywood,
independent, documentary and foreign
feature films. Mr. Newton also administrates the Mentor Program, which finds
industry mentors for film and TV students. His writing credits include work
on I Shot Andy Warhol.
ADVISORY BOARD
Annie Nocenti - Screenwriter, Editor
Annie Nocenti is a screenwriter, film
journalist, and was the editor of both
High Times magazine and Scenario, a
screenwriting magazine.
Ron Nyswaner - Screenwriter, Director
Ron Nyswaner wrote the screenplay for,
and co-produced, Soldier’s Girl, directed
by Frank Pierson, which premiered at
the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. He
wrote the screenplay for Philadelphia,
the first major studio film to confront
AIDS and homophobia, for which he
was nominated for the Golden Globe,
Writers’ Guild, BAFTA and Academy
Awards.
Currently, Nyswaner is writing A
Trial By Jury for director Sam Raimi, and
The Leni Riefenstahl Story for Jodie
Foster. He has just finished his first
book, Blue Days, Black Nights: A Memoir
of Love and Loss.
Sarah Plant - Composer
.
Sarah Plant was Associate Music
Director, arranger, and flutist for Ang
Lee’s Oscar-nominated Eat Drink Man
Woman. Feature and documentary credits include Shoot George, Juliette of the
Herbs (PBS), Entwined, Spotted Puppets
(Canal+), Brothers and Others: The
Impact of 9/11 on Arabs and Muslims in
America (CBC, Hallmark, Swiss TV),
Guillermo Gomez-Peña, (PBS), and Going
Organic (PBS) and Bravo Profiles: Julie
Taymor (Bravo). Scores include
American Museum of Natural History
biodiversity films, museum art installations and a commission for Bill T. Jones
Dance Company. Her work has been
performed at the Kennedy Center, BAM,
Carnegie Recital Hall, and the Spoleto
Festival.
Bill Plympton - Animator
Bill Plympton’s animated films include
his latest feature Hair High, which won
the Gold Jury Prize at the Fant-Asia festival in Montreal, and the short film
Guard Dog, which won the Best Short
Prize at Anima Mundi and a special
prize at the Hiroshima Animation
Festival. Past projects include Mutant
Aliens, I Married a Strange Person, and
The Tune. His short films have been seen
widely around the country, high lighting
many animation festivals, and on DVD
in the Plymptoons and Mondo
Plympton collections.
Aidan Quinn – Actor, Producer
Liev Schrieber - Actor
Fisher Stevens
Aidan Quinn’s most recent film is
Cavedweller. Other recent projects
include Song for a Raggy Boy (WFF
2003), Plainsong, and Evelyn. He has
appeared in over 35 independent and
studio features including Desperately
Seeking Susan, An Early Frost, Avalon, At
Play in the Fields of the Lord, Benny and
Joon, Legends of the Fall, and Michael
Collins.
Liev Schrieber has quickly established
himself as one of the most versatile
actors of his generation through his ability to effortlessly play roles ranging from
classical Shakespearean to contemporary film. Among his film credits are,
moist recently, The Manchurian candidate, The Sum of All Fears, Kate &
Leopold, Spring Forward, The Hurricane,
and A Walk on the Moon. He is currently
directing Everything is Illuminated.
Zachary Sklar is a screenwriter, journalist, author, and editor. He is best known
as co-author (with Oliver Stone) of the
Academy Award-nominated screenplay
for the film JFK. He is currently working
on several screenplays.
Actor, Producer, Director
Fisher Stevens is an accomplished actor,
director and producer. In addition to
performing both on the stage and in
numerous television series, Stevens has
starred in a wide range of feature films,
such as Reversal of Fortune, The Flamingo
Kid, Short Circuit, Only You, and most
recently, Miramax’s Undisputed. In
1996, Stevens co-founded GreeneStreet
Films, a New York-based independent
production company, with John Penotti.
Since then, the company has produced
and financed a number of critically
acclaimed films, such as In the Bedroom,
Pinero, Swimfan, The Chateau, and Lisa
Picard is Famous. Stevens made his feature film directorial debut with
GreeneStreet’s Just a Kiss.
John Sloss
David Strathairn - Actor
loss Law Office & Cinetic
John Sloss has acted as Executive
Producer for over thirty feature films
including, most recently, Pizza, Land of
Plenty, A Home at the End of the World,
November and Far fromHeaven (WFF
2002). Other credits include John
Sayles’ City of Hope, Passion Fish, The
Secret of Roan Inish, Lone Star, and Men
With Guns; Richard Linklater’s Before
Sunrise, SubUrbia
,The
Newton
Boys,Waking Life and Before Sunrise;
Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco;
Errol Morris’ Mr. Death; Brad
Anderson’s Happy Accidents and Session
9; and Kimberly Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry.
As an attorney, John Sloss represents
clients in all aspects of motion picture
financing, production and distribution,
including motion picture producers,
directors, writers and broadcast networks, as well as professional sports
teams.
David is an accomplished film and stage
actor. He has appeared in many independent and studio films including Map
of the World, LA Confidential, Simon
Birch, Dolores Claiborne, The River Wild,
Silkwood, and many more films. He is
best known for his work with director
John Sayles, including Limbo, Passion
Fish, Eight Men Out, Matewan, Brother
From Another Planet. and Return of the
Secaucus Seven.
Bingham Ray - Producer
Bingham Ray is the former president of United Artists (Bowling for
Columbine, Assassination Tango, Nicholas
Nickleby, City of Ghosts). As co-founder
of October Films, he distributed
independent films such as Secrets &
Lies, Breaking The Waves, and The
Apostle.
Peter Saraf - Producer
Peter is currently producing Liev
Schreiber’s Everything Is Illuminated. He
was executive producer of Spike Jonze’s
critically acclaimed Adaptation starring
Nicholas Cage. As producer, his credits
include The Truth About Charlie,
Mandela, Ulee’s Gold, Courage and Pain,
Into the Rope and Storefront Hitchcock.
Steve Savage - President, New
Video
Steve is president and co-founder of
New Video, a New York based DVD
company. New Video has released a
catalog of over 1,500 titles under The
History Channel, A&E, NBC and IFC
imprints. Since 1999, New Video has
distributed a catalog of over 100 independent and classic documentaries
under their Docurama label. For
preschoolers the company offers a
series of classic children’s books on
DVD under the Scholastic brand.
www.docurama.com
www.newvideo.com
Zachary Sklar – Screenwriter
Lemore Syvan, Producer
Lemore’s most recent films include
King of the Corner, directed by Peter
Riegert and Rebecca Millers The Ballad
of Jack and Rose starring Daniel DayLewis and Catherine Keener. In post
production is Duane Hopwood, directed by Matt Mulhern starring David
Schwimmer and Jeanine Gerofalo and
Shall Not Want directed by Laurie
Collyer starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Previous films include John Sayles Casa
de Los Babys,
Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity (grand
prize winner at 2002 Sundance Film
Festival). She heads the production
company Elevation Filmworks.
19
20
LETTERS
21
MAVERICK AWARDS
mav·er·ick adj. 1. Being
independent in thought and
action or exhibiting such
independence. 2. One who
refuses to abide
by the dictates
of a group.
The fiercely independent
Woodstock Film Festival
took the name for its
award – The Maverick –
from
the
original
Woodstock arts colony of the early 1900s,
where the first of many Maverick Festivals
took place each summer. These festivals celebrated independence, social responsibility,
and good times, all in honor of the creative
spirit. The Woodstock Film Festival is proud
to carry on this tradition of celebrating and
honoring the work, dedication, spirit, energy,
and inspiration of those who make feelings
visible and thoughts concrete, who make
sense out of sensations, who shine light into
darkness, and who nuance the obvious.
The Honorary Maverick Award is presented to an individual whose life and work
is the very definition of the word “maverick.”
Past recipients include Woody Harrelson,
Tim Robbins, D. A. Pennebaker, and Chris
Hegedus, and Les Blank. This year’s honoree
will be announced in September.
Handcrafted trophies and prizes are
awarded for Best Feature Narrative, Best
Documentary,
Best
Short
Feature
Documentary, Best Short, and Best Student
Film. Other awards are presented for cine-
The 2004 Maverick Awards
ceremony will by Emceed by
Mikhail Horowitz &
Gilles Malkine.
matography, and animation – and, for the
very first time this year, editing.
Past recipients include the features
Assisted Living, Wendigo, Recoil, The
Dreamcatcher, and Interview with the Assassin,
and the documentaries A Boy’s Life, Spellbound,
Passages, and Freestyle. In Competition finalists,
all first-time feature filmmakers, are selected
by a committee headed by Ryan Werner,
head of theatrical distribution at Wellspring.
The WFF Maverick Award for Best
Animated Film is presented by Bill
Plympton (How to Kiss, 25 Ways to Quit
Smoking, Mutant Aliens, The Tune, Hair High).
Plympton is recognized as one of America’s
foremost illustrators, cartoonists, and animators. His highly successful short films have
won countless prizes and have appeared with
frenzied frequency at film festivals, on television, and online.
Horowitz and Malkine have been delighting
audiences for years. Their original, zany,
and imaginative verbal acrobatics and maladaptations of old tunes with new lyrics
have left onlookers laughing until they’re
gasping for breath. Their satirical takes on
world currents consistently hit the mark, as
do their rap versions of such literary classics as Moby Dick, Homer’s Odyssey, Alice’s
Adventures In Wonderland, and Waiting for
Godot. They perform songs on subjects as
diverse as the lack of affordable health care,
the blues origins of Macbeth and Hamlet,
political unreality and surreality, the scant
likelihood of sex after death, and the legacy
of orthodox Jewish cowboys. Or, you may be
treated to the granddaddy of all disastermotif songs, or a faded and frayed remembrance of a fiery night in the 60s, or a rendition of Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees” as it
might be recited by Blackbeard the Pirate.
The Haskell Wexler Award for Best
Cinematography is judged by Haskell
Wexler, A.S.C. (Bound for Glory, One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Coming Home, Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Secret of Roan
Inish). Wexler is a five-time Academy Award
nominee and a recipient of a star on
Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
New Award - Excellence in
Editing!
For the first time ever the Woodstock Film
Festival will recognize the art of film editing. The WFF Maverick Award for
Excellence in Editing will be presented in
the categories of Feature Narative and
Documentary. On the jury are Sarah Flack
(Lost in Translation, The Limey), Sabine
Hoffman (Personal Velocity, Brother to
Brother, The Ballad of Jack and Rose) and
Doug Abel (Fog of War, Metallica: Some
Kind of Monster, The Awful Truth).
JURY
FEATURES:
DOCUMENTARIES
SHORTS:
STUDENT SHORTS:
Thelma Adams
(Film critic, US Weekly)
Liz Garbus
(Academy Award nominated filmmaker.
The Farm, Angola USA,The Nazi Officer’s
Wife,The Execution of Wanda Jean,
Girlhood)
Gill Holland
(producer, Hurricane, Desert Blue, Spring
Forward, Snow Days, Martin & Orloff,The
Fittest, Loggerheads)
Jeremiah Newton
(industry liaison, New York University)
Fisher Stevens
(actor/director/producer,Just a Kiss,
Famous”, “Pinero, Swimfan, Uptown Girls)
Ira Deutchman
(Producer, Brothel, Interstate 60, Ball in the
House, Center of the World,Way Past Cool)
Brett Morgen
(Academy Award nominated filmmaker,
On the Ropes,The Kids Stay in the Picture)
Jackie Glover
(Director of Documentary Programming,
HBO)
22
Larry Fessenden
(filmmaker, No Telling, Habit,Wendigo)
Rachel Sheedy
(franchised agent, Don Buckwald Agency
with emphasis on New York independent
film, building the careers of many of the
indie film world’s stalwarts.
Gill Holland
(producer, Hurricane, Desert Blue, Spring
Forward, Snow Days, Martin & Orloff,The
Fittest, Loggerheads)
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.
MAVERICK AWARDS
The 2004
Woodstock Film Festival
5th Anniversary Honorary
Maverick Award will be presented to the
illustrious director, writer, producer Mira Nair,
a fearless explorer of the human heart.
The Maverick Awards are handcrafted by
Steve Heller, a self-taught artist who works in
wood, found metal, and Cadillacs from the
1950s. He shows at his gallery, Fabulous
Furniture, in Boiceville, NY.
“The Maverick has long been a symbol of
the Woodstock arts colony, representing an
individual whose life and work is based on
independent vision and social activism,” said
WFF director and co-founder Meira
Blaustein. “We are so proud to honor the
work of Mira Nair, who fearlessly combines
independence and risk-taking with social consciousness and continues the tradition of
those who make feelings visible, who make
sense out of sensations, who shine light into
darkness.”
“To be a maverick, to be recognized for
being fiercely independent is a great honor.
Freedom to express myself my way is an
imperative for my work. It is the only way I
know,” said Ms. Nair.
Born in India, Nair began her artistic
career as an actor before turning her attention
to directing, producing and screenwriting.
She found success as a documentary filmmaker, winning prestigious awards for So Far
From India, India Cabaret and The
Laughing Club of India. Nair’s feature film
credits include the critically acclaimed
Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala,
Hysterical Blindness, Kama Sutra: A Tale
of Love, The Perez Family, Monsoon
Wedding, and the newly released Vanity
Fair. Her films have won accolades and multiple awards at major film festivals all over the
world.
ANIMATION:
SHORT DOCS:
EDITING:
Bill Plympton
(Academy Award Nominated filmmaker /
animator, Hair Hight, Eat, Mutant Aliens,
The Tune, Plymptoons)
Lee Hirsch
(filmmaker, Amandla! A Revolution in Four
Par Harmony)
Sabine Hoffmann
(editor, The Ballad of Jack and Rose,
Personal Velocity, Brother to Brother, Ferry
Tales)
Signe Baumane
(filmmaker / animator, Five F*cking
Fables)
Debra Solomon
(animator, Lizzie McGuire, the Movie)
Leon Gast
(Academy Award winner, When We Were
Kings, One Love, Hell’s Angels Forever,The
Grateful Dead Movie, B.B. King: Live in
Africa)
Rebecca Cammisa
(filmmaker, Sister Helen)
MAVERICK AWARD SPONSORS
Sarah Flack
(editor, Lost in Translation, Swimfan, Full
Frontal,The Limey)
Doug Abel
(editor, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the
Life of Robert McNamara, Pootie Tang)
23
NARRATIVE FEATURES
All information is Subject to change.
Please visit www.woodstockfilmfestival.com for the most up to date information
including SCHEDULES, added screenings, and OTHER EVENTS.
26 p.s.
27 THE MACHINIST
28 THE WOODSMAN
29 DEAR FRANKIE
30 ADMISSIONS
31 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
31 BLACKBALLED:
THE BOBBY DUKES STORY
32 CAVEDWELLER
33 CHAIN
34 CHORISTS (LES CHORISTES)
35 COSMOPOLITAN
36 THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY
37 DOWN TO THE BONE
38 ELEPHANT SHOES
38 THE FITTEST
39 JAILBAIT
40 KING OF THE CORNER
40 KONTROLL
41 ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR
42 OUR MUSIC (Notre Musique)
43 PIZZA
44 SECRET HONOR
45 SPEAK
46 UNDERTOW
46 UNKNOWN SOLDIER
25
NARRATIVE FEATURES
OPENING
NIGHT FILMS
W O O D S T O C K
Louise Harrington (Laura
Linney), a divorced, thirty-something
admissions officer at Columbia
University’s School of Fine Arts, is intelligent, pretty, successful, and… unfulfilled.
That is, until a graduate school application
crosses her desk and she arranges to interview the young painter who sent it in. When
Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace) appears, he
bears an uncanny resemblance to Louise’s
high school boyfriend and one true love, an
artist who died in a car accident twenty years
earlier. Within hours of the interview, Louise
and Scott have embarked on a passionately
uninhibited older woman/younger man affair.
But is Scott merely a reminder of Louise’s lost
love? And is he just trying to wheedle his way
into the Ivy League?
Adding to the romantic intrigue are
Louise’s best friend from high school, Missy
(Marcia Gay Harden), who shows up to claim
the affections of the boy; Louise’s codependent ex-husband, Peter (Gabriel Byrne); her
cynical mother (Lois Smith); and her freshout-of-rehab brother (Paul Rudd).
Torrid and tender, serious and sexy, p.s.
features a career performance from Laura
Linney (Mystic River, You Can Count on Me)
and a breakthrough leading-man turn for
Topher Grace (Traffic, That 70’s Show).
p.s., based on Helen Schulman’s novel of
the same name and shot entirely in New York
City, is a romantic fable about getting a second chance at first love.
26
Dylan Kidd’s first film,
Roger Dodger, won the
Lion of the Future Award at the 2002 Venice
International Film Festival, Best Feature Film
at the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival, Best
First Feature from the National Board of
Review and the New York Film Critics Circle
and several Independent Spirit and IFP
Gotham Award nominations. For his indelible
work as Roger Swanson in that film,
Campbell Scott received the Best Actor Award
from the National Board of Review.
“When I read the novel, I realized that
Louise Harrington was as fascinating a puzzle
as Roger Swanson in Roger Dodger,” says
Kidd, drawing out some surprising affinities
between the two works. “These two films
form a sort of ‘cinema of arrested development.’ They involve characters with all the
trappings of adult life the wardrobe, job success who gradually reveal themselves to be
locked in place emotionally.”
BIO
p.s.
Directed by Dylan Kidd
USA / 2004 / 97 minutes
Tinker Street • 10/14 • 7:30pm & 9:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Dylan Kidd
Producers
Robert Kessel
John N. Hart
Jeffrey Sharp
Anne Chaisson
Executive Producer
Michael Hogan
Screenwriters
Helen Schulman
Dylan Kidd
Cinematographer
Joaquin Baca-Asay
Editor
Kate Sanford
Music
Craig Wedren
Principal Cast
Laura Linney
Topher Grace
Lois Smith
Gabriel Byrne
Marcia Gay Harden
Paul Rudd
Courtesy of Newmarket Films
NARRATIVE FEATURES
OPENING
NIGHT FILMS
R H I N E B E C K .
Trevor Reznik has not slept
for a year. His every waking minute has
become an unremitting nightmare of
confusion, paranoia, guilt, anxiety, and
terror, each of which provides part of the
escalating series of clues that will lead to the
source of his mysterious affliction in this
inventive psychological thriller by Brad
Anderson (Happy Accidents, Session).
“Trevor Reznik has a truly epic
case of insomnia. And if the
THE MACHINIST
Directed by Brad Anderson
USA / 2004 / 98 minutes
Upstate Films 1 • 10/14 • 7:00pm
CMF 1 • 10/16 • 8:00pm
Main Credits:
Director
Brad Anderson
Executive Producers
Carlos Fernandez
Antonia Nava
decline of his physical and mental health weren’t bad enough,
he’s also lost the respect of his
Screenwriter(s)
Steven Fechler
Nicole Kassell
Producer
Julio Fernandez
coworkers, who shun him after
Screenwriter
Scott Alan Kosar
his maladies lead to a horrific
Cinematographer
Xavi Giménez
industrial accident. In the days
Editor
Luis de la Madrid
Music
Roque Banos
Principal Cast
Christian Bale
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Aitana Sanchez-Gijon
John Sharian
Michael Ironside
Larry Gilliard
that follow, Trevor is convinced
they want him fired ... or worse.
As the increasingly distraught
Trevor, Christian Bale is a study
in nightmarish paranoia in Brad
Anderson’s gritty psychological
The Darian Gap, Brad
Anderson’s first feature
film, screened in competition at the 1996
Sundance Film Festival. Because of that film,
he was honored by Variety in 1997 as one of
the “Ten Leading New Independent Directors
to Watch”. In 1998, his film Next Stop
Wonderland, featuring Hope Davis and
Philip Seymour Hoffman, was picked up at
Sundance by Miramax. It won the Grand Prix
and Audience Award at the Deauville Film
Festival and the Excellence in Filmmaking
Award from the National Board of Review.
In 2001, Anderson had the unusual
experience of having two of his films simultaneously hit theaters, both to overwhelming
critical praise: the romantic comedy Happy
Accidents (IFC Films) and the psychological
thriller Session 9 (USA Films).
His television direction includes
episodes of Homicide, HBO’s The Wire,
and the FX hit The Shield.
BIO
Courtesy of
Paramount Classics
NARRATIVE FEATURES
CLOSING
NIGHT FILM
W O O D S T O C K
Kevin Bacon, an indispensable
fixture of American cinema for the past
twenty years, delivers one of his finest performances in The Woodsman, a harrowing and
moving tale of one man’s attempt to reenter
society.
After twelve years in prison, Walter
moves into a small apartment across the
street from an elementary school, gets a job at
a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself.
He finds unexpected solace in Vicki (Kyra
Sedgwick), a tough-talking woman who
promises not to judge him by his history. But
Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted
sex offender, he is shunned by his sister, lives
in fear of being discovered at work, and is
hounded by a suspicious police detective
(Mos Def). And, after befriending a young girl
in a neighborhood park, Walter must also
grapple with the terrible prospect of his own
reawakened demons.
The Woodsman is an unnerving, ultimately hopeful portrait of compulsion and hardwon redemption, based on a play of the same
name.
28
Nicole Kassell makes her
feature directing debut
with The Woodsman. Kassell is a recent graduate of the NYU Graduate Film Program,
where she wrote, produced, and directed
three short films. Jaime won the 1999 DGA
Best Female Student Filmmaker Award, and
her thesis film, The Green Hour, was honored
with the Warner Bros. Pictures Film
Production Award and was an official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Her
screenplay for The Woodsman took first prize
in the 2001 Slamdance screenplay
competition.
BIO
THE WOODSMAN
Directed by Nicole Kassell
USA / 2004 / 85 minutes
Tinker Street • 10/17 • 5:30pm & 7:45pm
Main Credits:
Director/Screenwriter Nicole Kassell
Producers
Lee Daniels
Damon Dash
Kevin Bacon
Brook Lenfest
Dawn Lenfest
Cinematographer
Xavier Pérez Grobet
Editor
Brian A. Kates
Lisa Fruchtman
Music
Nathan Larson
Principal Cast
Kevin Bacon
Kyra Sedgwick
Benjamin Bratt
Mos Def
Eve
Michael Shannon
David Alan Grier
Courtesy of Newmarket Films
NARRATIVE FEATURES
centerpiece
screening
Dear Frankie is a heartwarming and
often humorous tale of nine-year-old
Frankie and his mom, Lizzie, who have
been on the move ever since he can remember. To protect her son from the truth, Lizzie
has invented a story to satisfy Frankie’s curiosity. She regularly writes Frankie a letter from
his make-believe father who works aboard a
ship traveling to exotic lands. However, Lizzie
soon finds out his ‘father’s’ ship will be arriving in a few days. Now, Lizzie must choose
between telling Frankie the truth and hatching
a desperate plan to find the perfect stranger to
play the perfect father.
DEAR FRANKIE
Directed by Shona Auerbach
UK / 2004 / 104 minutes
Tinker Street
10/16 • 8:00pm
Upstate Films 2
10/17 • 6:15pm
Main Credits:
Directed by Shona Auerbach, Dear
Frankie stars Emily Mortimer (Young Adam,
Lovely and Amazing, Bright Young Things),
Gerard Butler (Tomb Raider 2, Timeline, the
forthcoming Phantom of the Opera), and Jack
Mcelhone (Young Adam) as Frankie. Sharon
Small (About a Boy, Glasgow Kiss), Mary
Riggans, Jayd Johnson and Sean Brown costar.
Shona Auerbach began her
career as a stills photographer but,
aware of the creative limitations, decided
that she wanted to work with moving
images. She studied film at Manchester
University, and cinematography at Leeds
completing her MA at the Polish National
Film School in Lodz. It was during this period that she made her 35mm directing debut
with the short film Seven. This was named
Best Short Film at the British Short Film
Festival in 1996.
She has directed a number of successful
commercials before making her feature directing debut with Dear Frankie. Unusually, as
well as directing, she also acted as her own
Director of Photography.
BIO
Director
Shona Auerbach
Producer
Caroline Wood
Screenwriter
Andrea Gibb
Cinematographer
Shona Auerbach
Editor
Oral Nottie Ottey
Original music
Alex Heffes Principal
Principal Cast
Emily Mortimer
Gerard Butler
Sharon Small
Jack Mcelhone
Mary Riggans
Jayd Johnson
Sean Brown
Courtesy of
Miramax Films
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Evie (Lauren Ambrose) –
seventeen, brilliant, disarmingly direct, and with a fishout-of-water sense of humor –
may or may not be on her way
out the door of her childhood
home and on her way to college. Emily, her older sister, has
savant syndrome and is severely mentally
impaired. The two sisters have an odd bond.
Neither girl sees the world through everyday
eyes, and Evie cannot quite wrench free from
the perpetual childhood her sister inhabits.
Her mother (Amy Madigan) is always too busily mothering one to notice the other. James,
the gorgeous next-door neighbor, may or may
not succeed in his pursuit of Evie.
Admissions is the story of a girl who just
wants to be a “good person” – a refreshing
anachronism in today’s teenage—culture,
and who messes up brilliantly in her attempts
at it. It is about how the worst troubles can
be caused by the best intentions, how one
family’s secrets are finally revealed as the
result of a white lie, and ultimately, how the
reconciliation between a mother and daughter lets a girl grow up.
With Admissions, Melissa Painter returns
to Woodstock with a follow-up to her 2000
feature film, Wildflowers.
30
Melissa
Painter
attended New York
University’s Graduate Film
Program, where she received a
teaching assistantship in writing, directing actors, and
advanced editing.
Her 35mm short, Jump,
premiered at the New York Film Festival in
1996, and went on to Sundance, Bilbao,
Edinburgh, and many other festivals.
Wildflowers, a film about children of children
of the 60s, which was developed at the
Sundance
Institute
Filmmakers
/
Screenwriters Lab with Daryl Hannah and
Clea DuVall, was her first feature. The film
screened at numerous film festivals and took
the Best Narrative price at South by
Southwest. It enjoyed a limited theatrical
release in Los Angeles, New York, and San
Francisco, and was released on video by
Monarch Video, and was purchased for cable
by the Rainbow Network. Admissions, with
Lauren Ambrose, Amy Madigan, and
Christopher Lloyd, is her second feature. She
just completed principal photography on
location in Montana for her third feature,
which she wrote and directed: Steal Me, the
story of a young kleptomaniac who has a
mother fixation.
BIO
ADMISSIONS
EAST COAST PREMIERE
In Competition
Directed by Melissa Painter
USA / 2004 / 92 minutes
Tinker Street
10/16 • 3:00pm
CMF 1
10/17 •3:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Melissa Painter
Producer
Annette Vait
Screenwriter
Dawn O’Leary
Cinematographer
Paul Ryan
Editor
Robert Frazen
Music
Martin Tillman
Principal Cast
Lauren Ambrose
Scott Adsit
Christopher Lloyd
Amy Madigan
Taylor Roberts
John Savage
NARRATIVE FEATURES
In honor of
Elmer Bernstein
THE AGE
OF INNOCENCE
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Original Score by Elmer Bernstein
USA / 1993 / 139 minutes
Tinker Street
10/15• 2:30pm
Courtesy of
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Martin Scorsese directs this
stunning adaptation of Edith
Wharton’s novel about timeless love and aching loss.
Interwoven with passion, sacrifice, and intrigue, The Age of
Innocence tells the story of a man
caught between two women and
two worlds. Daniel Day-Lewis
and Michelle Pfeiffer star as the
illicit lovers. This five-time
Academy Award—nominated
film also features Winona Ryder.
Elmer Bernstein received on of
his fourteen Academy Award
nominations for this score,
which features several memorable original waltzes.
BLACKBALLED:
THE BOBBY
DUKES STORY
Directed by Brant Sersen
USA / 2004 / 91 minutes
Bearsville Theater
10/16 • 2:45pm
CMF 2
10/17 • 5:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Brant Sersen
Producer
Darren Goldberg
Screenwriters
Brant Sersen
Brian Steinberg
Cinematographer
Johnathan Goldsmith
Editor
Chris Lechler
Music
Bob Warner
Pablo Rieppi
former teammates, Bobby joins forces with
an unlikely ally, assembles a band of misfits,
and attempts to erase the figures of his tainted past..
Blackballed features Rob Corddry as
Bobby Dukes. Rob currently serves as a correspondent for Comedy Central’s Emmy
Award-winning The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart.
Filmed in Liberty, New York.
Brant first achieved critical success
with his documentary Release, which
premiered before a sold-out audience at the
1999 New York Underground Film Festival.
Acquired for worldwide distribution by
Victory Records, Release debuted at no. 28 on
BIO
Banned from the world of paintball for
ten years, Bobby Dukes, the former
Hudson Valley champ, has returned to
reclaim his title. Faced with rejection by his
the Billboard Top 100 Videos chart and
remained there for eight weeks. Shortly afterward, Brant was commissioned to direct the
documentary Sick of It All: The Story So Far.
While involved in these projects, he directed
two music videos for DJ Ming & FS, both of
which received heavy rotation on MTV’s AMP.
BlackBalled marks Brant’s narrative feature film debut. The film, shot predominantly in a cinema verité style, is largely improvised and showcases the comedic timing of
its accomplished ensemble cast.
31
NARRATIVE FEATURES
The Showtime original picture
Cavedweller tells the story of a passionate woman whose chaotic present and disturbing past collide when she returns to her
native Georgia to win back the love of the
two little girls she left behind. The film stars
Kyra Sedgwick, Aidan Quinn, Sherilyn Fenn,
Jill Scott, Regan Arnold, Vanessa Zima, and
Kevin Bacon.
Kyra Sedgwick plays Delia, who escaped
her abusive marriage and abandoned her two
young daughters by joining a rock group that
was touring through her hometown. As a
singer/songwriter with the group, Delia makes
a new life for herself and has a third daughter,
Cissy, with lead singer Randall Pritchard.
CAVEDWELLER
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
USA / 2004 / 120 minutes
Tinker Street
10/15 • 7:00pm
Upstate Films 1
10/16 • 5:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Lisa Cholodenko
Executive Producers Orly Andelson
Kyra Sedgwick
David Yudain
Robert Halmi, Jr.
Producer
Michael Levine
Screenwriter
Anne Meredith
Cinematographer:
Editor
Amy E. Duddleston
Principal Cast
Kyra Sedgwick
Aidan Quinn
Sherilyn Fenn
Jill Scott
Vanessa Zima
Kevin Bacon
Courtesy of
Showtime Independent Films
After Randall’s death in a car accident,
Delia decides to take the angry, grieving Cissy
with her to Georgia. Delia’s hope is to
regain custody of the children she left
behind, now in their teens, so that she can
make a better home for them all. But to do
this, Delia must confront the demons from
her first marriage, the hostility of her ex-husband’s family, and her own doubts about her
past decisions. She also has to win back the
32
trust and love of her two older daughters
without damaging her already tense relationship with Cissy.
The film is directed by Lisa Cholodenko,
who wrote and directed the critically
acclaimed High Art and Laurel Canyon. The
screenplay for Cavedweller is by Anne
Meredith and is based upon the novel by
Dorothy Allison.
Lisa Cholodenko started working in
film as an assistant editor on studio
features such as Boyz N the Hood and To Die
For. Drawn to New York’s independent film
scene, she attended Columbia University’s
graduate film program where she made two
highly regarded short films, Souvenir and
Dinner Party. Her first feature, High Art, won
the 1998 Waldo Salt Screenwriting Prize at
the Sundance Film Festival. In 2002, her second feature, Laurel Canyon, was screened in
the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, the
Sundance and Toronto film festivals, and garnered IFP Spirit Award nominations for its
lead performances. Cholodenko has also
directed episodes of Six Feet Under and
Homicide: Life on the Street.
BIO
NARRATIVE FEATURES
“This experimental feature/doc succeeds in being both mesmerizing and thought-provoking as it explores geographical and emotional displacement.”
(Jeff Economy)
New York filmmaker
Jem Cohen’s work
includes Benjamin Smoke (2000),
Lost Book Found (1996), Instrument, with the
band Fugazi - 1999, Amber City (1999), and
Buried in Light (1995). Both Chain and
Benjamin Smoke premiered in the Berlin Film
Festival’s Forum section. Cohen’s work is in
the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
and the Whitney Museum of American Art,
and has been featured on PBS, the Sundance
Channel, the BBC, and ARTE. Cohen has
worked extensively with musicians, including
Vic Chesnutt, R.E.M., Godspeed You! Black
Emperor, and Sparklehorse, among others.
CHAIN
BIO
As regional character disappears and
corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it’s increasingly hard to tell
where you are. In Chain, malls, theme parks,
hotels, and corporate centers worldwide are
joined into a monolithic “superlandscape”
that shapes and circumscribes the lives of
two women. One is a businesswoman studying the international theme-park industry;
the other is a young drifter, living and working illegally on the fringes of a shopping
mall.
Directed by Jem Cohen
USA / 2004 / 99 minutes
Bearsville Theater
10/15 •7:00pm
Upstate II
10/16 • 7:00pm
Main Credits:
Director
Jem Cohen
Producers
Mary Jane Skalski,
Jem Cohen
Cinematographer
Jem Cohen
Editors
Jem Cohen
David Frankel
Features
Miho Nikaido
Mira Billotte
Courtesy of Antidote Films
A good bit of the film was shot in upstate New York!
MORE CHOICES. MORE LATITUDE. MORE POSSIBILITIES.
Introducing the expanded KODAK VISION2 Film family.
Now you can choose from more film stocks than ever.
Expand horizons. To learn more, visit kodak.com/go/vision2.
THE FUTURE IS
© Eastman Kodak Company, 2004.
Kodak and Vision are trademarks.
WIDE OPEN.
KODAK VISION2 Motion Picture Films. What’s next.
33
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Clement Mathieu, an unemployed
music teacher, is hired as a supervisor at
a boarding school for troubled youth.
Immediately upon his arrival, he witnesses
how the boys constantly act up and torture
would-be teachers. Rachin, the school director, resorts to harsh punishments and a strong
fist in an attempt to keep the pupils in line.
Optimistic and positive-minded, Mathieu
chooses alternate methods of punishment for
CHORISTS
(LES CHORISTES)
EAST COAST PREMIERE
Directed by Christophe Barratier
French / 2004 / 95 minutes
In French with English subtitles
Tinker Street
10/14 • 5:30pm
Upstate Films 1
10/16 • 6:30pm
Main Credits:
the rowdy children so that they don’t have to
face Rachin’s whip. Gradually he earns the
students’ trust, and he decides to start a
school chorus to introduce the students to his
musical passion. His class takes to the experiment, the musical structure begets discipline
among the students, and the overall life at
school improves. Rachin, jealous of Mathieu’s
success, quickly disbands it, but word about
the chorus gets out to the school’s board, who
request a concert. However, without Rachin’s
permission to rehearse, many obstacles stand
in Mathieu’s way. Will he and his chorus be
able to pull off the concert that the school’s
future hinges on?
Chorists was recently chosen as the french
entry for the 2005 Academy Award.
34
Director
Christophe Barratier
Producers
Arthur Cohn
Jacques Perrin
Screenwriters
Christophe Barratier
Philippe Lopes-Curval
Cinematographers
Carlo Varini (AFC)
Dominique Gentil
(AFC)
Editor
Yves Deschamps
Music
Bruno Coulais
Principal Cast
Gerard Jugnot
François Berleand
Jean-Baptiste Maunier
Jacques Perrin
Kad Merad
Marie Buñel
Philippe du Janerand
Jean-Paul Bonnaire
Maxence Perrin
Didier Flamand
Courtesy of
Miramax Films
Christophe Barratier is a classical
guitarist, a graduate of the Ecole
Normale de Musique in Paris, and winner of
several international music competitions.
In 1991, he was hired by Jacques Perrin
of Galatée Films., where he acted as associate
producer on Children
of Lumiere, Les Enfants
de
Lumière,
Microcosmos, Himalaya
and Winged Migration.
In 2001, he
directed his first film,
a short subject based
on Maupassant’s story
Les Tombales and starring Lambert Wilson
and Carole Weiss.
Broadcast on Canal+
and FR3, it was a
selection
at
the
Clermont-Ferrand Festival.
Produced by Galatée Films and cowritten with Philippe Lopes-Curval, Chorists is
Barratier’s first feature film.
BIO
NARRATIVE FEATURES
COSMOPOLITAN
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
USA / 2004 / 53 minutes
English and Hindi subtitles
Town Hall
10/16 • 4:45pm
Preceded by Sangam
Main Credits:
Nisha Ganatra returns to Woodstock
with Cosmopolitan, in which a suddenlysingle bachelor, an attractive neighbor, and
a popular women’s magazine are the ingredients of a delicious romance that pays homage
to classic Bollywood cinema while spinning a
modern love story that is uniquely its own.
From the director of Chutney Popcorn and the
writer of Monsoon Wedding,
Director
Nisha Ganatra
Producers
Brian Devine
Jason Orans
Jen Small
Cinematographer
Matt Clark
Screenwriter
Sabrina Dhawan
(based on a story by
Akhil Sharma)
Music
Andrew Lockington
(songs by Chris Rael
Principal Cast
Roshan Seth
Carol Kane
Maghur Jaffrey
Purva Bedi
Nisha Ganatra’s first feature film,
Chutney Popcorn, received much
acclaim, garnering Best Feature Film awards
at the Outfest Los Angeles and San Francisco
film festivals and Audience Awards at the
Berlin International Film Festival, Newport
Film Festival, Paris International Film Festival,
and Madrid International Film Festival.
In addition to Cosmopolitan, Nisha recently
completed production on Cake, a romantic
comedy starring Heather Graham. Her past
work includes Fast Food High for Susan
Cavan (Stealing Harvard, Superstar,
Brain Candy) and Real World New York
for MTV and the Road Rules/Real World
Challenge. Nisha is in development for feature films with Jane Startz Productions (Ella
Enchanted, Tuck Everlasting, The Baby
Sitter’s Club, The Mighty).
BIO
“Cosmopolitan mixes the bittersweet comedy of real
life with the intoxicating magic of rediscovered
love.”
35
NARRATIVE FEATURES
They say America is the land of opportunity, but it’s also the land of elusive
dreams. The Definition of Insanity is an
intimate character study of Robert (Robert
Margolis), an actor moving past his prime
who is still chasing that one great role. His life
begins to unravel as he struggles to survive in
a competitive and often-brutal environment,
without realizing how his obsession affects
the people close to him. Like many artists living on the fringe, Robert faces the existential
questions: How much of his life does he want
to sacrifice to art? And at what point is it time
to move on? When he meets legendary film
director Peter Bogdanovich (playing himself),
that question is answered in an unexpected
way.
The Definition of Insanity is a tragicomic
film about big dreams and everyday rituals,
humiliating defeats and little triumphs, and
the inexplicable optimism—some might call
it delusion—that keeps us going.
36
THE DEFINITION
OF INSANITY
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Directed by
Robert Margolis and Frank Matter
USA / 2004 / 85 minutes
Tinker Street
10/16 • 1:00pm
Upstate Films 2
10/17 •1:00pm
Main Credits:
Directors/Producers/Screenwriters/Editors:
Robert Margolis
Frank Matter
Cinematographer
Frank Matter
Music
Paula Atherton
Amy Fairchild
Principal Cast
Dawn Marie Anderson,
Kelli K. Barnett, Peter Bogdanovich,
Kathryn Fallon, Jimmy Lee Gary Jr., Tom Gill,
John Greiner, Hristo Hristov, Gerry Janssen,
Derek Johnson, Jake Josefson, Amanda Kay,
Frank Krias, Bruce Levy, David Maquiling,
Dylan Margolis, Robert Margolis,
David McMahon, Jonas Mekas, Suzan Perry
Robert Margolis is an actor, director, and playwright born in New York
City. He has also worked as a psychoanalyst,
a groundskeeper, and a building superintendent. As an actor, Robert has had leading roles
in numerous independent feature films. He
has also been the recipient of a Fulbright
Fellowship for study abroad and is a member
of the Screen Actors Guild. He is the father of
four-year-old Dylan Margolis, who makes his
acting debut in The Definition of Insanity.
BIO
Frank Matter was born in Basel, Switzerland
in 1964. After school, he worked as a journalist and magazine staff writer. In 1991, he
researched and cowrote the concept for the
widely discussed Swiss TV documentary
Unzucht; he was also the assistant director on
that film. In 1993, he moved to New York,
where he began to work as a writer and sound
engineer and then to write and direct his own
films. His works have been shown at festivals
in Locarno (Switzerland), New York,
Montreal, Ankara, and Calcutta, to name just
a few, as well as in museums and theaters
throughout the world.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
In upstate New York, Irene (Vera
Farmiga) struggles to raise two sons,
keep her stale marriage together, and
manage a secret cocaine habit.
Isolated in a dead-end job at a strip mall
on the edge of town, Irene isn’t sure when she
went from high school partying to skimming
off the grocery money to supply her growing
habit.
Desperate to alter her life, she puts herself in rehab, hoping she can reshape the
world she has made with her husband, Steve
(Clint Jordan). But once she’s back home, the
distance between them seems to widen, and
Irene ends up falling into an affair with Bob
(Hugh Dillon), a nurse and former addict she
met in rehab.
Bob’s attention and affection revives her
pushed-aside life, but all too soon she realizes
they have more in common than she bargained for.
DOWN TO
THE BONE
In Competition
Directed by Debra Granik
USA / 2004 / 101 minutes
Tinker Street
10/14 • 2:45pm
Upstate films 2
10/16 • 4:00pm
Main Credits:
Director
Debra Granik
Producers
Susan Leber
Anne Rosellini
Screenwriters
Debra Granik
Richard Lieske
Cinematographer
Michael McDonough
Editor
Malcolm Jamieson
Music
East River Pipe, JOMF,
Low, Tortoise and Slug
Principal Cast
Vera Farmiga
Hugh Dillon
Clint Jordan
Caridad “La Bruja”
de la Luz
Jasper Moon Daniels
Taylor Foxhall
Debra Granik studied at the
Massachusetts College of Art,
Brandeis University, and Edinburgh
University before attending the Graduate Film
Program at New York University, Tisch School
of the Arts. Snake Feed, her first short film at
NYU, won Best Short at Sundance (1998),
and she was later invited to attend the
Sundance Institute Filmmakers/Screenwriters
Lab to develop the script for Down to the Bone.
While in development on Bone, Granik completed her second short film, Side by Side, and
was the director of photography and codirector on Thunder in Guyana, a feature documentary currently on the festival circuit. Down to
the Bone is her first feature film. Granik currently has several projects in development,
including two documentaries.
BIO
Sunday, October 17, 11 am at The Center for Photography at
Woodstock, New York Women In Film and TV presents a
case history study of Debra Granik’s Down to the Bone, a digital film shot entirely in Woodstock and surrounding Ulster
County areas. The story concerns a young mother’s hidden
cocaine habit, and her quest to come clean and create a better life for herself and family. This feature is a rare hybrid of
reality and fiction. It developed from Granik’s Sundance
Award winning short, Snake Feed, which starred the real—
life person the story is based on Down to the Bone uses professional actors in the leading roles and nonprofessionals in
the supporting roles. (see panels for more info)
37
NARRATIVE FEATURES
ELEPHANT SHOES
Elephant Shoes was produced by
One Man Band Films, an independent film production company founded by
award-winning filmmaker Christos Sourligas.
Sourligas´s short films include Vomit Boy, The
Last Supper, and Park Ex., which was awarded
the Canadian Multicultural Award by the
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Sourligas has recently optioned another feature-length comedy script, slated for production in 2005, to a Montreal-based film company.
U.S. PREMIERE
BIO
Alexis and Manny are a “twelve-hour”
couple whose turbulent love affair is
told over the course of a half-day. Their
romance begins with a chance meeting on the
street, then is fast-forwarded to Manny’s
apartment, where they share an unforgettable
one-night stand that feels like a lifetime.
THE FITTEST
WORLD PREMIERE
In Competition
Directed by The Crook Brothers
USA / 2004 / 88 minutes
Upstate Films 2
10/16 • 9:30pm
Town Hall
10/17 • 5:15pm
Main Credits:
Producer(s)
Angela Grant
Co—producer(s)
Andy Baez, Wendy
Couteau
Director(s)
Joshua & Jeffrey Crook
Screenwriter(s)
Joshua & Jeffrey Crook
Cinematography:
John Barrett Ashmore
Principal Cast
Jason Madera
Angela Grant
Christina Caparoula
Chris Ferry, Josh
Crook, Peter Blitzer,
Wendy Couteau
Since mankind has evolved out of
the caves and into tract homes, what
has survival of the fittest come to
mean? This question is hilariously
and disturbingly examined in The
Fittest, a darkly comic tale of survival in
suburbia. Freddy Grant desperately
wants to have a child but his defective
sperm keeps him from getting his wife,
Grace, pregnant. As his infertility puts
increasing strain on their marriage, Freddy
strikes up an affair with his co-worker Jill,
who is involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Freddy’s sadistic boss, Al.
Insecurity and a biological imperative lead to
some bad choices and Freddy’s world begins
to unravel.
“The Crook Brothers give Darwin a new spin in
this dark comic tale of suburban lust. Infertility
turns to infidelity when office drone Freddy,
wounded by his wife’s rejection when she learns
he can’t conceive, turns in solace to an illicit
affair — with his boss’ mistress. Freddy’s bad
choices pile up until he has to learn to eat, or be
eaten. Fans of the Farrelly Brothers will appreciate
this wickedly funny story that’ll have you laughing
38
Directed by Christos Sourligas
Canada / 2004 / 79 minutes
WCC
10/16 • 7:30pm
Upstate
10/17 • 3:00pm
Main Credits:
Director/Producer
Christos Sourligas
Screenwriter
Christos Sourligas
Cinematographer
Luc Montpellier, CSC
Editor
Joseph Bohbot
Principal Cast
Stacie Morgain Lewis,
Greg Shamie
Writer-director team Joshua and
Jeffrey Crook (their real last name)
grew up in Brooklyn, NY, the sons of novelist
Howard Crook. Together they have written
and directed two feature films, Sucker Punch
and The Fittest. In an August 2002 review,
Variety wrote that Sucker Punch will be properly
appreciated as a subversive variant on the gangsta movie by that genre’s target audience. An
auspiciously wry roll in the gutter is had by all.
Sucker Punch also screened at the Indievision
Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for the
film’s star, Paris Campbell.
In addition to their feature films, the
Crooks have produced almost a dozen commercials (several of which they also directed)
and two television pilots. The Crook brothers
are currently in development on their third
feature film. They reside in New York City.
BIO
NARRATIVE FEATURES
“A haunting opening score sets the tone, pulling us deep into the bowels
of a maximum security prison in this gripping psycho—sexual tug-of-war
where Jake, a “lifer” asserts his dominance over Randy, an ethereal young
man facing twenty-five years. Brilliant performances and artful angles lead
JAILBAIT
The United States correctional system
has been the inspiration for many
notable films over the years, from the
chain gangs of Cool Hand Luke to classic
prison–break films like Escape from Alcatraz,
but rarely has prison life been illustrated with
the candor and emotional realism of
writer/director Brett C. Leonard’s Jailbait. The
film craftily uses the confinement of a prison
cell to intensify the emotional stakes between
prisoners Jake (Stephen Adly-Guirgis) and
Randy (Michael Pitt), as they confront not
only ugly truths about each other, but about
themselves. Leonard’s deft touch and careful
pacing never falter, and Pitt and Adly-Guirgis
allow the relationship between Randy and
Jake to grow organically and with great
nuance. Jailbait is a major achievement, an
intimate film that feels larger than life.
In Competition
Directed by Brett C. Leonard
USA / 2004 / 89 minutes
Upstate Films 2
10/15 • 7:30pm
Town Hall
10/16 • 9:30pm
Main Credits:
BIO
Jailbait winner of the Grand Jury
Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the
Lake Placid Film Festival in 2004) marks
Brett C. Leonard’s filmmaking debut. His
stage works include: Guinea Pig Solo, New
York’s Public Theater and Labyrinth Theater
Company; Scotch and Water, New York’s
Parkside Lounge and London’s New
Company; The Memory of Love’s Refrain, New
York’s Interart; and Roger and Vanessa,
London’s Latchmere Theatre and Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art.
Director/Screenwriter Brett C. Leonard
Producers
Dan O’Meara
Linda Moran
Rene Bastian
Corbin Day
Brett C. Leonard
Cinematographer
John J. Campbell
Editor
Ron Len
Music
Ed Tomney
Principal Cast
Michael Pitt
Stephen Adly-Guirgis
Laila Robins
David Zayas
is a proud sponsor of the
WGA Indie
Your script. Your film. You’re covered.
Working together to protect your independence.
For more information, give us a call at
(212)767-7800 or visit us at
2004
Woodstock
Film Festival
www.wgaeast.org/lowbudgetfilms
39
NARRATIVE FEATURES
KING OF
THE CORNER
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Directed by Peter Reigert
USA / 2004 / 93 minutes
Tinker Street
10/15 • 7:30pm
Upstate Films 2
10/17 • 4:15m
Main Credits:
Director
Peter Reigert
Producer
Lemore Syvan
Screenwriters
Peter Riegert
Gerald Shapiro
Cinematographer
Maurico Rubinstein
Editor
Mario Ontal
Music
Al Kooper
Featuring
Peter Reigert, Isabella
Rossellini, Eli Wallach
Rita Moreno, Beverly
D’Angelo, Eric
Bogosian, Dominic
Chianese, Jake
Hoffman
A social comedy about the dangers of
navigating life without a compass, King of
the Corner paints a portrait of Leo (Peter
Riegert), his family, and his world. His father
(Eli Wallach) is dying, his daughter is growing
up, his protégé is after his job, his wife (Isabella
A seasoned cast, clever dialogue and dark humor infuse the story of Leo
Spivack, a middle aged man on the verge of losing everything. Color is
used to good effect in the cold. blue boardroom where Leo fights for his
life, and a funeral scene is memorable for its off the wall humor, gentle
Rossellini) is running out of patience, and his
judgment is becoming blurred. Leo has met
the enemy and it is himself, but through a twist
of fate and the wisdom of his rabbi (Eric
Bogosian), he achieves self-redemption and is
allowed a second chance.
Featuring music by rock n’ roll legend Al
Kooper, Peter Riegert’s directorial debut is a
humorous, honest, and multi-faceted look at
how one man turns his midlife crisis into a
midlife opportunity. King of the Corner was
co–written with Gerald Shapiro based on
Shapiro’s collection of short stories, Bad Jews
and Other Stories.
Peter Reigert has appeared in
BIO more than thirty films, including
Animal House, Local Hero, Crossing Delancey,
The Mask, and Traffic. Television credits include
The Sopranos, Barbarians at the Gate, and the
final episode of Seinfeld. His short film By
Courier was nominated for an Academy
Award in 2000.
KONTROLL
New York Premiere
Directed by Nimrod Antal
USA-Hungary / 2003 / 107 minutes
Hungarian with English subtitles
Bulcsu is an undercover officer who
checks tickets in the Budapest Metro–not
the most popular job on the planet!
He and his rag tag crew deal with outrageous excuses from the public, inventive
pranks from their nemesis, after-hours antics,
and a possible serial killer.
At the same time, Bulcsu’s personal life
is in turmoil, and his only solace comes from
a kindly driver and her sexy bear-costumeclad daughter.
40
“Shot at night in the stations and tunnels of
the Budapest Metro, Nimrod Antal’s
hyperkinetic Kontrol exploits every fear of
the underground, with its live tracks, rattling carriages, narrow platforms and
nighttime population of wackos, weirdos
and the simply strange.”
(Ray Bennett, The Hollywood Reporter)
Nimrod Antal started his film studies
at the Film Workshop of Pasadena
Art Center in 1991. After moving to Hungary
he studied at the Hungarian Academy of
Drama and Film, from which he graduated as
a film director in 1995. Kontroll is his first fulllength feature film.
BIO
Tinker Street
10/15 • 3:00pm
Upstate Films 2
10/17 • 5:00pm
Main Credits:
Director
Nimrod Antal
Producers
Tamas Hutlassa
Nimrod Antal
Screenwriters
Jim Adler
Nimrod Antal
Cinematographer
Editor
Istvan Kiraly
Music
Neo
Principal Cast
Sandor Csanyi
Csaba Pindroch
Zoltan Musci
Sandor Badar
Zsolt Nagy
Eszter Balla
Lajos Kovacs
Courtesy of THINKfilms
NARRATIVE FEATURES
One dark night, a former native of a rural Thai
village has his men steal the head of the
town’s Ong Bak (Buddha statue) to win favor
with ruthless Bangkok crime boss Khom
Tuan. The locals regard the theft as a catastrophe, and seek a champion to retrieve their
lost treasure. They find their man in Ting
(Tony Jaa), an orphaned youngster raised at
the local temple and schooled by Pra Kru, a
kindly monk, in the ancient system of Muay
Thai: Nine Body Weapons.
Ting travels to the mean streets of
Bangkok, where he’s forced to compete in
illegal street fights, taking on both local and
foreign opponents to win the head of Ong Bak
from the pitiless underworld kingpin.
ONG BAK:
THE THAI WARRIOR
U.S. Premiere
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Thailand / 2003 / 105 minutes
Tinker Street
10/15 • 9:45pm
CMF 1
10/17 • 5:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Prachya Pinkaew
Executive Producer
Somsak
Techaratanaprasert
Producers
Prachya Pinkaew
Sukanya Vongsthapat
Screenwriter
Suphachai Sithiamphan
Cinematographer
Natawut Kittikun
Editor
Thanat Sunsin
Music
Atomix Clubbing
Principal Cast
Tony Jaa
Petchthai Wongkamlao
Pumwaree Yodkamol
Rungrawee Borrijindakul
Chetwut Wacharakun
Wannakit Siriput
Courtesy of
Magnolia Pictures
Born in 1962, Prachya Pinkaew
graduated in 1985 from Technology
Nakornratsima College, where he majored in
architecture. He began his career in 1990,
working at Pack Shot Entertainment, first as
art director and later as creative director. In
1992, he became director for music videos
and since won several Best Music Video
Awards at the Golden Television awards in
Thailand. In 1992, Prachya had the opportunity to direct his first feature film, The Magic
Shoes, which was followed in 1994 by his second, Romantic Blues.
Since 1998, he has been focusing on
producing. He is the head of an independent
production house, Baa-Ram-Ewe, which has
a distribution deal with Thai Major Studio,
Sahamongkolfim International Company
Limited. Prachya has produced many popular
Thai films, including the vampire movie Body
Jumper (2001); the action comedy Heaven 7
(2002); the horror movie 999-9999 (2002);
(Official Competition in the Puchon Fantastic
Film Festival 2003); and the musical
Hoedown Showdown (2002). This year, he produced the art house comedy Sayew, the horror drama The Unborn, and the artistic drama
Fake. Prachya has just been promoted to be
the director of the Thai Film Association.
BIO
“In a small peaceful Thai village of Nong Pradu, the sacred festival of Ong-Bak is held but
once every 24 years. When an unscrupulous businessman steals the head of the ceremonial Buddha, young Ting ventures into the seamy Bangkok underworld to track down the thief
and reclaim the town’s treasure. Along the way, the warrior-in-training uses his traditional Muay Thai fighting skills to overcome his adversaries and dish out divine retribution.
Extraordinary feats of Thai martial arts and Jackie Chan-style stunts are showcased in this
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Shot and Reverse Shot
Imaginary: Certainty
Reality: Uncertainty
The Principle of Cinema:
Go Towards the Light and Shine it
on Our Night
Our Music
Part poetry, part journalism, part
philosophy, Jean-Luc Godard’s Notre Musique
is a timeless meditation on war as seen
through the prisms of cinema, text and
image.
Largely set at a literary conference in
Sarajevo, the film draws on the conflagration
of the Bosnian war, but also draws on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the brutal treatment of Native Americans, and the legacy of
the Nazis.
Notre Musique is structured into three
Dantean Kingdoms: “Hell,” “Purgatory” and
“Heaven.”
In the film, real-life literary figures
(including Arab poet Mahmoud Darwich and
Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo) intermingle
with actors; and documentary meshes with
fiction.
Notre Musique also follows the parallel
stories of two Israeli Jewish women, Judith
Lerner (Sarah Adler) and Olga Brodsky (Nade
Dieu); one drawn to the light and one drawn
towards darkness.
Through evocative language and images,
Godard explores a series of conflicting forces:
death; life
dark, light;
good; bad
negative, positive;
real; imaginary;
activists; storytellers
vanquished; victor;
criminals; victims;
suicidal; hopeful
shot, reverse shot.
These opposing movements are eternal.
They are the two faces of truth.
42
OUR MUSIC
(Notre Musique)
Directed by Jean Luc Godard
France / 2004 / 79 minutes
In French, English and Spanish
with subtitles
Upstate 1
10/16 • 8:30pm
Main Credits:
Director, Screenwriter Jean-Luc Godard
Producer
Jean-Paul Battaggia
Zyba Galijasevic
Cinematographer
Julien Hirsch
Jean-Christophe
Beauvallet
Principal Cast:
Sarah Adler, Nade
Dieu, Rony Kramer, Georges Aguilar,
Leticia Gutierrez, Ferlyn Brass, Simone Eine,
Jean-Christophe Bpuvet, Elma Dzanic,
Juan Goytisolo, Mahmoud Darwich,
Jean-Paul Curnier, Pierre Bergounioux,
Gilles Pecoueux
Courtesy of Wellspring Media
For five decades, Jean-Luc Godard has
explored the frontiers of film, constantly
reinventing and reinvigorating himself. Since making his debut in 1954, he has made ninety short
and feature films.
In 1960, he made his feature debut with
Breathless, his tribute to the American gangster
movie, shot without a script in a freewheeling style,
with an innovative use of the jump cut. Breathless
electrified audiences and helped establish what
came to be called the French New Wave. His next
film, Le Petit Soldat (1960), was the first of eight
movies he directed which starred his wife, Anna
Karina. His subsequent films, including A Woman
BIO
is a Woman (1961), Vivre sa Vie (1962)
Les Carabiniers (1963), Contempt
(1963), Band of Outsiders (1964),
Alphaville (1965) and Pierrot Le Fou
(1965), brought him international
fame. At this time, Godard was the
most discussed director in the world,
provoking extreme responses, both
positive and negative.
From 1966 to 1968, his films increasingly
showed the influence of ‘60s radical politics and the
currents which exploded in the May ‘68 riots:
Masculine-Feminine (1966), Two or Three Things I
Know About Her (1966), La Chinoise (1967, starring
his second wife, Anne Wiazemsky), Weekend
(1967) and Le Gai Savoir (1968).
His subsequent films include Numéro Deux
(1975), Ici et ailleurs (1976) and Every Man for
Himself (1979, starring Isabelle Huppert). In 1982,
he began working on his trilogy of the sublime-Passion
(1982), First Name: Carmen (1983, where he stars
as himself), (1985), and his controversial Hail Mary
(1985) -all concerned with feminine beauty and
nature. After his neo noir Detective (1985), Godard
and Miéville produced Soft and Hard (1986), the TV
film Grandeur et Décadence d’un Petit Commerce de
Cinema (1986), Soigne ta Droite (1986) and King
Lear (1986).
He followed with Nouvelle Vague (1990),
Germany 90 Nine Zero (1991), Hélas pour moi
(1993), Forever Mozart (1996), and his highly
regarded eight-hour series Histoires du cinéma (199798).
Godard’s next project is an omnibus film,
Paris, je t’aime, in which he joins a number of international directors-including the Coen Brothers,
Mike Figgis, Walter Salles, Mira Nair, Tom Tykwer,
Michel Gondry and Anne-Marie Miéville-in making
a short film about a Paris arrondissement.
While Godard’s reputation as a reclusive figure is well known, he has displayed a
humorous self-awareness both outside and
inside his films.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
PIZZA
Directed by Mark Christopher
USA / 2004 / 93 minutes
Bearsville Theater
10/15 • 2:30pm
Upstate Films 2
10/17 • 11am
Main Credits:
Director
Mark Christopher
Producer(s)
Jake Abraham
Holly Becker
Caroline Kaplan
Celeste Peterka
Executive Producer(s) Howard Gertler
Tim Perell
John Sloss
Gary Winick
Screenwriter:
Mark Christopher
Editor(s)
Michelle Botticelli
Brian A. Kates
Principal Cast:
Ethan Embry
Kylie Sparks
Julie Hagerty
Judah Friedlander
On the eve of her 18th birthday, friendless Cara-Ethyl is ‘burning to live.’ When
handsome off-beat pizza man Matt shows up,
he takes pity on her and
invites her along for a
night of oddball pizza
stops, dancing, blunt
conversation, and the
kind of humiliations only teenagers can inflict.
By night’s end, neither will be the same.
Mark Christopher’s award-winning short films have screened at all
major international film festivals, including
Sundance, Toronto, New York and Berlin.
Alkali, Iowa, starring Mary Beth Hurt, won
the Golden Teddy for best short at Berlin as
well as top prize at the USA Film Festival,
short-listing it for the Oscars. The Dead
Boys' Club also received several best short
awards in international film fests.
BIO
Christopher’s shorts were theatrically distributed by Strand Releasing and Frameline. His
debut feature film, 54, produced by Miramax,
starred Mike Myers, Ryan Phillippe and Salma
Hayek. In addition to writing and directing,
Christopher produced the film’s soundtrack,
along with the number one single Read My
Mind. Pizza is a return to Christopher's
indie filmmaking roots. In addition to writing
for the screen, Christopher has written several one hour television pilots for CBS.
Originally from Fort Dodge, Iowa,
Christopher received his MFA from Columbia
University after living in Lisbon, Portugal and
NARRATIVE FEATURES
This funny, offbeat movie is a mythical
portrayal of former President Richard
Nixon’s struggle to cope with the death of
his political career after Watergate.
Robert Altman’s adaptation of the oneman stage play about former president
Richard M. Nixon features a high-powered
performance by Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia)
as the unraveling president. The dramatic dialogue takes place in Nixon’s personal office
shortly after his resignation—brought about
by the Watergate scandal—where the fallen
leader, in a drunken frenzy of self-justification
and resentment, comments acerbically on the
various personalities and situations he
encountered and bemoans his fate. His targets include presidents of the distant past,
the Kennedy family, and leaders from other
countries as well as anyone who ever doubted him in his quest to attain ultimate power.
The only one who emerges unscathed is
Nixon’s mother, whom he continued to worship even after her passing. Altman uses his
versatility as a director to keep the film’s single location from becoming claustrophobic
and stagnant. By cutting between Nixon himself and a security monitor that is taping his
drunken tirade, Altman blurs the line
between reality and fiction even more strikingly, rendering a Nixon with a very human
and yet “televised” face. Filmed while the
director was a visiting professor at the
University of Michigan, Secret Honor remains
an insightful and interpretative glimpse into
the mind of one of America’s most notorious
presidents.
Throughout his extraordinary career,
Robert Altman has surprised, entertained and challenged audiences with
vibrant, freewheeling films that stretch the
boundaries of the medium.
Altman’s more than thirty features bear
witness to an extraordinary creative range:
films made with enormous casts (Nashville, A
BIO
44
SECRET HONOR
Director: Robert Altman
USA / 1984 / 90 minutes
Tinker Street
10/14 • 12:00pm
Main Credits:
Screenwriter(s):
Donald Freed and
Arnold Stone
Cinematography:
Pierre Mignot
Featuring:
Philip Baker Hall
Wedding, Short Cuts), as well as one with a
solitary cast member (Secret Honor); films celebrating male camaraderie (M*A*S*H,
California Split), and those exploring women’s
consciousness (Images, Three Women, Come
Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy
Dean) He has inverted, satirized and enriched
genres like the western (McCabe and Mrs.
Miller), the gangster melodrama (Thieves Like
Us), the detective film (The Long Goodbye, the
biography (Vincent and Theo) and the English
drawing-room whodunnit (Gosford Park). His
source material has included comics (Popeye),
the theater (Streamers, Fool for Love, Harold
“...A
cinematic
tour-deforce....[Hall’s] contribution is a
legitimate, bravura performance...”
Included in the New York Times
“10 BEST FILMS OF 1985”
Pinter’s The Room and The Dumb Waiter), contemporary politics (Tanner ‘88) and contemporary literature (Short Cuts).
Altman’s work with actors is legendary.
His use of music has broken ground in films
as different as McCabe and Mrs. Miller,
Nashville, and Kansas City. He has been
applauded for the technical innovation of
multi-layered soundtracks and for his pioneering use of the zoom lens. While his subjects and themes have been diverse, he has
often cast an irreverent eye on the institutions, mores and foibles of American life,
matching that with an encompassing, unsentimental humanism.
Altman has received five Academy Award
nominations for Best Director (Gosford Park,
Short Cuts, The Player, M*A*S*H, and
Nashville) and three for Best Film (M*A*S*H,
Nashville and Gosford Park).
In 2003 he made the critically acclaimed
The Company, starring Neve Campbell,
Malcolm McDowell, James Franco and the
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. His four-episode
sequel to the 1988 television series, Tanner
‘88, written by Garry Trudeau and starring
Cynthia Nixon and Michael Murphy, airs on
the Sundance Channel in October, 2004. In
November 2004 he directs an opera of his
1978 film, A Wedding, at Chicago’s Lyric
Opera.
Other awards include: at Cannes, the
Palme D’or/Best Film (M*A*S*H), and Best
Director (The Player); the New York Film
Critics Circle, Best Film (The Player,
Nashville), and Best Director (Gosford Park,
The Player, Nashville); the Venice Film Festival
Grand Prix, Best Film (Short Cuts); the British
Academy Award (BAFTA) for Best British Film
(Gosford Park), Best Director (The Player) and
Best Foreign Television Series (Tanner ‘88);
opening night of the New York Film Festival
(Short Cuts, A Wedding); and an Emmy for
Best Director (Tanner ‘88).
NARRATIVE FEATURES
The feature debut of director/co—writer
Jessica Sharzer, Speak is the tragicomic story
of a smart, spirited high school freshman who
has been stunned into silence by an unspeakable event. Based on the award-winning
novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
echoes its heroine’s stubborn honesty and
sardonic humor as it follows her journey from
traumatized isolation to brave disclosure.
Sharzer vividly renders a teenager’s world,
displaying a brightness and sensitivity that is
perfectly matched to character and story.
Unfolding over the course of the school year,
Speak captures the absurdities and torments
of high
school, where speaking up can lead to trouble for students and teachers alike. But for
the film’s protagonist, expressing herself is
the only way to confront a shattering experience, and thus cope with it.
SPEAK
NEW YORK PREMIERE
In Competition
Directed by Jessica Sharzer
USA / 2003 / 92 minutes
CMF 2
10/16 • 8:30pm
Bearsville Theater
10/17 •1:30pm
Main Credits:
Director
Jessica Sharzer
Producers
Fred Berner
Matthew Myers
Screenwriters
Jessica Sharzer
Annie Young Frisbie
Cinematographer
Andrij Parekh
Music
Christopher Libertino
Principal Cast
Kristen Stewart
Hallee Hirsh
Elizabeth Perkins
Eric Lively
Robert John Burke
Steve Zahn
D.B. Sweeney
Jessica Sharzer makes her feature
directorial debut with Speak. She
holds an M.F.A. in film and television from
New York University’s Tisch School of the
Arts. Her thesis film, The Wormhole, received
the Student Academy Award Gold Medal in
narrative, among other prizes. Other directing
credits include the short film Fly Cherry, written by actress Michele Greene and starring
Sharon Lawrence; and the five-hour series
Making a Scene: Advance Scene Study with
Suzanne Shepherd, featuring Joan Allen, Bebe
Neuwirth, Athol Fugard, Danny Glover, and
the late Gregory Hines.
Sharzer is slated to adapt and direct
Lizzie Simon’s memoir My Bipolar Road Trip
Through 4-D for HBO Films. She has also
adapted and will direct Turgenev’s First Love
at Universal Studios, and her original screenplay Pretty Lies is currently in development.
BIO
Courtesy of
Showtime Independent Films
45
NARRATIVE FEATURES
UNDERTOW
Directed by David Gordon Green
USA / 2004 / 107 minutes
CMF 1
10/15 • 7:00pm
Tinker Street
10/17 • 3:00pm
Main Credits:
Set in a contemporary South
untouched by time, Undertow is a dramatic thriller about two brothers who run
away from home to guard a secret following
the death of their father and the arrival of
their greedy, troubled uncle.
Featuring: Jamie Bell, Devon Alan, Josh
Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Shiri Appleby,
Leigh Hill, Robert Longstreet, and Kristen
Stewart.
David Gordon Green was born in
Arkansas and raised in Texas. He
studied filmmaking at the North Carolina
School of the Arts and has directed several
short fiction and documentary films. His
debut feature, George Washington, played at
the Toronto Film Festival in 2000, where it
shared the Discovery Award. His second
film, All the Real Girls, received a Special Jury
Prize for Emotional Truth at the 2003
Sundance Film Festival. Undertow is his third
feature.
BIO
Director
David Gordon Green
Executive Producers
Alessandro Camon
John Schmidt
Producers
Edward R. Pressman
Terrence Malick
Lisa Muskat
Screenwriters
Joe Conway
David Gordon Green
Cinematographer
Tim Orr
Editor
Zene Baker
Steven Gonzales
Music
Phillip Glass
Michael Linnen
David Wingo
Principal Cast
Jamie Bell
Devon Alan
Josh Lucas
Dermot Mulroney
Shiri Appleby
Leigh Hill
Robert Longstreet
Kristen Stewart
Courtesy of United Artists
UNKNOWN
SOLDIER
In Competition
Directed by Ferenc Toth
USA / 2004 / 78 minutes
Town Hall
10/15 • 3:00pm
Upstate Films
10/16 •12:30pm
Main Credits:
Director/Screenwriter Ferenc Toth
Producer
Sean Bachrodt
Cinematographer
Steve Carillo
Editors
Frank Reynolds
Sam Neave
Music
Peter Calandra
Principal Cast
Carl Louis
Randy Clark
Postell Pringle
Layla Edwards
Carl Garrison
46
Ellison, known as L, is a
smart, carefree eighteen-year-old who has
been brought up by his
proud and loving father,
Sam, since the death of his
mother when he was five. Father and son
share a relationship that fulfills and nourishes
them both, and that insulates L from many of
the world’s harsh realities. But when tragedy
strikes, L’s life changes drastically. As he faces
basic issues of survival, L confronts his
future, and the decisions he makes in desperation will change him forever. He is an
Unknown Soldier on a cold and unforgiving
battlefield—the streets of Harlem.
Ferenc Toth has been writing screenplays and fiction since leaving the
business world for a creative career many
years ago. He’s worked on several independent films in New York City, most recently as a
producer on the critically acclaimed, multiple-award-winning feature Manito, Unknown
Soldier is Ferenc’s directorial debut.
BIO