2015 program - Adirondack Film Society

Directors’ Notes
Beyond the Multiplex: the 2015 Lake Placid
Film Forum
On behalf of the Adirondack Film Society Board of Directors, staff,
and membership, welcome to the 2015 edition of the Lake Placid Film
Forum—now in its 14th year!
Since its inception in 2000, the Lake Placid Film Forum has been
the Adirondack North Country’s premier film event. It’s one place in
the region where resident and visitor movie buffs can count on seeing
films they’re not likely to encounter at the local multiplex—and meet
filmmakers in an up-close-and-intimate setting. The Adirondack Film
Society—the people who bring you the Lake Placid Film Forum—
doesn’t just screen films: it curates, analyzes, and seeks to help educate
audience members about the films it presents.
Inspired Screenings
The initial multi-day Film Forum proved to be an instant smash
hit with filmmakers as well as North Country audiences. Guest
filmmakers have included such directors as Martin Scorsese, Paul
Schrader, John Sayles, and Courtney Hunt (“Frozen River,” an
independent film shot in Clinton County); novelists such as Russell
Banks, William Kennedy, Jay Parini, and Richard Russo, all of
whom have had work adapted for the screen; and such actors as Hal
Holbrook, Steve Buscemi, James Tolkan, Kyra Sedgwick, Tony
Shalhoub, Matthew Modine, Campbell Scott, Parker Posey, and
Academy Award winners Cliff Robertson (for Charly) and Melissa
Leo (for Frozen River). Programming at the annual event has typically
included such segments as workshops and panel discussions with
invited filmmakers; “North Country Shorts”—films made by area
residents and/or shot in the region; and “Sleepless in Lake Placid,” the
24-hour undergraduate student filmmaking competition that returns
this year under the guidance of coordinator Matt Wohl, who chairs the
Film & Media Dept. at Burlington College.
The creation of the Lake Placid Film Forum was inspired in part
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by a sold-out screening at the Palace Theatre in 1999 of The Sweet
Hereafter, adapted from the novel by part-time
North Country resident Russell Banks, which was
introduced by Mr. Banks, the film director’s Atom
Egoyan, and Kathleen Carroll (pictured), former
film critic of the New York Daily News and herself a
Lake Placid native. Shortly thereafter, the Adirondack
Film Society (AFS) was born, co-founded by a team
that included Ms. Carroll, Lake Placid’s John Huttlinger (currently
serving as Chair of the AFS board), movie-house impresario Nelson
Page (former Chair, now Vice Chair), Naj Wikoff, and Robin Pell,
with active participation from Mr. Banks.
Between 2000 and 2013, the Film Forum was held every year but
one. For 2014, the AFS board made the decision to go a different route
and initiated a monthly screening series in partnership with the Lake
Placid Center for the Arts (LPCA). The series debuted where the Film
Society essentially began—with a retrospective screening of The Sweet
Hereafter, with Mr. Banks on hand in person to introduce the film and
lead a discussion afterwards.
Other films and filmmakers taking part in the series included: the
documentaries Life Itself, about film critic Roger Ebert, and Stray
Dog, by the director of the Jennifer Lawrence feature Winter’s Bone,
Debra Granik (who appeared at LPCA via Skype); Red Army, a
documentary about the Soviet Olympic hockey team, with director
Gabe Polsky on hand via Skype; and 50 Years with Peter, Paul and
Mary, a documentary about the famous folksingers, with director Jim
Brown appearing in person at LPCA. Plans are already underway
for programming the second year of the LP Film Forum Screening
Series, returning to LPCA in September 2015, followed by the 2016
edition of the Lake Placid Film Forum in early June. For more info,
please be sure to check the AFS contact info listed below.
In the meantime, thank you for attending this year’s Film Forum. See
you at the movies!
Your friends at the Adirondack Film Society
P.O. Box 489, Lake Placid, NY 12946
(518) 588-7275 / www.adirondackfilmsociety.org
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Film Screenings and Special Events
Admission is $10 per person per screening or event, except where
noted.
Wednesday, June 3
Jaws
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and
Robert Shaw—and Bruce the mechanical shark
Universal, 1975, 124 mins., color, PG
Introduced by John Huttlinger, Chair, & Kathleen
Carroll, Artistic Director, Adirondack Film Society
9 PM (at dark) – Mid’s Park, NYS Route 86/Main St. (across & down
the street from the Palace Theatre); rainout location: LPCA
Join us for this FREE 40th anniversary screening almost to the day
(the movie opened June 1st, 1975) of one of the biggest blockbusters
(and audience favorites) of all time. This is the movie that started
the trend of Hollywood summertime films that had mass appeal and
warranted repeated viewings—changing the face of big-time studio
movies forever. Be forewarned: after viewing Jaws you may never
want to go near open water again!
From Kathleen Carroll’s report during on-location filming of Jaws in
and around Martha’s Vineyard, Daily News, Aug. 11, 1974:
It would be all too easy for the shark to dominate a movie such as this
at the expense of the acting. Admits [actor Roy] Scheider rather wryly:
“There is a constant battle of lowering the shark’s billing.” But Spielberg is
determined to make “a people movie of ‘Jaws.’ ”
With the help of [novelist Peter] Benchley, [producer Richard] Zanuck
and the cast, he is trying to make it “a very personal human drama, one that
is both contemporary and horrifying.”
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Thursday, June 4
Silent Film Program:
• Mantrap (feature)
Directed by Victor Fleming & starring Clara Bow
Paramount, 1926, 71 mins.
• Dog Shy (opening short), starring Charley Chase
USA, 1926, 20 mins.
Featuring live piano accompaniment by Ben Model
Introduced by Nelson Page, AFS Vice Chair
7 PM – LPCA
“It girl” Clara Bow stars in this roaring 20s tale of flirtation
and fidelity, set in the fictional town of Mantrap, just over
the border in Canada. Silent-era star Percy Marmont plays a bigcity divorce attorney looking for a change of scenery, and his
buddy Eugene Palette suggests that they camp at a backwoods cabin he
knows about up north. That cabin is owned by Ernest Torrence (Buster
Keaton’s dad in Steamboat Bill, Jr.) and his new, young wife—played
by Clara Bow. The film was directed by Victor Fleming (Gone With
the Wind, The Wizard of Oz) and was released by Paramount in July
1926, so it’s likely this picture played at the Palace the year the theater
opened. Ms. Bow’s own personal favorite, Mantrap was the breakout
film that put her on the map. To learn more about Ben Model’s work,
please visit www.silentfilmmusic.com.
Documentary Screening:
Rosenwald
Directed & written by Aviva Kempner
USA, 2015, 100 mins., color
Introduced by Nelson Page, AFS Vice Chair
9:30 PM – LPCA; encore screening Sun., 6/7, 4 PM – Palace
Rosenwald is the newest film project from the Ciesla Foundation,
which prides itself on producing documentaries with an uplifting
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social message about unsung Jewish heroes. This documentary tells
the incredible story of how businessman and philanthropist Julius
Rosenwald joined with African-American communities in the South
to build schools during the early part of the 20th century. The story
of the partnership between Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington
is both compelling and timely, with the future of public schools at
a crossroads in American society today. To learn more, please visit:
www.rosenwaldfilm.org.
Photo courtesy of the Ciesla Foundation
Friday, June 5
Feature Screening:
Effie Gray
Directed by Richard Laxton, written by Emma Thompson
Starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie
Coltrane, David Suchet, Edward Fox, and Derek Jacobi
England, 2014, 108 mins., color
Introduced by Nelson Page, AFS Vice Chair
7 PM – Palace; encore screening Sun., 6/7, 1 PM – Palace
In her original screenplay, Emma Thompson takes a bold look at the
real-life story of the Effie Gray-John Ruskin marriage, exposing what
was hiding behind the veil of their public life. Set in a time when
neither divorce nor gay marriage were an option, Effie Gray is the
story of a young woman coming of age and finding her own voice in a
world where women were expected to be seen but not heard. The film
explores the roots of sexual intolerance while shedding light on the
marital politics of the Victorian era. To learn more, please visit www.
adoptfilms.com/effiegray.
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Student-made Short Films & Award Ceremony:
Sleepless in Lake Placid
Moderated by Coordinator Matt Wohl, Chair of the Film & Media
Dept., Burlington College; Judges: Susan Robbins, director-producer,
and Tracy & Jon Cring, editors, Lee’s 88 Keys
8 PM – LPCA
The crowd-pleasing, 24-hour undergraduate college student film
competition returns for its eighth year. Four- and five-member teams
of aspiring professional filmmakers from Burlington College, Hobart
and William Smith Colleges, and Marist College—each under the
supervision of faculty advisers Ben Finer, Marilyn Jimenez, and
Jeff Bass, respectively, and our new “Sleepless” Coordinator Matt
Wohl—set out on Thursday, June 4th, to conceive, write, cast, shoot,
and edit a 10-minute film in one long day in beautiful, downtown Lake
Placid and environs. The results—as North Country filmgoers will
have a chance to see when the students’ films are screened and judged
Friday evening—are often astounding. Awards include the People’s
Choice for Best Film, Actor, and Actress and a juried award for best
film, described as follows:
The Robin and Anitra Pell Emerging Filmmaker Award
The late Robin Pell was instrumental in the creation of the Lake
Placid Film Forum and remained a proactive board member of
the Adirondack Film Society until his death in 2003. To honor his
memory, an award was established in Robin’s name by his wife, Anitra
Pell, his goddaughter Helen Burnham, and filmmaker Ruth Sergel—
with the aim of encouraging and supporting emerging filmmakers.
Earlier this year, Anitra passed away unexpectedly while on a cultural
exchange trip to Cuba. To honor her memory as well as Robin’s, the
AFS board has renamed the top prize for “Sleepless” in both their
names and dedicates this year’s competition and the Film Forum as a
whole to Anitra’s memory:
In loving memory
Anitra Pell (1941-2015)
AFS Board Member and Champion of the Arts
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Saturday, June 6
Roundtable Discussion:
The Challenges of Making a Documentary
11 AM-12:30 PM – LPCA; free admission
A large part of the mission of the Adirondack Film Society is
educational and its chief program, the Lake Placid Film Forum, has
often featured one or more panel discussions. For our 2015 roundtable,
we take an in-depth look at documentary filmmaking, which continues
to be a prominent component of the independent film industry. Despite
the strong interest in documentaries, challenges—including funding,
distribution, and finding an audience—persist, especially for newer,
smaller independent filmmakers and film companies. Panelists will
include Kate Geis, director/producer/editor of Paul Taylor: Creative
Domai n; Susan Robbins, director/producer of Lee’s 88 Keys; Jon
and Tracy Cring, co-editors of Lee’s 88 Keys, and Kathleen Carroll,
AFS Artistic Director; with Tom Hanrahan, AFS Board Member-atLarge, moderating.
Documentary Screening:
Archie’s Betty
Directed & written by Gerald Peary
USA, 2015, 69 mins.
Introduced by David Press of Paul Smith’s College, Paul Smiths, NY
2 PM – LPCA
The filmmaker, a devoted fan of Archie, makes an independent
documentary search for the real-life people behind the characters
in the comics, still popular after 75 years. Were Archie, Betty,
Veronica, and Jughead based on students whom Bob Montana,
the original Archie cartoonist, knew in high school in the 1930s
in Haverhill, Massachusetts? The documentary visits Montana’s
surviving classmates, a veteran Archie illustrator, and Archie experts to
determine the real story, which culminates at a senior living facility in
Edison, New Jersey. Might a 91-year-old woman living there be the
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inspiration for one of the Archie comics’ immortal characters? To learn
more, please visit https://bigsleepfilms.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/
archies-betty and http://artsfuse.org/128152/fuse-film-interviewgerald-peary-searches-for-archies-betty.
Archie’s Betty has been called “Delightful, touching and appropriately
comic,” by Sherman’s March filmmaker Ross McElwee. Cartoonist
and filmmaker Bill Plympton says it’s “A terrific film…a great
documentary.”
Bob Montana, the original “Archie” cartoonist, at the
drawing board. Photo courtesy of the Bob Montana
estate.
Feature Screening:
Hippocrates
Directed by Thomas Lilti
France, 2014, 102 mins., color, in French with
English subtitles
3 PM – Palace
This dark comedy centers on the coming of age of a young man who
feels destined to be a great doctor. In fact, Benjamin is certain of it.
However, his first experience as a junior doctor in the hospital ward
where his father works doesn’t turn out exactly the way he envisioned.
The responsibilities are overwhelming and the challenges monumental.
It is an eye-opening, life-changing experience in which Benjamin is
forced to confront his limits and weigh the value and consequences
of saving lives. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc61Dig-E4.
Documentary Screening:
Rubble Kings
Directed, written & co-produced by Shan Nicholson
USA, 2014, 67 mins.
Introduced by Mr. Nicholson, who will participate in a Q&A
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discussion following the Sat. screening
5 PM – LPCA; encore screening Sun., 6/7, 8 PM – LPCA
In the 1970s, the South Bronx became a war zone controlled by gangs
like the Savage Skulls and the Ghetto Brothers. This was their answer
to a bankrupt, decaying city and the dashed hopes of the Civil Rights
generation. This film juxtaposes riveting archival footage with presentday interviews with former gang members to show how peace was
brokered at the peak of the bloodshed in an unlikely manner, laying
the foundation for what would become hip-hop culture. To learn more,
please visit: www.goldcrestfilms.com/films/view/distribution/rubblekings, www.facebook.com/rubblekings.
“The film’s lively roster of former Savage Skulls, Black Spades,
Assassinators, Ghetto Brothers, Hitmen or Turban Queens,
expressively recalling and explaining gang culture, is matched only by
its flood of down-and-dirty archival imagery.”—Variety
Documentary Screening:
Listen to Me Marlon
Directed, written, & edited by Stevan Riley
England, 2015, 95 mins., color
Introduced by Kathleen Carroll, AFS Artistic Director
6:30 PM – Palace; encore screening Sun., 6/7, 7 PM – Palace
With exclusive access to the actor’s personal archive, this is the
definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his
exceptional career as an actor and extraordinary life away from the
stage and screen, the film fully explores the complexities of the man
by telling the story uniquely from Marlon’s perspective.
Listen to Me Marlon is much less a factual recital of Brando’s
acting career and personal life than it is a creative odyssey into the
mind and motivation of an enigma. Like an arch hypnotist, Brando’s
own voice leads the storytelling: there are no interviewees, no talking
heads—just Marlon guiding us into the padlocked recesses of his own
memory and through the story of his life. In homage to the corkscrew
personality of its subject, previously unheard audio tapes reveal witty
and unexpected turns of Marlon’s thinking—dipping between light and 9
dark, humor and self-psychoanalysis.
As Marlon looks back on his legendary career, film clips are woven
alongside his personal archive: the young Brando’s electrifying looks,
raw performances, and brooding charm put us entirely under his spell,
leaving no doubt why he once skyrocketed to overnight stardom.
In mid-life his meteoric comeback continues to resonate, while the
reclusive exile of later years offers up rare flashes of acting brilliance
from a waning supernova. The film’s undercurrent and final note is one
of celebration, a homage to a creative genius. Listen to Me Marlon is
emotionally complex, revealing, and insightful—but ultimately playful
and surprising, moving between harmonious and discordant notes with
eccentric virtuosity. Like Marlon himself.
Marlon Brando. Photo: Getty Images/courtesy of
Showtime
Documentary Screening:
Paul Taylor: Creative Domain
Directed, produced & edited by Kate Geis
USA, 2014, 86 mins., color
Introduced by Ms. Geis, who will participate in a Q&A discussion
afterwards moderated by John Huttlinger, AFS Chair
One of the dance world’s most admired choreographers, Paul Taylor
has remained elusive for more than 50 years. For his 133rd dance,
“Three Dubious Memories,” he has opened the window into his
creative process. This new dance is an exploration of memory,
involving three characters entangled in a relationship, each believing
only in her or his own dark version of it. The dominant voice in the
documentary is Taylor’s, and viewers will find it alternately soothing,
demanding, and amusing as they delve into the private world of
the choreographer. Of special note,
the Paul Taylor Dance Company
was in residence at the Lake Placid
Center for the Arts for several
summers in the 1970s. To learn more
about the film, please visit www.
paultaylorcreativedomain.com.
Photo courtesy of tvgeis
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Sunday, June 7
Feature Screening:
Mommy
Directed & written by Xavier Dolan
Canada, 2014, 139 mins., color, in French with English subtitles
Introduced by Tom Hanrahan, AFS Board Member-at-Large
11 AM – LPCA
Diane Després (Anne Dorval) has been widowed for three years. She is
46 and has decided it is time to remove her only son, 15-year-old Steve
(Antoine-Olivier Pilon), from the institution where he has been living
since shortly after his father’s death. Diane is faced with the choice of
sending Steve to a more restrictive juvenile detention as a result of his
setting fire to the cafeteria and injuring another boy or taking on the
responsibility of this violent adolescent herself. She is a woman who
always does what she needs to do but taking care of this boy who is
prone to violent outbursts could be her undoing. Co-starring Suzanne
Clément. Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7rtSqI0ZeA.
Winner: Jury Prize, 2014 Cannes Film Festival • “A powerful film
about the ferocity of a mother’s love.”—Time • “A heart-swelling,
breathtaking piece of cinema.”—Vanity Fair
Encore Feature Screening:
Effie Gray
Directed by Richard Laxton, written by Emma Thompson
Starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie
Coltrane, David Suchet, Edward Fox, and Derek Jacobi
England, 2014, 108 mins., color
1 PM – Palace
Please see 6/5 listing for more details.
Feature Screening:
Felix and Meira
Directed & co-written by Maxime Giroux
Canada, 2014, 105 mins., color, in French with English subtitles
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Mr. Giroux will introduce his film and participate in a Q&A
discussion afterwards, moderated by Tom Hanrahan, AFS Board
Member-at-Large
2 PM – LPCA
In Maxime Giroux’s latest feature,
an unusual romance blossoms
between two lost souls who inhabit
the same neighborhood but vastly
different worlds. Meira (Hadas
Yaron) is a young Hasidic Jewish
wife and mother in Montreal’s Mile End district who secretly rebels
against her faith by listening to soul music and taking birth control
pills; while Félix (Martin Dubreuil) is a loner grieving the recent
death of his estranged father. Intrigued by Meira, Félix hopes her
religious devotion will provide insight into his loss and, though she
rebuffs him at first, a mutual affection soon arises between the two.
What starts as an innocent friendship grows into a relationship that
has Meira questioning her entire way of life. As Meira’s desire for
change becomes harder for her to hide, the young woman is faced with
a stark choice: remain within the community she has always known or
pursue an uncertain future outside of it. Trailer: www.imdb.com/title/
tt3685218.
Winner: Best Canadian Feature, 2015 Toronto International Film
Festival (TIFF)
Encore Documentary Screening:
Rosenwald
Directed & written by Aviva Kempner
USA, 2015, 100 mins., color
4 PM – Palace
Please see 6/4 listing for more details.
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Documentary Screening:
Lee’s 88 Keys
Directed & co-produced by
Susan Robbins
USA, 2015, 66 mins., color
Ms. Robbins will introduce
her film and participate in a
Q&A discussion afterwards
moderated by Kathleen
Carroll, AFS Artistic Director
5 PM – LPCA
Eighty-eight-year-old jazz pianist Lee Shaw—proudly known as the
“Queen of Jazz” in Albany, NY—has lived a diverse, accomplished,
and charmed life. From the piano bench. she has bravely struggled
not only with being a woman in a male-dominated field, but with the
financial challenges that come with pursuing a dream and the conflict
of her sharp musical mind’s residence in an ever-aging bodily vessel.
As a veteran of a lifetime of music—from the finest stages in New
York City to a namesake jazz festival in Germany and then home to
her birthplace in Oklahoma, where she was inducted into the Jazz Hall
of Fame—Lee Shaw’s legend continues to grow. Her story is one of
passion and triumph, all of which she attributes to her love of the 88’s.
Share that passion with her in Lee’s 88 Keys. Trailer: http://youtu.
be/5tRRWbn-PiA.
“Swinging, exciting acoustic jazz piano trio led by a woman who not
only expanded the tradition but helped create it.”—www.sonicbids.
com
Encore Documentary Screening:
Listen to Me Marlon
Directed, written, & edited by Stevan Riley
England, 2015, 95 mins., color
Introduced by Kathleen Carroll, AFS Artistic Director
7 PM – Palace
Please see 6/6 listing for more details.
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Encore Documentary Screening:
Rubble Kings
Directed, written & co-produced by Shan Nicholson
USA, 2014, 67 mins.
Introduced by Fred Balzac, AFS Operations Mgr., with a closing of
the 2015 Lake Placid Film Forum led by John Huttlinger, AFS Chair
8 PM – LPCA
Please see 6/6 listing for more details.
Please note: times, locations, and films/events are subject to
change. Except where noted, admission is $10 per person per
screening or event. For further information, please visit www.
adirondackfilmsociety.org or call (518) 588-7275. Members holding
ticket vouchers are encouraged to call in advance wherever possible;
but otherwise they should check in at the membership table (or else
box office) with their voucher to confirm admission.
2015 Lake Placid Film Forum
Credits
Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. . . . . . . . . . . . ....... John Huttlinger (AFS Chair)
Executive Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . Nelson Page (AFS Vice Chair)
Line Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . Gary Smith (AFS Treasurer)
Line Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............ . . . . . Steve Reed (AFS Secretary)
Associate Producers . . . . . . . . . .................. Gary Dake, Tom Hanrahan, Kathy Sauers
(AFS Board Members-at-Large)
Screenwriter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . Kathleen Carroll (AFS Artistic Director)
Based on an original story by . . . . ...... . . . . . Russell Banks (AFS Artistic Consultant)
Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... . . . Dylan Skolnick (Programming Consultant)
Cinematographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . Matt Wohl (Sleepless Coordinator)
Gaffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... . . .. . Fred Balzac (AFS Operations Mgr.)
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Special Guests
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jon Russell Cring (coeditor, Lee’s 88 Keys) began his career acting for
stage and television in California, following in
the footsteps of his Grand Old Opry performer father. His experience
in front of the camera made the transition to director successful.
Interested in bringing to the screen films from every genre, he has 18
feature-film directing credits under his belt. Honored with multiple
festival awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, Jon
has had his work featured on PBS and garner worldwide distribution.
After moving to upstate New York to help cultivate the film scene, he
began editing and producing films and writing screenplays and is often
found speaking to the next generation of filmmakers at HB Studios. Tracy Nichole Cring (co-editor, Lee’s 88 Keys) grew up in a small
town in Tennessee. A self-taught filmmaker,
she won her first film festival award at age
18—at the Los Angeles Independent Film Fest
for short narrative film. Tracy co-founded The
ExtraOrdinary Film Project—an attempt to
make 12 feature films in 12 months. Although
it took 20 months to complete 12 features, she was the director of
photography and the editor for them all. A natural at writing unique
scenes that speak to her audience, Tracy has optioned screenplays to
producers all over the world. In 2010, she moved to upstate New York
and added editing documentary films to her repertoire. Tracy serves on
the board of Upstate Women in Film and Television and just finished
co-writing and shooting her nineteenth feature film.
Kate Geis (director, producer & editor, Paul Taylor: Creative Domain)
is an Emmy-Award-winning documentary producer. She began her
career at Saturday Night Live and produced documentary programming
for WNET, Channel Thirteen, History Channel, A&E, and Metro
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TV. Over the past 20 years her subject matter has been a diverse
exploration of people’s lives: Saturday Night Live’s set design team,
the last Checker Cab driver in New York, artists, and public school
principals.
Geis was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and
was introduced to ballet as a child going to the
Kirov in St. Petersburg, Russia with her ForeignService parents. She went on to study ballet,
retiring at 13 when she saw the film Chariots of
Fire. Running, as it turns out, was not her passion
but filmmaking was. Paul Taylor: Creative Domain was born out of
a successful fundraising video that Geis directed and co-produced
with Taylor board member Robert Aberlin. It was a lifelong dream
of Geis’s to make a work about the legendary choreographer. Her
father, Robert Geis, while working as a US Information Agency Public
Affairs Officer in Leningrad, hosted Taylor and his company on a tour
of the Soviet Union in 1979.
Maxime Giroux (director, Felix and Meira) is a French
Canadian film director. Felix and Meira, his third
feature film, won Best Canadian Film at the Toronto
International Film Festival. Giroux started his filmmaking
career in 2002 by directing shorts, commercials, and
music videos. Before Félix et Meira, Giroux had already
made two feature-length movies—Demain (2008), the
portrait of one generation about to replace another as seen through
a young woman taking care of her diabetic parent, and Jo pour
Jonathan (2010), a meditation about doomed brotherhood.
Ben Model (accompanist, Mantrap and Dog Shy) is one of the nation’s
leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theater
organ. Over the past 30-plus years he has created and performed
several hundred live scores for silent films on piano and theater
organ—for films lasting anywhere from one minute to five hours. Ben
is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art in New 16
York City, where he has co-curated several film
series, and at the Library of Congress’s Packard
Campus Theatre. His recorded scores can be
heard on numerous DVD/Blu-ray releases,
Turner Classic Movies, and his YouTube
channel. He is the producer and co-founder of “The Silent Clowns
Film Series,” now in its eighteenth season in NYC, and his composed
ensemble scores for films by Chaplin and Keaton are performed
around the United States every year by orchestras and concert bands.
Connect with Ben on Twitter at @silentfilmmusic and at www.
silentfilmmusic.com. Shan Nicholson (director, writer, & co-producer, Rubble Kings) is an
award-winning filmmaker, DJ, music producer, and counter-culture/
pop-culture storyteller. His work is unabashedly inspired by being a
product of New York City’s culturally rich period of the
1980s, which continues to influence the world over.
Nicholson’s feature-length documentary, Rubble
Kings, the story of New York City gang culture in the
1970s and its influence on the birth of hip-hop, is poised
for national and international release this summer. A
narrative feature directly inspired by the events described in Rubble
Kings is currently in development, based on a script by Nicholson. It’s
one of several screenplays he has in development that have emerged
from his documentary work. Beyond his burgeoning success as a
screenwriter as well as documentary film director, Shan has focused
much of his attention on directing online content and music videos,
with premieres on pop culture tastemaker sites such as Pitchfork,
MTV, VH1, and Rolling Stone.
Gerald Peary (director/writer, Archie’s Betty) made his debut as
director-writer with the acclaimed 2008 feature documentary, For
the Love of Movies: the Story of American Film Criticism. He was a
featured actor in the 2012 fiction film, Computer Chess.
Peary has been a film critic for more than 35 years. From 19962012, he was a weekly reviewer for the Boston Phoenix. Currently,
he is a film critic for artsfuse.org. He is a member of the National
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Society of Film Critics and FIPRESCI (the
International Film Critics Association). Having
earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin,
Peary has taught film studies at Suffolk University
in Boston since 1980. He was a Fulbright Scholar,
studying Yugoslavian film comedy in Belgrade;
served as Acting Curator of the Harvard University
Film Archive; and, since 1997, has been the curator of the Boston
University Cinematheque. Peary’s nine books include the anthologies
The Classic American Novel and the Movies, The American Animated
Cartoon, and Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology—all of
which he co-edited. His latest book is Samuel Fuller: Interviews.
Susan Robbins (director-producer, Lee’s 88 Keys),
a first-time filmmaker, has a background in acting
and fine art. She began studying acting in 2005,
working in the profession until 2012. Prior to 2012
she had been a mural artist and textile designer for
more than 25 years. Susan attended college at the
Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), SUNY New
Paltz, and The New School for Social Research.
She earned an Associate Degree in Textile Design
and a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education. In 2013 Susan embarked on
making this film and has not looked back since.
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New to the Film Forum
Matt Wohl (Coordinator, “Sleepless in Lake Placid”) is a screenwriter,
filmmaker, and performer with more than two decades
of experience. He has served as Executive Director
of the Orlando International Fringe Festival, Arts
Alive, and Waterfront Theatre. In addition, Matt
has been active on artist boards—co-founding the
Central Florida Theatre Alliance and serving as its
Board President, as well as serving on the board of
the Vermont International Film Festival. He currently
serves on the board of Circus Smirkus.
Matt has a long history of performing improvisational comedy. He
was trained at Sak Theatre in Orlando, Florida and performed on the
Sak Theatre main stage before starting his own improv troupe, Atomic
Cocktail. Matt also performs with Kamikaze Comedy and “The Chris
and Matt Show” and has directed, produced, and acted in 24-hour
competitions in Florida and Montreal.
He has an MFA in Screenwriting from Spalding University and
has optioned several scripts, including Two Grooms, a comedy in
development with Northern Exposure Films. Matt’s short film $18
was a jury selection of the Vermont International Film Festival and
earned him a showcase on the Vermont Public Television show Reel
Independents. His original screenplay Funny Man recently won Best
Comedy in the “Table Read My Screenplay” competition at Sundance.
Matt is currently in production on a documentary titled It’s Great to be
Here, a look at the life of stand-up comics and the hardships it takes
on relationships. He is the Chair of the Film and Media Department at
Burlington College in Vermont.
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The Board of Directors and staff of the Adirondack Film Society would like
to say a great, big “Thank YOU!” to all the guests, members, volunteers,
consultants, and especially patrons who contributed to this event. Without you,
the 2015 Lake Placid Film Forum would not have been possible!
Special thanks to:
Our affiliated venues: the Lake Placid Center for the Arts—James Lemons,
Doug Lansing, Mike McCreadie, Marianne Burdo, Anya Villeneuve, Cade
Grady and team—and the Palace Theatre: Reg and Barbara Clark and their staff
Our sponsors & underwriters, including: Lake Placid Pub & Brewery, Gary
Smith and the Northwoods Inn, High Peaks Resort, the Quality Inn of Lake
Placid, Smoke Signals, Saranac Soudough Deli, and Gary Dake and
Stewart’s Shops
Our grantors, grant facilitators, underwriters & sponsors, including: Essex
County Board of Supervisors, Mayor Craig Randall and the Village of Lake
Placid, New York State Council on the Arts, Uihlein Foundation, and the
Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST)/Lake Placid-Essex County
Visitors Bureau—James McKenna, Sue Cameron, Jasen Lawrence, and Glenn
Pareia for designing our re-launched website
Our business support, including Charlene Trotter for posters, badges, and the
tri-fold; Eric Granger of Placid Productions, and Jordan Craig of Jordan Craig
Media Video & Photo for technical support; and Debbie & Jeff and the staff of
the UPS Store in Lake Placid for program design & printing and shipping help
Our filmmaker/industry guests—Jon & Tracy Cring, Kate Geis, Maxime
Giroux, Ben Model, Shan Nicholson, Gerald Peary, and Susan Robbins—
and Dylan Skolnick of Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, Long Island and all
the distributors, publicists & local media professionals who helped with the
acquisition and publicizing of our screenings and other events
Sleepless Coordinator Matt Wohl; faculty advisors Jeff Bass, Ben Fine, and
Marilyn Jimenez; and Sleepless volunteers David Press, Chris LaFountain, & all
our actors—with a special nod to former Coordinator Barry Snyder
Karen Huttlinger; Mindy Reyell and Cathy Wheeler of Adirondack Audit;
Kathleen Recchia and Sam Balzac; and all our volunteers