Woodstock Film Festival Returns to Rhinebeck
by Marita Lopez-Mena

If the ongoing success of Upstate Films is any indicator of Rhinebeck's love for art films, then this year's expanded presence of the Woodstock Film Festival should make the applause meter go all the way to the top. The Film Festival, which takes place from September 17th to the 21st on both sides of the river, will have a marathon run at the Upstate Films venue—virtually non-stop screenings of independent films, day into evening in both theaters.

The Festival is going into its fourth season—an upstart that has become one of the acknowledged best film festivals of its kind in the country. Part of the buzz has been the Woodstock name of course, but more likely the Festival's quick rise through the ranks has been due to the caliber of talent (Ismail Merchant, Elmer Bernstein, David Strathairn, Fisher Stevens, Liv Tyler, Aidan Quinn, Marcia Gay Harden, Parker Posey, Tim Robbins, Haskell Wexler, Ethan Hawke) that has participated in the festival. The films that have gone on to great success (Personal Velocity, Far From Heaven, The Grey Zone, Just a Kiss, among others) have only heightened the good rep.

The Story Behind the Festival
So, what exactly happens at the Woodstock Film Festival? First of all, of course, there are the screenings—over 125 films will be shown. In Woodstock, the Bearsville Theater, Mountain View Studios, and Tinker Street Cinema are the screening venues. Additionally, there will be screenings in Hunter at the Catskill Mountain Foundation's movie house, and at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck. Whenever possible the directors will be at the screenings to speak about their films and interact with the audience. Then there are the workshops and panels—fabulous opportunities to listen to industry experts discuss, debate, and expound in an intimate setting. Last year at the Woodstock Elementary School, young people interested in a film career had the unique experience of sitting down in the cafeteria to ask the head of United Artists any question that popped into mind. Once you are a filmmaker, just try and see how much luck you have getting into that guy's office for an informal little chat about your latest movie ideas!

And, no festival would be a proper festival without parties ...oh, the glam of it all! Parties are by invitation only, to the irritation of dedicated door crashers, but, hey, this is just part of the fun. Last year's party at the former Pitcairn Estate, now owned by Allaire Studios, was infamous—the food and drink and dancing flowed until the wee hours of the morning. The screening room held three hundred individuals—comfortably. I snuck onto the property undetected with my tiny sports car behind a school bus filled with revelers before the big, metal gates clanged shut—so much for security. I was there on assignment, however, tending to the needs of a famous film critic, so I was not forced to drive all the way back down the long, long, long mountain road with a dejected tail pipe. Who knows what surprises are in store this year?

Before these jam-packed events take place, however, there's a long selection process. The individual who orchestrates that process is called the "head programmer." The Festival's programmer guy for features and documentaries is Ryan Werner, who also is head of acquisition and distribution at Palm Pictures. This year nearly a thousand entries worldwide were received, many of which Werner waded through with the two founders of the Festival to make the first cut for the competition. The process becomes alchemical after that first step.There are advisory board members, industry heavies, committees of screeners both local and from the big cities who all throw a few eyes of newt into the pot. Final selection is artistic magic—a process of stirring, elimination and discussions. The key selections are made public in August at an annual press conference held at the Knitting Factory, a very hip (read dark and dank) space, on Leonard Street in New York. That is another party all unto itself with special guests, people trying to meet people, a great band (this year it was The What), and hungry members of the press snacking up all the food.

Woodstock, home of the arts, opens its homes to filmmakers and their friends, making it an event that draws in the entire village. The young and unknown filmmakers enjoy the family style accommodations, and are grateful to be whisked back and forth to trains and buses without a hitch. The more established types are allowed to park their limos wherever the hell they like, which makes them happy.

Rhinebeck was part of the Festival last year and the decision was made to enlarge its role because of the good reception, and the fact that having Dutchess County more involved adds more of the regional flavor the Festival promotes. Of no small import is the support given by Steve and Dede Leiber at Upstate, and this year a growing squad of volunteers headed up by Gail Nussbaum, Jane Glucksman, and Spencer Gates. There is even a plan to run a shuttle between Woodstock and Rhinebeck (would someone please donate a bus?) so that fans can see all the films their tired eyes can take on either side of the Hudson.

The Festival has managed to attract by dint of its determined founders, Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto, a Who's Who board of advisors. Sponsorship by local company Markertek, and the magazine Organic Style, among others, keeps the Festival a force. An attractive location in the middle of the idyllic Hudson Valley has made it an appealing festival to attend for citybound film professionals and fans. The Festival is unusual in that it somehow manages to be simultaneously energetic and laid back, with a reputation for being very, very nice to filmmakers, industry people and sponsors. Words like "warm," "friendly," "unpretentious," are regularly heard as one skulks about the Festival fund raising parties listening for quotable quotes.

The Festival's Films
Opening night in Rhinebeck will be kicked off by a screening of Casa De Los Babys, directed by acclaimed writer/director John Sayles (Limbo, Sunshine State, The Return of the Secaucus Seven), and will be shown exclusively at Upstate. The dramatic film has a cast that includes standouts such as Maggie Guylenhaal, Daryl Hannah, Marcia Gay Harden, Susan Lynch, Mary Steenburgen, and Lili Taylor. The starring women come together in a small, South American hotel run by Oscar award-winning actress Rita Moreno, who will be remembered by the more mature, or shall we say true film buffs, in the audience. The prospective mamacitas, however, are required by local officials to become residents of the town before they get near any babies. The film's cultural and emotional clashes are to be found not only in the interactions among the six women, who are from all socio-economic levels of North American society, but also in their mingling with the town's people. Some of the local women who work and serve the guests in the little hotel may seem a world apart, until it is discovered that among them are biological mothers of the adoptive babies.

Unlikely couple, from Nosey Parker.

In addition to Casa de Los Babys, there will be a large and diverse program in Rhinebeck including shorts, world cinema, documentaries, and other features. A sampling of the films that will be screened include Nosey Parker, directed by John O'Brien, about a couple attempting to rejuvenate their marriage by heading to unspoiled Vermont, where the wife has an unlikely flirtation with a local farmer. Then, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, a film that takes place in Glasgow, directed by Lone Scherfig (whose previous film Italian for Beginners was a huge critical success) presents us with a woman who has to choose a husband from between two brothers—one who teaches nursery school when he isn't attempting suicide, and the other who runs the family bookstore (even in the movies it seems that women do not get great choices!) Glasgow must be a popular place for cinema these days, as American Cousins — about two American mafiosi on the lam — also takes place in that hardscrabble city. Da boyz are expecting to find the third leg of their nasty familial stool when given shelter by a Scottish cousin, but cousin Roberto (yes, he is Scottish and Italian) has inherited a long forgotten gentle gene in the family. All sorts of things happen as the mutations collide.

Local Filmmakers
There is a lot of talent in these here hills, so it is no surprise that some local filmmakers have had their work selected for the Festival. Josh Nussbaum, NYU film school grad from Red Hook, had his feature, The White Runway, chosen. According to Nussbaum (I will here disclose that he is my film school graduate daughter's boyfriend, so I have the inside scoop), the film has a lot of energy because he is a young filmmaker making a film about two up-and-coming young fashion designers. There is an interview with the head of one of the most elite modeling agencies in New York, as well as a fortuitous chat with Isaac Mizrahi. The ending of the film shows the perfection of the white runway, but from the beginning the film exposes all the illusion that is the fashion industry. He says, "It is also about images...when you see a fashion model on a billboard you are looking at the beautiful, young model and the clothes... ideal images from our culture. What are we really seeing? How the model and the clothes got there to create this perfect illusion is what I was interested in." To add to his sense of unreality about images, at the time of the filming, he also took a job in Tokyo as cinematograher for a Japanese music video that was so popular it ended up on the big screen in Tokyo's version of Times Square.

Speaking of music, Columbia County residents Rob Schumer and Ruth Oxenberg's documentary film about bluegrass, Bluegrass Journey, has also been picked. The film has extended musical performances from two bluegrass festivals, and shows what contemporary bluegrass music is all about NOW. As is customary with the Festival, music is often showcased with the films. Peter Rowan, who appears in the film, and is sometimes called the Jerry Garcia of bluegrass, will be part of a huge bluegrass concert that celebrates the sounds of the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and area filmmaking, at the Spotted Dog in Katskill Korners, during the festival.

No one will want to miss any of these films or the many, many others that will be screened during the four-day event. The opening night whoopla in both Rhinebeck and Woodstock may just cause traffic jams on the Kingston/Rhinecliff Bridge as fans run back and forth to catch the filmmakers and cast members who are expected to attend the screenings. Tickets have been on sale on line or at the box office in Woodstock since August 19th. Online purchases are encouraged as tickets go fast. The box office can be reached at 845-679-4265 for telephone orders. Ticket prices range from $5 to $12. Full festival passes to everything the festival has to offer are $500. Pre-programs have been available since August 20th, but the full program will be ready only a couple of days prior to the Festival's beginning. Programs will be available in the following locations: Amtrak Station, Upstate Films, Winter Sun/Summer Moon, Oblong Books, Hammertown Barn, Chamber of Commerce, Hummingbird Jewelers, Changes Men's Clothing, Foster's Coach House, Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck, and Merritt Books, Red Hook Inn, and the Annex Antique Shop in the old Lyceum theater in Red Hook.

Marita Lopez-Mena is the Festival's volunteer Coordinator of Volunteers and unabashedly begs for more kind souls to share their time and have some fun. Anyone who is interested in volunteering should call 679-4265, or go the website and click on "volunteers."