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Movie Intelligence
Following are the films currently showing in our region, listed in order of their Metacritic score.* For a synopsis of the film and excerpts from the reviews that led to the score, click on the Metascore next to the film title. For show times, click on the theater name in the Movie Theaters directory at right.
Metascore/film title/(theaters)
92 Toy Story 3 (Beacon, Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex, Lyceum, Regal Berkshire)
86 The Kids are All Right (Upstate)
84 Restrepo (Spectrum)
83 Mademoiselle Chambon (Bantam)
79 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Little Cinema, Spectrum)
78 I Am Love (Bantam, Spectrum, Triplex)
76 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (TSL)
76 Stonewall Uprising (Spectrum)
74 Inception (Beacon, Canaan Colonial, Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex, Images, Lyceum, Moviehouse, Regal Berkshire, Spectrum, Triplex)
73 Cyrus (Spectrum, Triplex, Upstate)
72 Despicable Me (Beacon, Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex, Lyceum, Regal Berkshire)
69 Solitary Man (Gilson, Spectrum)
66 The Girl Who Played with Fire (Bantam, Chatham Film Club, Spectrum, TSL)
66 City Island (Spectrum)
64 Salt (Beacon, Cinerom, Fairview, Lyceum, Moviehouse, Regal Berkshire, Spectrum)
61 The Karate Kid (Hudson Movieplex)
58 Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Beacon, Cinerom, Crandell, Hudson Movieplex, Regal Berkshire)
56 Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Moviehouse)
54 Harry Brown (Spectrum)
54 Ramona and Beezus (Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex, Lyceum, Regal Berkshire)
51 Predators (Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex)
46 Knight and Day (Hudson Movieplex, Gilson)
46 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Beacon, Cinerom, Fairview, Lyceum, Regal Berkshire)
30 Grown Ups (Canaan Colonial, Cinerom, Fairview, Lyceum, Regal Berkshire)
20 The Last Airbender (Cinerom, Hudson Movieplex, Regal Berkshire)
*Metacritic is a site that weighs film reviews from dozens of sources, averaging the results to achieve a score—the closer to 100, the more positive the reviews.
** Free outdoor movie
Unscored
Bells Are Ringing (PS/21**)
Degas and the Dance (Clark)
The Mystery of Picasso (Clark)
North by Northwest (Images**)
The Other Woman (TSL**)
Top Hat (TSL**)
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/15/10 at 05:50 AM • Permalink
Crandell Theatre Set to Re-open July 9; Chatham Film Club Prevails
Photographs by Peter Blandori
It was assumed. For years The Chatham Film Club had been raising funds so that one day they would be able to buy the Crandell Theatre, whenever second-generation owner Tony Quirino decided to retire. Then last January, with his retirement date fast approaching, Quirino died suddenly, leaving no will. His widow, Sandy, who had wanted to honor Tony’s wishes and sell the theater to the film club for a price they could afford, was obliged, as executor of the estate, to get the best price possible. Several other potential buyers emerged, and the talk on Main Street turned grim. Then suddenly, the attorney for Judy Grunberg, a Chatham entrepreneur (the Blue Plate Restaurant, the Chatham Coop, PS/21, among other ventures) was in a Main Street law office signing closing papers on his client’s behalf. Within hours, Grunberg had turned over title to the film club, which expects to reopen the Crandell on July 9th. Rural Intelligence talked to Film Club treasurer Mary Gail Biebel, co-chair of the capital campaign, about how it all transpired.
RI: How fitting that the acquisition of the Crandell Theatre by the Chatham Film Club should turn out to be an action adventure weepy/dramedy with a surprise feel-good ending. I’m still not absolutely clear how you became the owners.
MGB: Judy Grunberg made an offer that was accepted, which made her the official buyer, but it was always understood that the film club would end up the owners. Like Judy, Lael Locke, a village trustee, threw in some money at the end. None of us could have done it on our own, but we got together and got it done.
RI: Was it fun, entering the theater for the first time as owners?
SK: I went in the other day with 60 keys and a flashlight and finally did figure out how to turn on most of the lights. Tony knew every key. We found all these boxes of letters that go up on the marquee, so Sandi [Knackel, the Chatham Film Club president] and I got up on the extension ladder to put up a message. We couldn’t reach the top, so we could only put up a short message, “Opening July 2010” and “Thank You.” Everyone stopped to wish us well. People offered to volunteer, to make contributions. It was lovely.
RI: Why do you think this theater means so much to the people of Chatham?
MGB: This is a pretty bifurcated community. Some of us go to the Tannery Pond (chamber music) Concerts, and some of us go to the firehouse supper. But everyone goes to the Crandell. Tony’s father is still alive. His first job when the theater first opened in 1926, when he was just 9 years old, was carrying film cans up to the projectionist. Then much later he ended up owning the place. There have only been four owners in the entire history of the theater. We’re the fifth. The Quirinos had been associated with it (first as employees, then as owners) that entire time. I got a check for $20 from a woman in Ohio who wrote, “I grew up going to the Crandell, and I remember when Mrs. Quirino told my parents that I had misbehaved. I was told I couldn’t come back for a month.”
RI: The theater has been locked up for five months, which must have taken a toll. Any unexpected damage?
MGB: No, actually, it was in remarkably stable condition—just a little bit musty. Last night I met with Dennis Gawron who had worked for Tony for twenty years as a part-time projectionist and ticket taker. He’s going to come back to work with us. He comes in an hour before the movie starts, and it’s second nature to him what has to be done, but some of the operating systems take a little bit of explaining. He’s teaching us. And Shari Tessitori, who ran the concession stand for Tony, is also coming back.
RI: Are you planning to raise the prices (previously $5 for adults and $4 for kids)?
MGB: Not now. We’re also going to keep the concession prices the same. We’re keeping the soda machine even though it makes an incredible racket during quiet times in the films.
RI: Is there a business plan?
MGB: Yes, we have a detailed business plan. But single screen independent film theaters don’t make money. The few that are left are all run by groups like ours as non profits.
RI: So what’s the next step?
MGB: We’re starting a new campaign, Help Us Raze the Roof, because, as anyone who goes to the Crandell knows, it leaks.
RI: The renovation of the Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington is said to have cost $9 million. Presumably, the renovation of the Crandell would be somewhere in that same ballpark, or am I wrong?
MGB: The Mahaiwe is absolutely beautiful. But we’re not planning a $9 million renovation. We will need a million. The roof alone is probably somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000. It has a 1926 state-of-the-art ventilation system that leaks like crazy. The exterior and interior stucco needs to be repaired. The marquee needs work. The bathrooms need to be renovated. The seats need to be replaced. We need a digital projection system. And that’s just the stuff we need to use it as a movie theater. There’s also a stage, an orchestra pit, dressing rooms—it was originally a vaudeville house. That’s why Tony wanted to sell it; he knew .
RI: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned so far about running a movie theater?
MGB: Dennis Gawron told us that at the end of the movie every night, before you lock up, you have to walk through the theater to make sure nobody fell asleep.
To make a donation to Help Us Raze the Roof, visit The Chatham Film Club website.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/02/10 at 01:07 PM • Permalink
Kicking and Screening: Soccer Film Festival
This weekend, MASS MoCA hosts a two-day festival of film and activities celebrating the passion, athleticism, and wildly fervent nationalism of soccer.
The festival kicks off on Friday, at 1 p.m. with screening of the family-friendly film Sixty Six, followed by a performance by a troupe of soccer jugglers at 3 p.m. That evening at 8 p.m. Les Yeux Dans Les Bleus, a documentary about the 1988 World Cup victorious French team, will be screened.
Saturday’s program features a matinee presentation at 1 p.m. of a series of short films: In the Blood, Mauro Shampoo - Soccer Player, Hairdresser and Macho and Beyond Soccer (Loucos de Futebol).
The Saturday afternoon films will be followed by a 4 p.m. panel discussion moderated by Adam Spangler, former Vanity Fair staff editor and founder of the This Is American Soccer blog. Panelists include Grant Wahl, senior writer at Sports Illustrated and author of the best-selling, The Beckham Experiment; Greg Lalas, editor in chief of MLSsoccer.com (official website of Major League Soccer); and former MLS player Zohair Ghenania, now staff coach at French club FC Lorient. Another feature film will screen on Saturday night.
Friday & Saturday, April 23 & 24
MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA
Festival passes: $25/ adults; $15/students
Individual tickets: $8/adults; $5/students.
Members receive a 10% discount.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/15/10 at 01:20 PM • Permalink
The Annual Kent Film Festival April 22 - 25
The Kent Film Festival doesn’t start officially until Thursday, April 22, so the screening on April 21 of Company Retreat, written and directed by Campbell Scott (left), is being called a “private screening” which is a fundraiser for the five-year-old, not-for-profit festival. “Campbell’s on our advisory board and he will be here to talk about the movie,” says festival co-founder Patrice Galterio. “Nobody’s seen this movie yet. He’s just finished editing it.” A “mockumentary” about the development of a fictional game show called Company Retreat that pits white-collar workers against blue-collar workers, the film stars Hart Bochner. After the movie, Scott will host a Q&A (along with a few members of his cast.)
Mow Crew Preview - The Weatherman from Taylor Toole on Vimeo.
One of the films that Galterio has high hopes for is Mow Crew, which details the lives of some full-time residents of Martha’s Vineyard who mow the summer people’s lawns and long to escape their rural island ghetto. “We’re hoping it’s our Little Miss Sunshine,” says Galterio, who notes that Litchfield County residents may see parallels between the Mow Crew world and their own backyards. “There a similarity between our locals and the rich people—except we’re by a river instead of an ocean.” Another feature she’s high on is Blue Bus, which has been described as a buddy flick/coming-of-age story for two middle-aged guys, who drive cross country in a VW bus. And local filmmaker and actor Giancarlo Esposito (who is currently featured in AMC’s Breaking Bad) will hold a Q&A after a screening of his film, Gospel Hill, which stars Angela Bassett and Danny Glover. “It’s been doing the film festival circuit, and we just love it.”
Galterio thinks the short films are just as important as the features. “We have 61 this year from all over the world—England, Iran, Germany,” she says. “And we have documentaries, too, such as Baghdad Diary by Sandra and Joseph Consentino” The Consentinos will conduct a workshop on Saturday called “The Documentary Process” with a demonstration of the Sony EX Camcorder. Cinematographer Adrian Correia will lead a workshop on the Red One Digital Cinema Camera. The focus on the technical aspects of filmmaking reflects the improved equipment Kent has this year with $90,000 worth of equipment lent by Sony for screenings in the Community House. “It’s amazing that we pull off a film festival every year without the town having a proper movie theater,” says Galterio.
Kent Film Festival
3 Kent Green Blvd, Kent, CT; 860.592.0059
Box office is open daily through April 20: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Box office open April 21 - 23:
10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
April 24 & 25: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m
Individual tickets: $8
Packages available
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/14/10 at 04:21 PM • Permalink
A Farm Film Feast: Film, Food and Discussion
From the film "Sweetgrass"
The crusade to eat locally hits the big screen with such enticingly titled films as, Dirt! The Movie, Mad City Chickens, and What’s On Your Plate? This week and through the weekend, more than a dozen films about food will be screening at Images Theater in Williamstown, MA, followed by panel discussions. Among the topics: King Corn Rules!, Berkshire Stories, Fresh! An Overview, Eating Locally and Globally, and Farming in the Future. On Saturday evening, there will be a dinner break—an opportunity to sample some of locally-sourced restaurants, such as Mezze and Hobson’s Choice, that are within walking distance of the theater.
Farm Film Feast
Images Cinema, Williamstown
Film admission: all film pass/$35; individual films/$5
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 03/01/10 at 03:52 PM • Permalink
RI Selects: Beautiful Film, Ugly Predicament
Friday, February 26 @ 7 p.m
“We have a 10-15 year window to make some noise,” says Columbia County resident Sven Huseby. “I would love to see the term ‘ocean acidification’ become part of the political discourse.”
According to the documentary Huseby appears in and co-produced and that his wife Barbara Ettinger directed, A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish, the familiar global warming horror story is actually even more horrific than we’ve been led to believe. For all we hear about melting icecaps and rising sea levels, until now, few of us have known of the disastrous consequences that carbon emissions have on ocean water’s chemistry and the impact that will ultimately have on marine life.
When this film debuted to an unprecedented SRO audience at the Smithsonian Institution, The Washington Post said that it, “looks terrific, with lots of breathtaking footage of the natural world, from the tiniest pteropod (the fluttery, planktonic sea snail that is most threatened by acidification) to the most majestic Norwegian scenery.” It also returns again and again to Huseby’s relationship with his grandson—a leitmotif that lends both a sense of scale and urgency to the filmmakers’ message.
A Sea Change follows the quest of Huseby, a retired history teacher, to discover what is happening to the world’s oceans. After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Darkening Sea,” he travels to Alaska, California, Washington, and Norway to find out about the rising acidity of the oceans and what this “sea change” bodes for the world. He speaks with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, and artists and discovers that excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing sea water chemistry and making it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish a billion people depend upon for their source of protein.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Huseby and Ettinger.
A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish Screening
Chatham Real Food Market Co-op
15 Church Street, Chatham, NY; 518.392.3353
Admission free; reservations essential.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/10/10 at 06:04 PM • Permalink
RI Selects: Nothing Silent About It
February 12 @ 7 p.m.
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Experience silent film as it was intended to be. A free screening of the 1922 comedy, Grandma’s Boy, starring Harold Lloyd, will be accompanied by live piano, vocal and percussion by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton.
Harold Lloyd was the most successful silent comedian of the 20’s, eclipsing Chaplin’s and Keaton’s box office receipts. The film, a coming-of-age story with hapless Harold outwitting bullies and winning the girl of his dreams, is filled with gags courtesy of writer Hal Roach (Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy).
Donald Sosin was the resident pianist at MoMA for five years and currently plays for the Film Society of Lincoln Center and BAM, the Whitney Museum and at film seminars at Harvard, Yale and other campuses here and abroad. Joanna Seaton has sung with jazz great Dick Hyman at the 92nd St. YM-YWHA, and appeared in many Off-Broadway and regional theater productions. Learn more about their work at oldmoviemusic.com.
Geer Village
Hollenbeck Room
99 South Canaan Road (Route 7)
Canaan, CT
Admission: Free, no reservations required.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/01/10 at 02:42 PM • Permalink
“Keep Farming” Film Fest Deadline for Submisssions 2/15
The Chatham Agricultural Partnership, the Chatham Film Club, and the Columbia Land Conservancy once again present Farm Film Fest III, an afternoon of farming films to be presented on Sunday, March 7, from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham, NY. The organizers are now seeking short films about local farms or farm-related issues to screen. Films should be 5-20 minutes long and submitted in DVD format by February 15. For more information, go to the Keep Farming website.
For submission details, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 01/21/10 at 01:11 PM • Permalink
RI Selects: Meet “Secretariat”
Saturday, December 5 @ 1 p.m.
Of course, the real Secretariat died in 1989, but Harbor Mist, one of the horses that will portray the record-holding Triple Crown winner in a forthcoming Disney bio-pic, will be visiting the region this weekend on his way back to California. Harbor Mist will perform tricks, and Rex Peterson, one of Hollywood’s foremost horse trainers,will fill us in on some of the behind-the-scenes drama of making a film with horses.
In 1973, Secretariat, owned by Penny Chenery Tweedy (played by Diane Lane in the film, which is set for release next fall), was the first U.S. Triple Crown winner in twenty-five years. He set records in two of the events—the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, that still stand today.
Windrock Farm
Amenia, NY
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 11/09/09 at 11:55 AM • Permalink
Williamstown Film Festival Tickets on Sale
Suitably enough, the highlight of the first weekend of the 11th Annual Williamstown Film Festival (October 23 - 25; second weekend, October 29 - November 1), will be dinner and a movie on Saturday night. The annual benefit dinner is being held this year at Mezze’s new catering facility in Williamstown. The film that follows, Against the Current,was written and directed by Peter Callahan who, in 2004, read an earlier version of the screenplay at the Williamtown Festival. His feature film screens at 8 p.m. at MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center in nearby North Adams.
Callahan, who grew up in the Hudson Valley and currently lives in Westchester County, has made a film that is likely to resonate with local audiences. The principal action takes place in a familiar setting seen from a curious point of view. During much of the film, the protagonist swims in the Hudson River, covering 150 miles between Troy and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. His reasons are only gradually revealed to both the audience and his companions in the escort boat. The swimmer, Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes), a financial writer, is struggling with a tragic loss. He decides to distinguish himself by doing something unique. What ensues is a physical journey and an emotional one that explores the psychological devastation that grief can wreak.
Among the other highlights in this year’s roster:
Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy, a sequel to Sarah Gilbert’s 1982 documentary, Greenaway, which examined her parents values and unusual lifestyle. One of six children, Gilbert grew up amidst great wealth on a private island in Long Island Sound near Greenwich, CT. Today she is approaching the age of her parents when the first film was made. In the sequal Gilbert and her siblings look back with sympathy and affection at their foibles, eccentricities, and paranoia (they firmly believed that a Communist takeover of the U.S. was imminent, and that they were in grave personal danger; back then, at the dawn of the Reagan Revolution!). Gilbert will be at the breakfast seminar preceding the film, as will Callahan and David Brind, who wrote the screenplay for Dare, another film being screened. Their topic: “Life into Art.”
Mart Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band opened the year before Stonewall and is believed to be the first theater piece to focus exclusively on the everyday lives of gay men. In his film Making the Boys, through interviews with Edward Albee, Robert Wagner, Larry Kramer, Dominick Dunne, Dan Savage, Michael Musto, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Paul Rudnick, Carson Kressley, Michael Cunningham, and Marc Shainman, documentarian Crayton Robey explores the hostility gay people endured and their euphoria in the 60s and 70s as they emerged from the closet en masse. This screening will be preceded by a lunch seminar with the film director and part-time Columbia County resident James Ivory.
In an era when political news is entertainment 24/7, when “Joe the Plumber” can, in a matter of weeks, become a political commentator with a global reach, when a little-known Alaskan governor can be transformed overnight into a “world leader,” the media that enable all of this deserve closer scrutiny. In his documentary Poliwood, the esteemed feature film director Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog) explores the fusion of politics, celebrity, entertainment, and the people who decide what’s news.
When director Richard Shepard was a boy, his dad took him to see The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. He was particularly taken by the character Fredo. “There was something about the sadness and loneliness and oddness of the guy.” Years later, Shepard decided to learn everything he could about John Cazale, the actor who played Fredo, but there was little information, except that he had appeared in just five movies—The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter—before dying of cancer at 42. “...five great movies that were nominated for Best Picture,” Shepard says. “If he were a baseball player, he’d be in the Hall of Fame. He was five for five.” So he set out to make a documentary. In the end, I Knew It Was You may be less about Cazale than about the colleagues he influenced—Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, and Meryl Streep, to whom he was engaged at the time of his death.
One of the most popular components of the Williamstown Festival is the emphasis placed on short films, which are scattered throughout the schedule. A feature film in this year’s line-up, Dare, started as a well-received short.
Williamstown Film Festival Tickets
Weekend passes: $85 (weekend 1) & $120 (weekend 2)
All festival pass: $205
Benefit dinner and film: $100 (not covered by passes)
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 10/06/09 at 01:10 PM • Permalink
FilmColumbia Celebrates its 10th Year
"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus", starring the late Heath Ledger
The four-day movie marathon known as FilmColumbia, which was founded in 1999, comes to the village of Chatham from October 22 - 25. A star-studded lineup of more than 30 international screenings, plus panel discussions, script readings, parties, and more, the festival “has something for everyone,” according to Peter Biskind, executive director and co-programmer with Larry Kardish, of FilmColumbia. This year, he adds, “We have more comedies than before—our sneak preview for Saturday night has created a lot of buzz in the industry.” With their career connections to the film industry, Columbia County residents Biskind, a Vanity Fair writer and author of many books on film, and Kardish, a filmmaker, curate the selection of new works each year from filmmakers around the world, making FilmColumbia one of the most diverse, intimate, and respected cinematic events on the east coast.
Highlights of the 2009 schedule include such noteworthy releases as director Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the last movie to star actor Heath Ledger, who died in the midst of production. The film would’ve died too, Biskind explains, were it not for the unique script. “The characters plunge through a mirror confronting their true selves and changing their physical selves. That premise allowed three other actors—Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, all friends of Ledger—to be incorporated into the story without revisions.”
Other movies showing this year at FilmColumbia spotlight historical characters (Mussolini in Vincere; Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria; Barack Obama in By the People); political drama (The White Ribbon, Axis of Good, The Men Who Stare At Goats); documentary work (Living In Emergency, I.O.U.S.A); comedy (The Maid, the Coen Brothers, A Serious Man, and the Saturday night sneak); and melodrama (That Evening Sun, Against the Current, Fish Tank), plus numerous special interest films and cutting-edge adult animation. Many of the screenings are followed by Q&A sessions in which the director, producer, and/or actors discuss the making of the movie and field questions from the audience.
Produced and organized by Chatham Film Club members, under the direction of Calliope Nicholas, FilmColumbia uses three Chatham village venues—the Crandell Theatre, The Morris Memorial, and the Tracy Memorial—for screenings and special events.
FilmColumbia Festival
October 22 - 25
Individual tickets $5 - $8/members; $2 - $8/students; $7 - $10/non-members
All-Film Pass, $80/members, $110/non-members
Gold Pass to all events, $125/members, $175/non-members.
Chatham Film Club members may use this order form now.
The general public may buy tickets on-line or at the Chatham Bookstore, starting Friday, October 9
Advance purchase highly recommended as most films sell out.
During the festival, some tickets may be available at the Tracy Memorial.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 09/30/09 at 08:08 AM • Permalink
Still Some Tickets Left for Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” Chatham Premiere
There was a time when lots of small towns across America had an old movie palace like the Crandell, a theater in Chatham that was built in 1926 as a venue for vaudeville and the silent picture show. Since 1960, the year Psycho was the big hit, the Crandell has been owned by the Quirino family. These days, it is undeniably frayed around the edges, but to understand what a loss it would be to a town like Chatham were the Crandell to close, one has only to observe the people arriving at the theater on any given Friday night. Teens on what used to be called “dates,” a mother and her pre-adolescent son, three generations of one family, they all come to see whatever is being offered on the one big screen, despite outmoded projection and (until recently) sound equipment. They come because the Crandell is still the heartbeat of Main Street on the weekend evening, one small town movie theater whose role has not been usurped by some Vegas-style multi-plex in a strip mall outside of town. For that alone, it deserves to be treasured.
And it is. Even though its owner Tony Quirino is ready to pack it in, the Crandell is not going to close. At least not if the members of the Chatham Film Club have any say in the matter, which, apparently, they do. Their Save the Crandell campaign is a big deal and about to become much bigger. One film-club member, the Academy-award nominated screenwriter and producer James Shamus, a Ghent resident, pulled strings to have his most recent film, Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, which was shot in Columbia County (New Lebanon, Hillsdale), premiere at a benefit screening at the Crandell on July 30. The first show, at 6 p.m., is already sold out. Tickets are still available for the 8:30 show and for the gala that will be held in a tent near the theater from 7 - midnight.
It promises to be quite a night. James Shamus will be there, of course, and so will the Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee, as well as the film’s young star, Demetri Martin (Yale, NYU Law School, stand-up comedy—his poor parents— and now this). True to the smalltown spirit of the event, there will be a buffet of picnic fare—pulled pork sliders, hot dogs, potato salad, good tomatoes, pesto pasta salad—as well as wine, beer (Chatham Breweries, naturally), and soft drinks. And, of course, there will be brownies. As Sandi Knakal of the Film Club board points out, “What’s a Woodstock party without brownies?”
Chatham Film Club
Taking Woodstock premiere, 8:30 p.m.
The Crandell Theatre
Main Street, Chatham
Tickets: $25/8:30 show
Premiere Party 7 p.m. - midnight
Tickets: $50/general admission, $150/reserved seating
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/09/09 at 07:55 AM • Permalink
Outdoor Movies: Smiles of a Summer Night
They say the best things in life are free, which around here includes many of the movies shown en pleine air at night in the summertime. The wonderful sponsors of these programs seem to consider it their civic duty to provide families with every opportunity to be outdoors on our all-too-infrequent (especially this year) hot summer nights.
The first of the two Handy Boys Enterprises Free Outdoor Movies, Kung Fu Panda, will screen Saturday, July 18, and the second Madagascar 2 on August 15.
Eddie Collins Ball Field
Route 22, across from Agway
Millerton, NY
Saturday , July 18 at about 8:30 p.m.
Admission: Free
The Images Cinema in Williamstown dubs its outdoor movie series Family Flicks Under the Stars, and screens them on Sundays (in case of rain, the party moves indoors to the theater). The 4-week series begins this Sunday with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version, not to be confused with the more recent one with Johnny Depp in the title role).
Images Cinema
50 Spring Street
Williamstown, MA; 413.458.5612
Sunday July 12, at about 8:30 p.m.
Admission: Free
Performance Space for the 21st Century in Chatham screens its films in an airy tent—perhaps not quite as glamorous as under-the-stars, but at least it’s waterproof. Another difference: their programming (all about singing and dancing, this year) is for grown-ups. Back again this year, Adjunct Professor of Communications at FIT Frank Farnham introduces the first film, The Turning Point, with Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, and Mikhail Baryshnikov on Tuesday, July 14. Old Chatham resident Farnham will also be on hand with illuminating commentary for subsequent screening of such films as Tales of Hoffmann, Guys & Dolls, and A Hard Day’s Night.
PS 21
2980 Route 66 (north of the village); Chatham; 518.392.6121
Tuesday, July 14, at about 8:30 p.m.
Admission: Free
Throughout the summer The City of Pittsfield periodically offers free Outdoor Movies on the Common. The first of the season, on Friday, July 17, is Dreamworks’ Animation’s Over the Hedge (PG).
The City of Pittsfield
The Common, on First Street
Pittsfield, MA
Friday, July 17, after dusk; canceled in the event of rain.
Admission: Free
Time & Space Limited, the PARC Foundation, and the City of Hudson are co-sponsoring free outdoor movies on Friday nights from now till the end of summer. Their programming is, as usual for TSL, unpredictable and amusing. This Friday, they’ll kick off the series with the cartoon, Sita Sings the Blues, an animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana, billed as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.” Subsequent weeks will feature Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, the documentary Man on Wire, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. For a complete schedule, visit the TSL website.
Pocket Park
330 Warren Street
Hudson, NY
Friday, July 10, after dusk; rain date, Saturday
Admission: Free
The Clark in Williamstown is presenting a summer film series, An Artist in Her Own Right: Barbara Stanwyck and the Modern American Woman, starting next Saturday afternoon. While it is not outdoors, it is free, so we’re including it. How could we not with a line-up like this: Baby Face, Stella Dallas, Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, and, of course, Double Indemnity.
The Clark
225 South Street
Williamstown, MA
Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m.
Admission: Free
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/06/09 at 12:49 AM • Permalink
The 4th Annual Berkshire International FIlm Festival Will Be Boffo: May 14 - 17
Vickery at BIFF's opening night 2008
Kelley Vickery is feeling guilty because she is praying for more rain next weekend. The founder of the Berkshire International Film Festival knows that more people will buy tickets for the 70 films she will be screening from May 14 - 17 in Great Barrington if the sun isn’t shining. (She’s not praying for rain on the 14th, however, because BIFF is hosting a free outdoor block party with a DJ on Railroad Street that night from 8:30 to 11 PM .) Vickery is a hands-on impressario: she not only pre-screens hundreds of movies (along with her advisory committee) to create the schedule, but organizes all the parties and panel discussions, which have given BIFF a reputation as a festival for people who are serious about film and having a good time.
For opening night, she has invited filmmakers/directors Emily and Sarah Kunstler, who will speak after a screening at the Mahaiwe of William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (trailer below), a film about their radical father, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. “He was one of the most loved and hated lawyers in New York and one of the most controversial figures in the civil rights movement,” says Vickery. “He represented the prisoners at Attica. He really made history.”
“We’re closing the festival with a film about political action of another sort,” says Vickery of The Yes Men Fix The World, a documentary about two practical jokers who dress up as executives at corporations they hate not only to make fun of greedy capitalists but also to point out the corrupt nature of big business. “The film won the audience award at the Berlin Film Festival, and it’s going to be at the Cannes Film Festival, too.”
The editors of Rural Intelligence are most excited about the documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (trailer below), which chronicles the life of the influential and legendary graphic designer, who was one of the founders of New York Magazine. (The spirit of Rural Intelligence owes a great debt to New York, where RI‘s founders were both editors many years ago.) As the movie makes clear, Glaser defined the look of the 1960s and 1970s as much as anyone.
Vikery is eager to point out that BIFF is more than documentaries. “We have James Gandolfini’s new film and Jeff Daniels’ new film,” she says, while also noting that she’s included local filmmakers such as Mati Kiin, whose An Impulse to Soar is about the Berkshire Children’s Chorus, and Rick Derby, whose Axis of Good: A Story from 9/11 is about Berkshire residents Don and Sally Goodrich whose son Peter was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 when it flew into the World Trade Center. “We have more films than ever before,” says Vickery. “And we are starting at 9:15 in the morning just like a grown-up film festival!”
4th Annual Berkshire International Film Festival
May 14 - 17
Great Barrington, MA; 413.528.8030
All individual movies are $10, except for opening night tickets which are $20.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/07/09 at 02:05 PM • Permalink
A Native Son Returns to the 4th Annual Kent Film Festival
Ethan Mechare, an actor, writer and filmmaker who grew up in Falls Village, CT, where his mother is now the First Selectman, is returning home from California for the Kent Film Festival. His documentary, Work Harder (click on the title to see the trailer), which chronicles the lives of Acela and Allzon— two Hispanic women who are among the working poor trying to live on the minimum wage in southern California—will be shown on Sunday, March 29, at 2 PM.
How did you get the idea for Work Harder?
I read a book called Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, and I thought it was a poignant commentary on the state of how this country deals with poverty and creating a livable wage. In the book, Ehrenreich documents her struggle to live paycheck to paycheck in three different U.S. cities. What I didn’t like about the book was that it didn’t tell the story of the people who actually lived on minimum wage. Her book proved an important point but I wanted to go beyond that and take it to the next level so I decided to make a film about the women who really made ends meet on $6.75 an hour, and didn’t have the option to go back to a life as an upper middle class white woman.
How did you meet Acela and Allzon, the stars of your film? How did you gain their trust?
In the beginning I followed Ehrenreich’s template and got a job at a Los Angeles Kmart and filmed my own experience trying to live off minimum wage as a single white male. This footage didn’t make it into the film because I wanted the story to just be about Alizon and Acela but this is where I met Alizon. She worked in the cafe portion of Kmart and I would see her everyday on my break. We built a rapport and after about a month I asked her if she’d be willing to let me follow her around and tell me her story on film. I would never have been able to capture her story on film if I hadn’t been working at Kmart as well—I believe my working there was imperative to her opening up the way she did. I met Acela through a non-profit called the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. Acela was volunteering for them and she was my contact person to set me up with another woman who was living on welfare. I met Acela and the other woman at a rally to increase the California minimum wage and Acela was one of the keynote speakers. I could tell the woman who Acela introduced me to wasn’t interested in telling her story on film so I asked Acela if she would consider being a part of the film. After she told me to quit leaving such long messages on her cellphone because she had a limited plan—she agreed. I think Acela began to trust me when I showed up to film her at 6 AM at her house in East Los Angeles the day after we met.
How did growing up in a rural small town effect how you react to the struggles or the urban poor and working class?
There are working class people and poverty everywhere you go and growing up in a small town is no exception. There are so many other factors involved with the cycle of poverty than just class issues—factors like race, gender, sexual orientation, access to education, affordable healthcare and childcare. It wasn’t until I went to an international university at 18 did I begin to really experience life outside of a rural existence. It was eye opening for me, and I began to realize very quickly that I wanted to be on the forefront of the equal rights and equal pay movements in an urban setting.
What were the best things about growing up in Falls Village?
Growing up my parents worked extremely hard to make the community a stronger and better place to live. In fact, they still do, and I have always taken that with me wherever I have lived or traveled. Your community should be listed as one of the top five human survival needs (maybe after food, water and shelter!) because it offers you a chance to find out what’s important to you, how to be sympathetic and empathetic to those who are not like you and ultimately I believe that all change starts in your own backyard and branches out from there. I appreciated the small tight community of Falls Village.
What were the most challenging aspects of growing up in Falls Village?
I was limited in how much I could do with what I was interested in. I wanted to be an actor, a filmmaker, a TV producer and a writer and Falls Village clearly wasn’t Hollywood. I remember seeing the Bonanza bus at the end of Johnson Road that had a little sign in the window that said NEW YORK CITY and I just couldn’t wait for the day that I could get on that bus and explore what was beyond my own zip code.
What is it like to be returning home to Litchfield County as a documentary filmmaker?
It’s such an honor to have my film in the Kent Film Festival. There is nothing like sharing my work with the people who I’ve grown up among and with. That’s the part of community that I love—that no matter where you go, who you become, what you accomplish—the place that raised you and nurtured you, whether it was positive or negative, will always be a part of how you frame your life.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/26/09 at 05:04 AM • Permalink
Documentaries Dominate the 4th Annual Kent Film Festival: March 26 - 29
Kent Film Festival founders Patrice and Frank Galterio
Four years ago, without any experience or a business plan, Frank and Patrice Galterio decided to create a film festival in Kent, CT. They envisioned an event that would attract international talent yet remain authentic, accessible and community-minded. “Everyone walks down the same red carpet here,” says Frank, speaking metaphorically. “We’re keeping this for real independent filmmakers, a venue for people who want and need their work to be seen.” Patrice nods her head in agreement and adds emphatically: “It’s never going to be the Hamptons.”
Since last year’s Kent Film Festival, the Galterios have screened some 280 fillms and selected 14 features and dozens of shorts, which will be screened from Thursday, March 26, to Sunday, March 29. “Everything shown Thursday will be show again over the weekend,” he says. This year, the festival has 18 documentaries, which is more than ever, and many address heavy-duty issues such as Sam Bozzo’s Blue Gold: World Water Wars and 21-year-old Danny Mendoza’s Familiar Voices about the genocide in Darfur. “That we have so many documentaries is a reflection of society today,” says Frank. “People have very serious concerns.”
The documentaries that Patrice is most excited about deal with another sort of life and death issues. “My personal favorite is Airplay: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio by Chris Fox Gilson,” she says. “If you remember deejays like Cousin Brucie, Scott Muni and Alison Steele, you’ll like this movie. I also really like I Need That Record [by Brendan Toller], which explains why independent record stores are disappearing.” Both Galterios are excited that filmmaker Cass Warner , the granddaughter of legendary studio boss Harry Warner, will conduct a Q&A after the screening of her documentary, The Brothers Warner (preview it below.)
Education as well as entertainment is the goal of the Kent Film Festival, and there are three workshops on Saturday and ten post-screening Q&As with filmmakers. “We’d like to have a school someday, and operate year round,” says Frank, who hopes that he is helping the town live up to its slogan: Kent, the Cultural Heart of the Litchfield Hills. But the most important part is bringing together movie makers and audiences who might not otherwise connect. “We like to think of it as an art gallery for movies,” says Frank.
Kent Film Festival - March 26 -29
3 Kent Green Blvd, Kent, CT; 203.681.5929
Single tickets $8
Full-day pass $35
Weekend pass $195 (includes all workshops)
Aficionado pass $250 (includes workshops, parties and priority seating)
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/18/09 at 05:59 PM • Permalink
To Hell with Home Alone: We’ve Got Oscar Parties!
Come on, admit it, you love it: the red carpet fashion show, the fatuous exchanges between the stars and Chris Connolly, the host’s lame jokes, the “humble” acceptance speeches (even when the Academy voters get it dead wrong). The Academy Awards is one of those ties that bind (OMG!; alas, the awful truth), so why watch it alone on a little screen, when you can see it with your friends and neighbors in Hi Def, and share the schadenfreude of discovering which stars have bad skin.
Chatham Film Club Screening and Party
The Chatham Film Club is taking the Awards personally this year and rightly so. Member Courtney Hunt, of East Chatham, is nominated for Best Screenplay and Melissa Leo, the star of Frozen River, which Hunt wrote, produced, and directed, is a Best Actress nominee. In Chatham the festivities begin early with an afternoon screening of Frozen River then continue that evening with a party at a nearby bar.
In addition to its two Oscar nominations, Frozen River has already won several awards including Best First Film from the New York film Critics Circle, Best Debut Director and Spotlight Award form the National Board of Review. Awards in festival competitions included the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Opening Night Selection at New Director/New Films at MOMA. So the high hopes among local supporters and film buffs is not just pie in the sky. We could making history here; so why not watch with friends, neighbors and fellow-fans.
Chatham Film Club
Frozen River Screening, Crandell Theatre, Chatham, 2:30 p.m.
Admission: $6; $5/members
Oscar party, Peint O’Gwrw, Main Street (next door to the Crandell), 7 p.m.
Light buffet and cash bar.
Oscar Party at Images Cinema
Watch the Oscar Ceremony on their big screen with emcee Eric Kerns. Snacks and a special Oscar-themed drinks menu will be available for purchase.
You may also enter the “Pick-the-Winner” contest, which quite apart from any glory associated with anticipating the Academy voters’ choices, gives you a chance to win one of two gift baskets filled with goodies from local businesses (see below for details). Regardless of how wrong you are, the more you buy, the greater your chances of winning! Since party is free, they ask that you consider entering the contest to support Images Cinema. Or just enter
Gift Basket A: 2 Williamstown Film Festival Weekend Passes; $50 Gift Certificate from The Browns; 1 Hour Treatment at Day & Beth Healing Arts; $40 Gift Certificate from Spice Root; Vera Bradley change purse from The Cottage; Gear from Hardware the MASS MoCA store
Gift Basket B: 1 Night at Buxton Hill Guest House; 1 Private Yoga Session from Tasha Yoga; 9-inch Ice Cream Cake from Lickety Split; $40 Gift Certificate from Gramercy Bistro; $25 Gift Certificate from Zanna; Gear from Hardware the MASS MoCA store
Images Cinema
Williamstown, MA
7:30 p.m.
Admission: Free; ballots @$10 or 3 for $25
Upstate Films’ Pajama/Black Tie Party in Rhinebeck
“Potluck! Trivia! Prizes!” promise the normally sober-and-serious-minded folks at Upstate Films, who are suggesting that attendees where either tuxedos or pajamas encouraged, and bring some food and/or drinks to pass around. There will be prizes for Best Outfit, as well as trivia questions, and Award predictions. The only cost: $5 per Awards ballot, all proceeds of which go to Doctors Without Borders and The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Seating is limited, so reserve ahead; tickets are available now at box office, first come first served, with a limit of 4 tickets per person.
Upstate Films Oscar Party
Admission: Free; ballots @$5
Red Carpet coverage begins at 6 p.m.; Awards show, 8 p.m..
Hollywood-On-The-Hudson at TSL
Time & Space Limited in Hudson encourages you to bring your Oscar party to them: “Let TSL be your living room for the evening while you celebrate the 81st Academy Awards, watching the show on our big screen.” Just like at home, you can move between a comfortable chair and a big screen in their theater, and food and beverageS in their café, where the ceremony will also be projected on a smaller screen. Special food and desserts will be available for purchase, provided by Verdigris Tea. There will be a cash bar.
Time & Space Limited Oscar Party
434 Columbia Street, Hudson
Red carpet coverage: 7 p.m.
Food and drink for purchase.
Ballots: free
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/18/09 at 10:31 AM • Permalink
The Banff Film Festival Comes to Lenox
"Trackng the White Reindeer," directed by Hamid Sadar at the Banff Mountain Film Festival
Most film festivals last a weekend and then they’re over. The organizers of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada, which is devoted to movies about outdoor sports and adventure travel, take a broader view and send their festival on the road for six months, and this weekend it arrives at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School. Sponsored by the Arcadian Shop, the outdoors shop in Lenox, the festival includes films on everything from extreme snowboarding to documentaries on indigenous mountain peoples. Ticket sales ($10/$15) benefit the Lenox Educational Enrichment Foundation, and the festival also provides an opportunity for the LMMHS Crew to do some fundraising by running the “Crew Cafe,” which will serve supper and dessert in the school’s cafeteria.
Banff Film Festival at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School
February 20 and 21
Crew Cafe opens at 5 PM
Theater opens at 6 PM
Films begin at 7 PM
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 02/18/09 at 08:07 AM • Permalink
Academy Award-Nominated Shorts at TSL
Unless you attend a lot of film festivals, it’s unlikely you’ve seen the ten short films nominated for Oscars. Time and Space Limited offers remedy: the five animated and five live-action films will be screened there this week. As A.O. Scott of the New York Times points out, “...the Oscar shorts offer a more accurate, more complete glimpse of the state of cinema than the features.” Specifically, that the distinction between domestic and foreign-made products is an artificial one: Cinematically, we are one world, indivisible. Which does not suggest that shorts are no different from features: unfettered by commercial concerns, they have a better shot at expressing a singular vision, sometimes using devices, such as little or no dialogue, that would be insupportable in the longer form.
Animated
“Lavatory Lovestory” by Konstantin Bronzit, a charming 10-minutes, line-drawn animation from Russia in which a bathroom attendant searches frantically for her secret admirer.
“La Maison en Petits Cubes (House of Small Cubes)” by Kunio Kato from Japan; a wistfully charming hand-drawn meditation on climate change and the passage of time. In it a lumpy, little man stares out of his apartment window at a flooded city, dives to retrieve his favorite pipe, and rediscovers the past, submerged in his memory.
“Oktapodi” from Gobelins, l’École de l’Image, France;
“Presto” by first-time director Doug Sweetland, from Pixar (United States), this one accompanied showings of Wall-E in some theaters. It depicts a battle of wits between Presto, the magician, and his recalcitrant rabbit.
“This Way Up” by Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes, Britain. In which two undertakers must contend with overzealous deer hunters, a hungry vulture and a boulder as they try to escort the body of a sweet little old lady to her final resting place.
“Oktapodi” an award-winning student film in which two amorous octopi find their romance threatened when one is sold to a cook on a minuscule Greek island; a long, multi-limbed, slapstick chase scene ensues.
Live-action
“Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” A much-heralded 30-minutes student film in which a department store security guard, secretly in love with a clerk, follows her onto a train and witnesses a seeming-rival being attacked. A solemn study of guilt by Reto Caffi, Switzerland and Germany
“Grisen (The Pig)” A patient in a hospital finds comfort in a painting a whimsical pig, until another patient asks that it be removed. By Dorthe Warno Hogh, Denmark;
“Manon Sur le Bitumen (Manon on the Asphalt)”, a lyrical elegy for a young woman, who, on her way to a rendezvous with her boyfriend, hits a bump in the road that makes her see life from an entirely fresh perspective by Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont, France;
“New Boy” by Steph Green, based on a short story by Roddy Doyle, a poignant and comedic look at being the new boy in school, through the eyes of Joseph, a nine-year-old African.
“Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A mother convinces her son that their Jewish neighbors are going on a journey to “Toyland.” By Jochen Alexander Freydank, Germany.
Animated
Thursday, Feb 12th: 7:30
Saturday, Feb 14th: 3:30
Sunday, Feb 15th: 5:30
Live Action.
Friday, Feb 13th: 5:30
Saturday, Feb 14th: 7:30
Sunday, Feb 15th: 7:30
Time & Space Limited
434 Columbia Street, Hudson; 518.822.8100
Admission: $7/general, $5/members, students
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/05/09 at 11:37 AM • Permalink
Williams College Queer Film Festival
“There are a ton of great queer films out there,” says Justin Adkins, Queer Life Coordinator at Williams College. “And very few make it to Northern Berkshire County.” That shortcoming is about to be remedied, and anyone whose response to this news is, “How nice for them,” clearly has never seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one of the most original, heartbreaking, and entertaining films ever made—and one that deserves a much wider audience than the cult following that has grown up around it. So it is a great service to the entire community that “Hedwig” will be screened on Saturday night and of great interest that its acclaimed writer, star, and director, the amazing John Cameron Mitchell, who did “Hedwig” first as an off-Broadway musical, also will be present. (Another of his films, Shortbus, will be screened that afternoon, followed by a Q & A.)
The Festival kicks off on Friday with, The Edge of Heaven, a 2007 Turkish-German film, written and directed by Fatih Akin, which won the Prix du Scenario at Cannes that year. Other highlights include the features But I’m a Cheerleader and Breakfast with Scot, and two documentaries, Saving Marriage: The True Story of the Massachusetts Fight to Save Marriage Equality, and Be Like Others; Transsexual in Iran. The festival concludes on Thursday with, The Bubble, a 2007 film about a group of 20-somethings sharing a tiny apartment in modern day Tel Aviv.
Queer Film Festival
Friday - Thursday, January 16th - 22nd
Images Cinema
55 Spring Street, Williamstown; 413.458.5612
Admission: $9, $6/students & seniors; $5/members, Williams & Bennington College Students
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 01/13/09 at 03:22 PM • Permalink
