Cultural corespondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox: Cineastes and supporters gathered at Haven Cafe in Lenox on Thursday, April 28 to be among the first to hear the roster for the Sixth Annual Berkshire International Film Festival. Founder and executive director Kelley Vickery (left, with Berkshire Botanical Garden's Molly Boxer) drew applause when she announced that the 2011 festival, fondly known as BIFF, will kick off on June 2 with the hit documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, followed by the June 3 Pittsfield opening night screening of the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Buck, a portrait of real-life horse-whisperer Buck Brannaman. More than 70 features, documentaries, and shorts from 15 countries made the final cut, including about a dozen made by local filmmakers or featuring local cast, crew, or locations. BIFF also features the return of renowned film critic and historian Kent Jones to his hometown, Pittsfield, for the Beacon Cinema's screening of A Letter to Elia, which he made with longtime collaborator with Martin Scorsese. His appearance, sponsored by Berkshire Film & Media Commission, includes a Q&A and discussion of the life and work of Elia Kazan, followed by a screening of Kazan's 1960 film Wild River. In all, two dozen filmmakers will attend BIFF, which expands again this year to Simon's Rock, and passholders will have the chance to rub shoulders with these auteurs at the festival's plethora of parties. Vickery kept her audience in suspense as to the identity of the festival's honoree, whose work will be celebrated at a tribute to be held at the Mahaiwe Theatre on Saturday, June 5.
Filmmaker John Whalan with actor and knitwear designer Karen Allen; Tyler Weld and BlueQ honcho Seth Nash.
Animated filmmaker Ben Hillman with party guru Amy Rudnick; BIFF's Lauren Ferin and media maven Eugenie Sills.
Stonover Farm's Suky Werman with screenwriter Channing Gibson and Diane Pearlman of the Berkshire Film & Media Commission; consultant Phil Deely and actor Hilary Somers Deely, co-curator of this fall's Made in the Berkshires festival.
Heather Rose and Amanda Bettis, both of Studio 2; artist Cythia Wick and screenwriter John Orloff.
Beacon Cinema manager Adam Chait and Howard Marshall, assistant manager of The Triplex Cinema; art dealer Leslie Ferrin and graphic designer Mark Tomasi.
Book publicist David Carriere with caterer Kate Baldwin; attorneys Vicki Bonnington and David Schecker.
Dessert entrepreneur Lisa Newmann, architect Kristine Sprague, and BIFF programmer Lillian Lennox.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
