Next Thursday, August 27, The Moviehouse in Millerton will host two benefit screenings of Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, portions of which were filmed last summer on Route 22 at the Lone Pine Farm in Millerton. The remainder of the film was shot in nearby Columbia County, primarily on locations in New Lebanon and Hillsdale. The beneficiary of the screenings is the eminently worthy Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. One of the principal filmmakers, one of the actors, nearly all of the extras, several crew members, and at least two of the characters in the film have local ties. James Schamus, the producer/screenwriter, who also collaborated with Lee on Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm, has a house in Ghent. Mamie Gummer (above left), the actress who plays festival-organizer Michael Lang's cool-and-wise girlfriend, Tisha, grew up in Litchfield County and attended Hotchkiss. She is the daughter Meryl Streep and the sculptor Don Gummer. In the eighties, Joel Rosenman, one of the "Young Men with Unlimited Capital" who helped to expand the scope of the project when Lang turned to him and his partner John Roberts for organizational and financial support, had a weekend house in Lakeville. Roberts family are long-time Litchfield-county residents, as was he before his untimely death from cancer in 2001. The idea for the film, a comedy, came about when serendipity-prone Eliot Tiber, author (with Tom Monte) of the book Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life happened to be promoting his memoir at the same time Ang Lee was on tour on behalf of Brokeback Mountain. Never one to miss an opportunity, Tiber collared Lee offstage at a talk show and told him about his book. Lee, who found Tiber "incredibly charming", was intrigued. Having just completed an outright tragedy, following a long string of dramas, Lee was open to the idea of making a happy film, a comedy about peace, love and rock 'n' roll. Organizers hope that guests will get into that Woodstock spirit by wearing denim, tie dye, crushed velvet and fringe. There will be a wine-and-munchies gathering in the Gallery at the Moviehouse between screenings, with surprise guests, raffle prizes, tee shirts, books and CDs. Woodstock Ventures LLC has donated an original and authenticated 1969 poster, Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music, as well as an earlier poster for Woodstock: An Aquarian Exposition, Wallkill, NY, the town that turned the festival organizers down. Taking Woodstock Benefit Screenings and PartyThursday, August 27 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. The Moviehouse 48 Main Street, Millerton Donation/$20; reservations highly recommended.
