Woodstock Film Festival

Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin on Transitioning from Indie to Hollywood and Why Critics Don't Matter

Emily Buder — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 13:59:14 GMT

Low-budget mavericks Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin have been through the wringer. When Woodstock Film Festival director Meira Blaustein invited the filmmakers to share their trials and tribulations at this year's festival, there were stories abound — stories of failure, success, depression, revelations and 25 years of friendship.

"Atom is one of the most amazing artists I’ve ever encountered," Blaustein told Indiewire. "From the days of 'Exotica,' he was one of my favorite filmmakers. He has the heart of a poet, the mind of a philosopher, and the soul of an artist. He lives and breathes the cinematic language. And Guy Maddin embodies our motto: 'fiercely independent.' These guys are what we’re about. That’s the Woodstock Film Festival." Egoyan's thriller "Remember" and Maddin's experimental epic "The Forbidden Room" both screened at the festival this year.

The beginning of everything

"As a student, I realized there was no real model as to how to make films, besides just doing it yourself," said Egoyan. "I had to create my own way, on my own terms." Egoyan started experimenting with shorts in film school in Toronto; once he'd honed his skills and confidence, he began applying for ultra-low-budget grants. "I pulled a ton of incredible favors from friends," he said. Egoyan also had a short stint as a film critic. At the Toronto International Film Festival, he interviewed Charles Burnett and Victor Nuñez, both of whom had a significant impact on Egoyan's developing independent film ethos.

READ MORE: Why 'The Forbidden Room' Directors Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson Are More Excited for the Future of Film Than Ever

Maddin, who has been friends with Egoyan for over 25 years, opened by joking, "I'm really sick and tired of not being Atom Egoyan!" When the friends were in their twenties, Egoyan was enjoying substantial early success. "You seemed to already have seven features when we were in our mid-twenties," said Maddin. "So annoying!"

Maddin, for his part, got his start in the underground film scene in Winnipeg, Canada. "When I think about what independent cinema is, there could be nothing more independent than that Winnipeg film circuit, where the films are just playing in people's basements," Maddin remembers. He joined a local filmmaker, John Pace, and made some films of his own from scratch, using local actors and with modest means.

In the late '80s, someone suggested Maddin send the films to Toronto, and he got an acceptance. But once he arrived at Toronto, he felt utterly lost. "I was weeping on the street corner during a heavy downpour," said Maddin. "That's where I met Atom. I learned from him about what indie filmmaking was."

On to the film festivals

"I thought that if you managed to build on a little bit of success in the film festival world, that it was kind of like minor league baseball," said Maddin, "and you could work your way up to the major leagues and the Oscars." But reality soon hit.

After enjoying critical acclaim and positive buzz from audiences at festivals, Maddin's commercial prospects still looked grim. "I realized that, with my kind of strange little movies, no matter how high I rose in the festival world, it was just on another planet from commercial films," he said. His third feature film, "Careful," did very well at Toronto and the New York Film Festival, but when it opened theatrically, it averaged 2.1 people per screening. "It didn't even make it through its first week," remembers Maddin. "I think it was pulled on a Tuesday."

"I went through a brief period of depression when I tried to create a new model," said Maddin. He eventually learned how to build on his festival success in order to secure arthouse distribution, but he maintains that his films just don't procure commercial success.

"There are only so many people in each community who want to see a movie like [the ones I make], and a lot of them see it already at film festivals," he said.

Finding success in Hollywood

"Until the mid-'90s, I had no real sense of the crossover from indie to Hollywood," said Egoyan. The director said he took his success at festivals for granted. Once, he spoke to a CAA agent who was impressed with his work. "I remember saying, 'Why doesn't it feel like this in Los Angeles?'" said Egoyan. The agent told Egoyan that he'd have to be making a different kind of film.

In 1994, Egoyan's "Exotica" was picked up by Miramax out of Cannes. "They very shrewdly marketed it as a sex thriller," said Egoyan. "It was this breakthrough. Suddenly I had to deal with the industry."

Egoyan, who had just had his first child, found the prospect of actually making a living in the film industry daunting. "I spent this very confusing time in LA, after 'Exotica,' attached to a WB studio project called 'Dead Sleep,' and it was a really depressing year for me," he said. "I felt totally disconnected from what I thought I would be doing with my career, but I also realized this was a 'break.'"

When he agreed to the project, Egoyan thought Susan Sarandon would be the perfect lead, but the studio insisted on six actresses in a pay-or-play deal. "Later I found out all six actresses had previously passed on the film," said Egoyan. "I was there because I was the flavor of the week with 'Exotica,' so the studio thought I might reignite their interest. I was in these futile meetings with people who had already rejected the film." When "Dead Man Walking" came out, Susan Sarandon suddenly had cachet in Hollywood, but it was too little too late — Egoyan approached her again, only to find that she was too disgruntled to consider.

It was when Egoyan was asked to spend ten days deliberating on a jury at Cannes that he mustered the courage to walk away from the passionless studio project. "Being away from all that, I was finally surrounded by the films I wanted to be making," he said of his time at Cannes. "But everyone was asking how I could leave this project. They were saying it was the biggest mistake of my life."

Instead, Egoyan turned his sights to a passion project. He successfully usurped the rights to "The Sweet Hereafter" novel from Columbia, where the project had been sitting in development purgatory. "I promised the author, Russell Banks, that I could make his film, no matter how difficult the subject matter was," said Egoyan.

And so he did. To this day, "The Sweet Hereafter" is one of Egoyan's greatest critical accomplishments. (It maintains a solid 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.)

Maddin, conversely, enjoys having creative obstacles. "I really like it when I have restrictions, which hamstrings my independence a little bit," he said. "For instance, I've taken on jobs for hire out of desperation. Once I shot a ballet version of 'Draciula,' and I'm really glad I did it because I knew I couldn't do it." Maddin's commission went on to win an Emmy.

Going truly independent and personal

Now Egoyan mostly makes independent films; working this way allows him to stay true to his personal integrity and passion. "All of the films I've done have been very connected to experiences or feelings I've had, and that's why I did them independent," he said. "I want to protect that. If you do something, you have to be passionate about it because you have to convince a lot of people. You have to get a cast on board. If you're not passionate, they're not going to be. And you can't fake that."

When Egoyan does venture into Hollywood fare, he never strays far from his personal vision. "For 'Chloe,' there were a lot of things happening in my life at that time that made the film strangely personal," he said. "There were a lot of themes about marriage, and it resonated. It ended up being by far the most successful film I've ever done. If you're not seeing a reason why a film should be made, it's not a personal film. You need to feel that urgency, get excited."

Egoyan also mentioned having control over your budget as another compelling reason to stay independent. "When you're working in Hollywood, you don't have control over the budget," he said. "The things you're promised always change. When I'm producing, though, I have complete control. I know when things need to change. I've found it exhausting when you've invited to deal with material... you know the size, you get told you get to build this castle... but once you're in it, either through deception or whatever, your box gets smaller."

Maddin's first bigger budget feature was "Careful," which, at nearly $1.5 million, was twice the budget of his previous efforts. The film was intensely personal for Maddin. "As I was making the last cut, I remember thinking, I don't know what to do anymore," said Maddin. "I felt satisfied but lost at the same time."

Maddin spent the rest of the '90s "drifting," as he terms it, floating from idea to idea without much conviction. Then, a Greek tragedy saved him. "I read Euripides and found an identification point; I saw myself in these really ancient things," he said. "It suddenly occurred to me that I could write disguised autobiographical material but make it very personal, and steal the structure of classics."

This revelation inspired Maddin to make his work intensely personal. "I got masochistically personal and confessed a bit," he said. "My characters became richer and more sexually repulsive, more conniving. I was suddenly recalling long-forgotten episodes from memory, and instead of feeling shame I was feeling excitement because I had a scene in a movie."

Facing harsh criticism

After premiering at Cannes, Egoyan's "The Captive" endured a vitriolic critical backlash. "I was so excited about it," said Egoyan. "It was a traumatic launch. We showed it at Cannes and there was a violent response against the movie."

Egoyan said he was confused by the response because, to him, it was an accessible, finely tuned movie. "I thought I finally had this incredible structure," he said. According to Egoyan, "The Captive" has gone on to win viewership on demand.

But that wasn't Egoyan's first experience with harsh criticism. After he screened an early film, "Calendar," at Berlin, a well-known critic approached him with a foreboding assessment. "She said this is would be the best film I'd ever make," remembers Egoyan. "Then my next movie came out and she eviscerated it, of course." Egoyan thinks this speaks volumes about the state of contemporary criticism. "If some critics watch something early, they'll re-review to match the opinions of others. Critics are afraid of their jobs, afraid of falling out of favor with the herd mentality. That there's this viciousness that I've never really felt before. There's this rush to make judgment."

"It doesn't even really matter what critics say anymore," Egoyan continued. "What's important is that the film gets to the public and that there's a discussion. And you hope the bad reviews won't block that. You have to have incredibly thick skin."

But Egoyan's history with criticism is complex, and he was once on the other side of the equation. "I look back to some of the reviews I was doing in college, and I was incredibly vicious," he said. "It was entertaining to demolish something. In some ways, it's karma."

READ MORE: Atom Egoyan Defends 'The Captive' and Addresses His Critics

How the Woodstock Film Festival Achieves 'Fierce Independence' and 50% Female Directors

Emily Buder — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 18:30:37 GMT

Across the circuit, very few film festivals can lay claim to the virtues of true independence. Sundance, for example, regularly programs films whose budgets exceed $5 million; the same goes for Toronto, Berlin and Cannes. Sometimes it seems as if the truly low-budget gems don't have a chance to rise to the surface.

The Woodstock Film Festival is another story. With its "fiercely independent" tagline, Woodstock continues to stick to its guns, programming breakout features made on shoestring budgets from both emerging and established directors. Conspicuously absent are Hollywood-filled casts and sweeping crane shots. Instead, the festival champions more modest fare, such as the quiet portrait of a rural logger or the empowering story of a group of spurned grandparents.

Indiewire sat down with Festival Director and co-founder Meira Blaustein as the curtain was closing on Woodstock's final screening. Israeli-born Blaustein, whose energy at the festival's twilight was nowhere near depleted, embodies all that is Woodstock: She's a fierce, passionate free spirit. Her love of the festival is clearly its lifeblood. In addition to her duties as Woodstock's director, Blaustein programs the entire feature lineup, organizes the panels and recruits the jurors.

Blaustein said the festival's "fiercely independent" motto set the bar for the Woodstock's integrity. "We coined it in the very beginning, and it defined us," she said. "It is something we are able to carry over from year to year."

READ MORE: Woodstock Film Festival Celebrates 16 Years in Official Poster Art

This year, Clay Hassler’s "Homeless," about a young man's experience in a shelter, premiered at the festival. The narrative film is the paragon of low-budget ethos; shot for $12,000 with a skeleton crew of six, Hassler self-funded following a failed Kickstarter campaign. He employed his film students as volunteers. "We pinched every penny," said Hassler. "All of our meals were donated by local restaurants or people from my church. The homeless shelter runs a soup kitchen, and they invited us in for every meal during the days we were filming on site. The food was excellent."

Though the town of Woodstock is best known for the free-wheeling concert series that became a hallmark of the sixties counterculture, the Woodstock Film Festival is in fact the town's true native event. Woodstock the concert was originally set to take place in Woodstock, but community backlash forced it to relocate to the nearby town of Bethel. Woodstock the festival, meanwhile, was supposed to take place in a different nearby town, but a similar course of events caused it to relocate to Woodstock. "I knew Woodstock was the colony of the arts," said Blaustein, "but I honestly had never been at the time."

Canvassing the area, Blaustein noticed that there was a small, disparate community of filmmakers living in the woods, "but they barely knew each other, and they were working elsewhere," she said. The town had a small movie theater; otherwise, the presence of cinema was basically non-existent. "We started coming and talking to people," said Blaustein, "and everyone was like, That’s an amazing idea! Where have you been all our lives?" The community treasured the memory of Albert Grossman, the manager responsible for discovering Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, and residents said that a festival such as Woodstock would honor his legacy. "The fit was so right," said Blaustein. “It was obvious from the get-go."

The film festival had a significant impact on the community. Sixteen years later, Woodstock boasts a burgeoning film industry; movies and TV series regularly shoot there. "It’s 'indie-wood' on the Hudson," said Blaustein. "Every given moment someone is shooting something here. Woodstock created this renaissance."

For the first time, the most remarkable feature of Woodstock this year wasn't the number of low-budget films at the festival. And it wasn't the eccentric spirit of the community, either. At the awards ceremony, host Melissa Leo shared a proud statistic: Out of 53 full-length narratives and documentaries screening at Woodstock this year, 25 are by female directors.

This is staggering for an industry comprised of 9 percent female directors, and Blaustein knows it better than anyone. "These statistics are very impressive," she said. "And these are good films!" Though Blaustein admittedly cares about the gender parity issue, she didn't bend over backward to enforce it in this year's lineup. "I did not set out to create this kind of ratio," she continued. "It formed itself. It happened on its own merit."

Through a collaboration with the Dutch consulate, Blaustein noticed that narrative feature submissions by women were far more common overseas. Of the three Dutch feature narratives she programmed, two were made by women. "Generally speaking, it was more natural for the international submissions category to have works by women filmmakers, especially in narrative," said Blaustein. "So when it came to American narratives, I gave women a little bit more attention." This meant that Blaustein reached out to organizations such as Film Fatales, which supports women in film, to help identify promising narratives made by female directors.

"As film festivals, we have this platform to support certain demographics," said Blaustein. "As an individual, I have very little power. But as the Woodstock Film Festival, I have a platform. I’d like to use it for good."

'The Americans' Showrunner Joe Weisberg Already Knows How the Show Will End

Ben Travers — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:15 GMT

Some endings feel inevitable. Shows like "Breaking Bad," "Friends," "Friday Night Lights" and more seemed destined to play out in no more than two ways. Walter White would live or die. Ross and Rachel would get together, or...okay, we knew they would get together. And Coach Taylor and Mrs. Coach would keep "l-i-v-i-n" like a couple of OG's. But when it comes to a show like "The Americans," the final chapter is as mysterious as every episode leading up to it.

Speaking at the Woodstock Film Festival following a screening of the pivotal Season 3 episode "Stingers," co-creator Joe Weisberg did his best to hold onto the show's secrets while still sharing some behind-the-scenes details. Luckily, Indiewire Deputy Editor and Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn was on hand to moderate the discussion, and craftily worked some specifics out of the former CIA official. Below are the highlights from the 45-minute Q&A, covering everything from how binge-viewing has changed things in the writers' room to what Weisberg has in mind for the finale (which is hopefully still a long way off).

READ MORE: Religion, Sex and Family: How 'The Americans' Built To a Better Finale in Season 3

Ending the Cold War Era

While Weisberg didn't go as far as to explain how "The Americans" would end — despite some playful prodding to use the audience as a focus group — he did state he has a pretty good idea how his critically-hailed series will come to a close.

"I think we’ve got it down to about five possible endings," Weisberg said. "They’re all fairly similar to each other in a way, so maybe it’s one ending with five different variations."

Such a specific final goal should only bolster viewer confidence in a show that hit the ground running and remains at an artistic high. That being said, everyone in the theater and reading at home undoubtedly hopes we're a long way off from a series finale.

The Evolution of Paige and Her Season 3 Tipping Point

No character was more crucial to the third season than Paige (Holy Taylor), who — after becoming more and more suspicious of her parents' perplexing antics — finally learned the truth in "Stingers," the tenth episode of this past season as well as what was screened prior to Weisberg's Q&A.

"I think, in a way, the whole show was really conceived around Paige, to a certain degree," Weisberg said. He then discussed how, when he was in the CIA, agents would always end up having "the talk" with their children, but there was no set time or speech provided by the agency.

"Like, no one in the upper brass said, ‘When your kid turns 16, you sit them down and have’ — what was called — ‘the talk.’ […] Basically you lie to them their entire lives, and then sit them down and tell them."

Weisberg said he knew the time would come for Paige as well, but he and the rest of the writing staff didn't know when she would learn the truth about her parents. All they knew was they wanted her parents to be taken off guard when they had to tell her.

"We wanted them to be taken by surprise," Weisberg said, pointing out how this desire also carried over to the audience in that the conversation took place in Episode 10, rather than the season finale to increase the surprise factor.

READ MORE: The 17 Best Television Shows of the 2014-2015 Season

Is "Slow Burn" a Compliment or a Criticism?

"The Americans" is a difficult show to describe in terms of its style. It's a period thriller, undoubtedly, but the pacing, structuring, depth and cultural commentary are difficult to summarize in a few words. One term that keeps coming up — and did, in passing, during the panel — is that "The Americans" is a "slow burn." Weisberg quickly tried to explain the various interpretations of such a statement, as he's heard them while making the series.

"In television when you say 'slow burn,' it's got a couple of different meanings," Weisberg said. "One: Okay, maybe you're making something that could potentially be high quality because you're not rushing to have incident after incident after incident in your show, but the other is, like, 'Be careful! Because the show is going so slow, maybe no one is going to watch it.'"

"Even the network says to us, 'Your show is really like a slow burn... We really like that it's a slow burn... We're really nervous it's a slow burn.' So we always hear it in two different ways at the same time."

Just to be clear: If Indiewire ever used the term regarding "The Americans," we meant it as the former.

Joe Weisberg Reads Reviews of "The Americans"

"They’re really interesting to read," Weisberg said about episode reviews and recaps of his show. "I might read eight or nine lengthy critical essays about each episode, and when you read eight or nine lengthy critical essays about each episode you get a real sense of what your critics thought about how that episode worked. Did you get across what you wanted to get across? Was it artistically successful (which is a very big deal)? Up until sort of the end of last season, during an episode I would go on Twitter a lot. That would be how I sort of gauge the audience’s reaction, and watch scene by scene as people were tweeting their responses to what was going on. But I think in a sense because of my age, I didn’t know how to fully process it."

"Indiewire, by the way, is one of the few recaps where they give you a rating for each episode," Weisberg added.

"And you’re saying that’s good or bad?" Kohn asked.

"I’m saying it’s stressful."

Binge-Viewing Has Affected How "The Americans" is Made

"The Americans," like most modern shows, is being watched in a variety of different ways. Plenty of fans are still enjoying it weekly as new episodes are released, but many others are binge-watching weeks or seasons one after the other.

"We do whatever we want," Weisberg said. "We just try to have something emotional or interesting [at the end]. What we’re concentrating on now is not having too many more endings with Philip and Elizabeth in the bedroom."

Weisberg said the show's creation hasn't been affected all that drastically, with one minor exception.

"I don’t have any strong feelings about it one way or another in terms of which is better, but I can tell you that we’ve really started to think and talk about it when we write." Weisberg then went on to use location scouting as an example, noting how, in the past, they felt they could use a tough-to-get location once and then fake it if they needed to come back in future scenes.

"Well, with binge-viewing, the problem is they won’t have seen it eight months ago, they’ll have seen it a couple of days ago, so they’re more likely to notice."

Those Wigs Work

Despite the many different avenues of intrigue built into "The Americans," everyone in the theater had just one question on their mind, and Kohn asked it: Would those wigs really work? In response, Weisberg through out an example from his days working for the CIA.

"I went down to the — believe it or not — costume shop in the basement of CIA headquarters, and I had to put on a disguise for something," he said. "I sat in the chair and the disguise person put a disguise on me, which consisted of a wig, a pair of glasses and a fake mustache. I looked in the mirror, and I thought, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ I just looked completely like me in a ridiculous, ridiculous disguise. I said, 'This is silly.' And she said, 'Trust me. You’ll be surprised.'"

"So I went up to the cafeteria where there was a table full of 12 people from my trainee class who I, at this point, had known for a year and a half. And for the first year of that year and a half, I had been with them every day for 10 hours a day. And I got my food, and I sat down at that table, and not one of them had the vaguest idea of who I was. I sat with them for half an hour, and nobody said anything to me. So at the end of that half-hour, I said, 'Guys?' and they basically looked at me like I was crazy. They thought some weird guy had just sat down at their table and invaded their social space."

"So the disguises do work."

Surprising Historical Accuracies

Speaking to what other elements of "The Americans" are drawn from reality, Weisberg said, "It’s not always the things you think that are completely historical, but a lot of it is."

"The KGB ran a lot of these honey trap operations where they would seduce people from the West, and it’s shocking how often they were successful," he said, before noting how ambassadors, high-ranking officials and even people who were briefed to look out for such traps all were tricked by foreign spies. "So peoples' stupidity in a way was overwhelming."

Touching on a notable storyline from Season 3 [spoilers ahead] in which Martha (Alison Wright) — FBI Agent Gaad's secretary — ended up marrying an undercover persona embodied by Philip (Matthew Rhys) who was using her to gain information on her boss, Weisberg said, "The KGB ran some operations where they would target secretaries of very important political figures, and they ran a couple of them, and they were able to do it successfully. And — incredibly enough — they had their officers marry them. They stayed married to them without the women having any idea what was going on."

The missions were so successful, in fact, the KGB started an initiative called "the secretaries offensive" where they aimed to mount similar information all over the world.

READ MORE: 'The Americans' Showrunners on Season 4 Plans, Reaction to the Season 3 Finale and Emmy Conspiracy Theories

2015 Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Award Winners Announced

Susan Kouguell — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 17:00:00 GMT

The 2015 Woodstock “Fiercely Independent” Film Festival celebrated its Sweet 16, and came to a close on October 4.

The awards went to:

Best Feature Narrative: "Oliver’s Deal" directed by Barney Elliott

Honorable Mention: "It Had to be You" directed by Sasha Gordon.

Best Feature Documentary: "Incorruptible" directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

Honorable Mention: "The Babushkas of Chernobyl" directed by Holly Morris, co-directed by Anne Bogart.

Best Animation: "The Five Minute Museum" directed by Paul Bush.

Honorable Mention: "Religatio" directed by Jaime Giraldo.

Best Short Narrative: "Stanhope" directed by Solvan "Slick" Naim.

Honorable Mention: "Welcome" (Bienvenidos) directed by Javier Fesser.

Best Short Student Short Film: "Against the Night" directed by Stefan Kubicki.

Best Short Documentary: "All About Amy" directed by Samuel Centore.

Honorable Mention: "Naneek" directed by Neal Steeno.

The Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography: "Bob and the Trees" directed by Diego Ongaro with cinematography by Chris Teague and Danny Vecchione.

James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Feature Narrative: "Oliver’s Deal" directed by Barney Elliott and edited by J.L. Romeu and Roberto Benavides.

Honorable Mention: "Touched With Fire" directed by Paul Dalio and edited by Paul Dalio and Lee Percy.

James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Feature Documentary: "The Babushkas of Chernobyl" directed by Holly Morris and edited by Michael Taylor, Richard Howard, and Mary Manhardt

Honorable Mention: "I Will Not Be Silenced" directed by Judy Rymer and edited by Paul Hamilton.

Ultra Indie Award: "Lamb" directed by Ross Partridge.

Honorable Mention: "Bob and the Trees" directed by Diego Ongaro.

The World Cinema Award: "Meet Me in Venice" directed by Eddy Terstall.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Roberta Petzoldt ("Meet Me in Venice").

Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award for Best Female Feature Director: Linda-Maria Birbeck director of "There Should be Rules."

Carpe Diem Award Andretta Award for Best Film: "Waffle Street" directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms.

Fiercely Independent Award was presented by Atom Egoyan to Guy Maddin

Honorary Maverick Award was presented by Guy Maddin to Atom Egoyan.

For more information about the Woodstock Film Festival: http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College SUNY, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of SAVVY CHARACTERS SELL SCREENPLAYS! and THE SAVVY SCREENWRITER, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog

Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Award Winners Announced

Wil Barlow — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 15:01:06 GMT

READ MORE: 16th Woodstock Film Festival Reveals Full Slate, Including Centerpiece 'The Walk'

The Maverick Awards Ceremony was held on Sunday, October 4, marking the end of the 16th Woodstock Film Festival. The festival is held each year in and around Kingston, NY and hosts panels, concerts, events, parties and screenings of independent films. The festival gave awards to films across a broad range of categories, including a Best Feature winner in the narrative and documentary categories. The award winners are as follows:

Best Feature Documentary

INCORRUPTIBLE, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Best Animation

THE FIVE MINUTE MUSUEM, directed by Paul Bush

Best Short Narrative

STANHOPE, directed by Solvan "Slick" Naim

Best Student Short Film

AGAINST NIGHT, directed by Stefan Kubicki

Best Short Documentary

ALL ABOUT AMY, directed by Samuel Centore

The Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography

BOB AND THE TREES, directed by Diego Ongaro, with cinematography by Chris Teague and Danny Vecchione

James Lyons Award for Best Editing for a Narrative Feature

OLIVER'S DEAL, directed by Barney Elliott and edited by J.L. Romeu & Roberto Benavides

James Lyons Award for Best Editing for a Documentary Feature

THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL, directed by Holly Morris and edited by Michael Taylor, Richard Howard, and Mary Manhardt

Ultra Indie Award

LAMB, directed by Ross Partridge

Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award for Best Female Feature Director

Linda-Maria Birbeck, director of THERE SHOULD BE RULES

Carpe Diem Award for Best Film

WAFFLE STREET, directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms

World Cinema Award

MEET ME IN VENICE, directed by Eddy Terstall

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Roberta Petzold ("Meet Me in Venice")

Fiercely Independent Award

GUY MADDIN

Honorary Maverick Award

ATOM EGOYAN

A Conversation With Director Rosemary Rodriguez About Her New Film 'Silver Skies'

Susan Kouguell — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:30:00 GMT

I had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Rosemary Rodriguez in midtown Manhattan two days before her film "Silver Skies" will have its United States premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday October 3.

Rosemary Rodriguez wrote and directed the feature, "Acts of Worship, "which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, including the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature. Her episodic TV work includes "Empire," "The Good Wife," (where she is a regular director), "Manhattan," "Rake," "Elementary" and "Vegas." She is currently directing the new Marvel series on Netflix, "Jessica Jones."

"Silver Skies," Rosemary’s second feature, chronicles a group of seniors whose lives turn upside down when their Los Angeles apartment complex threatens to be sold out from under them.

We began our conversation talking about the evolution of "Silver Skies."

Rodriguez : It took about ten years. I ended up going to the MacDowell Colony with an outline for "Silver Skies" and wrote the script while I was there. Then, when I directed a "Law and Order" episode, I hit it off with (star) Dennis Farina and he loved the script. He helped to get the movie made. Fast forward almost two years later I called Dennis and told him we got the money. We picked the start date, and then he passed away two weeks later. I was devastated when he passed away. But then things fell in place. Fred Roos and Arthur Sarkissian came to the reading of the script, and they said, ‘let’s do this movie.’ The movie is dedicated to Dennis. He was my guardian angel.

Kouguell: In "Silver Skies," the theme of ageism is tackled straight on. The characters in this ensemble piece are threatened with the possible loss of their homes and livelihood. You describe "Silver Skies" as very personal and inspired by your parents’ aging. The characters of Nick and Phil are inspired by your father, who was a bookie in Boston, and the character, Eve, by your mother.

Rodriguez : Valerie Perrine’s character always has flowers; that was my mother. I watched my parents get old when I was still young. I saw how their relationships changed. You think logic would say life would get easier when you get older, but the emotional truth is that life still happens on its own terms. I think seniors don’t have a voice in this world. These are people who want to have sex. They want to work. They want to spend money. Make money. Have money.

Kouguell: You don’t shy away from thought-provoking issues, facing this generation, including the sexual assault of one female character and another main character’s choice she made of personal survival that causes the death of her spouse.

Rodriguez : My role model for directors is Robert Altman. His movies were a slice of life. The ironic thing about being a human being on this planet is that you have no idea what is going to happen next. The movie is real life. You’re going on a roller coaster ride; there are parts you’re laughing because life is like that, and then the rug gets pulled right out from under you.

The issues women go through, and with this female character with her husband abusing her, and feeling guilty over surviving, doing whatever she had to survive, whatever way she needed to behave was maybe ‘not as a good girl’ would, and coming to terms with that. Sexual abuse to elders is real. Elder abuse is real. I wanted to bring that issue in, as well as bring in that feminist message in there.

Kouguell: In "Silver Skies," the trepidation and excitement of newfound love is complicated by raw emotion as seen in one character’s personal and financial insecurities with a recent widow.

Rodriguez : Love doesn’t stop people at a certain age, it doesn’t stop their desires. It doesn’t matter what age we are. To work with these wonderful actors and Alex Rocco in particular -- he was just like a teenage boy when doing his scenes with Valerie Perrine, saying: “I’m used to playing killers, I’m not used to playing lovers.”

(Alex Rocco passed away July 18of this year.)

Rodriguez : The recent memorial for Alex was on the racetrack: “Friends of Rocco” – it was the seventh race, it was dedicated to him. I loved him dearly. I miss him dearly. It was intended as a celebration of this wonderful man. His character reminds me of my dad. As I told my dad when it became clear he had to retire, I told him, “You always wanted to go out a winner.”

Kouguell: The film stars Barbara Bain, George Hamilton, Jack McGee, Valerie Perrine, Mariette Hartley, Howard Hesseman, Jack Betts, and Alex Rocco. Did they have any input into the script?

Rodriguez : They definitely did. They stuck to the script a lot. I’m a big collaborator; I want to hear what people have to say. In the film George Hamilton’s character is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Jack McGee’s brother, George Hamilton’s mother, and my dad, all had Alzehimer’s and we shared our respective experiences to further develop George’s character. In a way it was a tribute for George to his mother, for Jack to his brother, and mine to my father.

Kouguell: You’ve earned great success as a director on "The Good Wife." How has directing television influenced your work as a director on "Silver Skies"?

Rodriguez : I can work efficiently and quickly, and in television that’s some of the skill set that gets developed. My instincts are very sharp. The idea out there is that we’re less creative working in television, but the real truth is we’re under such pressure that we can make decisions quickly, and also go with your heart and instincts. It’s very quick and very satisfying, and of course millions of people see your work in a shorter window of time and that is opposite of a movie.

Kouguell: Currently, you are the 4th Vice President of the Directors Guild of America. Although there is more media attention on the low percentage of women directors getting work in the industry, the numbers are still not rising fast enough.

Rodriguez : The DGA works very hard and we all work hard to address the issue of diversity. It’s been a problem for many years. My involvement in the DGA is reflective of how much the DGA cares about women directors and minority directors, and wants to get us out there. It’s a benefit to the Guild. There’s a lot of content there now and opportunity for diversity. I want to be meeting with you in a few years when this isn’t an issue any more; where there are not “female directors” – that there are just great storytellers and that we don’t have to separate each other.

Kouguell: Some final words about "Silver Skies"?

Rodriguez: The way these actors enriched my life was unexpected and so profound. These are people with 50 and 60-year careers in a tough industry. These actors showed up and put their hearts in these characters. They’re artists. They were there for the love for what they do. They just loved the characters. They had beautiful chemistry together. We are part of each other’s lives. I never could give back to them what they gave to me.

"Silver Skies" premieres at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday, October 3. http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College SUNY, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of SAVVY CHARACTERS SELL SCREENPLAYS! and THE SAVVY SCREENWRITER, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog

Watch: George Hamilton Spies a Beauty Over Breakfast in Exclusive 'Silver Skies' Clip

Aubrey Page — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 18:43:37 GMT

READ MORE: Woodstock Film Festival Celebrates 16 Years in Official Poster Art

Fresh off her work on the upcoming Netflix series "Jessica Jones," Rosemary Rodriguez (whose credits also include "The Good Wife" and "Empire") has written and directed the ensemble comedy-drama "Silver Skies."

According to the official synopsis, "'Silver Skies' chronicles a group of seniors whose lives are turned upside down when their cozy Los Angeles apartment complex is threatened to be sold out from underneath them."

The film, which features acting veteran George Hamilton, Valerie Perrine and Barbara Bain, will have its U.S. premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday, October 3.

Watch the charming clip above.

READ MORE: 16th Woodstock Film Festival Reveals Full Slate, Including Centerpiece 'The Walk'

Woodstock Film Fest 2015 to Feature Record Number of Women Directors

Laura Berger — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 21:00:00 GMT

Nearly 50% of the features being screened at the 2015 Woodstock Film Festival will be directed by women. This is an impressive figure, and one worth celebrating. Twenty-five of the 53 feature-length docs and narratives being shown are helmed by women, which amounts to 47 percent. It should be noted, however, that the women in the documentary-features section far outnumber those in the narrative category.

In addition to boasting a lineup that's nearly half female-helmed, Woodstock FF will feature a panel addressing gender equality in film and television and the presentation of the 3rd Annual Tangerine Entertainment Award for Best Female Director. The panel's participants will include director-actress Rose McGowan ("Dawn") and writer-director Leah Meyerhoff ("I Believe in Uncorns").

A press release for the Woodstock Film Festival acknowledged Hollywood's "glaringly evident" gender gap and stated that the Fest "sets a strong countertrend to [the low numbers of women working as directors, writers editors and producers] by providing independent female directors with a bigger platform than ever."

The Festival selection includes Katie Cokino's "I Dream Too Much," Rosemary Rodriguez's "Silver Skies," Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's "Incorruptible" and Alex Sichel's SXSW winner "A Woman Like Me."

“It is an honor to be able to provide a platform for so many talented women filmmakers this year,” said Meira Blaustein, co-founder and Executive Director of the festival. “I’m thrilled that the Woodstock Film Festival can play a part in supporting the steps towards gender equality.”

The Woodstock Film Festival will take place September 30 - October 4.

Check out all of the female-helmed films below.

2015 Narrative Features

"The Adderall Diaries" - Pamela Romanowsky
"I Dream Too Much" - Katie Cokinos
"It Had To Be You" - Sasha Gordon
"Rendez-Vous" - Antoinette Beumer
"Scout" - Laurie Weltz
"Silver Skies" - Rosemary Rodriguez
"Summer" - Colette Bothof
"There Should Be Rules" - Linda-Maria Birbeck

2015 Documentary Features

"3 Still Standing" - Co-Directed by Donna LoCicero
"The Babushkas of Chernobyl" - Holly Moris and Co-Directed by Anne Bogart
"Deep Run" - Hillevi Loven
"Drawing The Tiger" - Co-Directed by Amy Benson and Ramyata Limbu
"Family Matters" - Noa Roth
"Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation" - Barbara Kopple
"I Will Not Be Silenced" - Judy Rymer
"Incorruptible" - Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
"Lee's 88 Keys" - Susan Robbins
"Look At Us Now, Mother!" - Gayle Kirschenbaum
"Mavis!" - Jessica Edwards
"Paradise Is There: A Memoir By Natalie Merchant" - Natalie Merchant
"Shelter" - Barbara Kopple
"The Student Body" - Co-Directed by Bailey Webber
"The Three Hikers" - Natalie Avital
"A Woman Like Me" - Alex Sichel

16th Woodstock Film Festival Reveals Full Slate, Including Centerpiece 'The Walk'

Zack Sharf — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 17:21:17 GMT

READ MORE: 16th Annual Woodstock Film Festival Announces World Cinema Program

The Woodstock Film Festival is pulling out all the stops for its 16th anniversary thanks to a full slate that includes "The Walk," "The Adrenal Diaries," "Rendez-Vous" and more. The 2015 edition of the festival takes place September 30 - October 4 in the Hudson Valley towns of Woodstock, Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Saugerties and Kingston.

"As we enter into our sixteenth year, I reflect upon the past years of gradual growth and am thrilled by how the festival has opened itself up into the world while maintaining the core authenticity and artistry that it was first founded on," said Woodstock Film Festival's co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein. "I invite everyone to come and discover the many national and international selections that make up our 2015 lineup, as each is its own unique gem and in each you will find something that will inspire and move you."

The full slate for the 16th Woodstock Film Festival is below.

2015 Narrative Features

"The Adderall Diaries"

"The Automatic Hate"

"Band of Robbers"

"Blunt Force Trauma"

"Bob and the Trees"

"The Forbidden Room"

"Good Ol' Boy"

"The Grace of Jake"

"Homeless"

"How He Fell In Love"

"I Dream Too Much"

"It Had To Be You"

"Lamb"

"Love & Taxes"

"Meet Me In Venice"

"The Missing Girl"

"Moscow Never Sleeps"

"Oliver's Deal"

"Outliving Emily"

"Rendez-Vous"

"Remember"

"Scout"

"Silver Skies"

"Summer"

"There Should Be Rules"

"Touched With Fire"

"Waffle Street"

"The Walk"

2015 Documentary Features

"1 Giant Leap II: What About Me?"

"3 Still Standing"

"After The Spill"

"The Babushkas of Chernobyl"

"Buried Above Ground"

"Deep Run"

"Drawing The Tiger"

"Family Matters"

"Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation"

"I Will Not Be Silenced"

"Incorruptible"

"Lee's 88 Keys"

"Left on Purpose"

"Look At Us Now, Mother!"

"Mavis!"

"Monty Python: The Meaning of Live"

"Paradise Is There: A Memoir By Natalie Merchant"

"The Poet of Havana"

"She's The Best Thing In It"

"Reconquest of the Useless"

"Shelter"

"Sporting Dreams"

"The Student Body"

"The Three Hikers"

"A Woman Like Me"

World Class Shorts

"Animation"

"Fever Dreams"

"Quirks"

"Let's Talk"

"Short Docs 1 & 2"

"Teen Films"

"Based On"

"Growing Up"

"No Trespassing"

"Spanish Spotlight"

Woodstock Film Festival Selects Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin as 2015 Honorary Award Recipients

Zack Sharf — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 16:13:41 GMT

READ MORE: Woodstock Film Festival Celebrates 16 Years in Official Poster Art

The Woodstock Film Festival has announced that Canadian filmmakers Atom Egoyan ("Exotica," "The Sweet Hereafter") and Guy Maddin ("Archangel," "The Heart of the World") will receive the Honorary Maverick Award and the second annual Fiercely Independent Award, respectively. The awards will be presented to the filmmakers on October 3 during the annual Maverick Awards Gala at BSP Kingston, NY. Additionally, Egoyan's "Remember" will open the festival on October 1, while Maddin's "The Forbidden Room" will close the event on October 4.

"Remember" stars Christopher Plummer as a 90-year-old Auschwitz survivor struggling with memory loss. After he receives a letter from his friend containing a stack of money, a gun and a letter detailing a shocking plan, he embarks on a cross-country journey to bring justice to the man who destroyed his life. The film will screen at the Woodstock Playhouse, and Egoyan will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Touted as "Maddin's ultimate epic phantasmagoria," "The Forbidden Room" centers around a doomed submarine crew who encounter a lost woodsman and hear his tale of escaping from a fearsome clan of cave dwellers. Maddin will also be in attendance for a discussion at the Woodstock Playhouse following the film's screening.

"This is such a special year for the festival," said WFF co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein. "Not only are we honoring two celebrated and visionary Canadian filmmakers, but paired with our already expanded World Cinema program, this year's festival is a platform for foreign work and we could not be more thrilled."

The 16th Woodstock Film Festival runs September 30 - October 4.

READ MORE: 16th Annual Woodstock Film Festival Announces World Cinema Program

16th Annual Woodstock Film Festival Announces World Cinema Program

Zack Sharf — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 16:04:25 GMT

READ MORE: Woodstock Film Festival Celebrates 16 Years in Official Poster Art

The Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) has announced its New for 2015 World Cinema Competition, including a special "Focus on Dutch Cinema" selection. In partnership with the Netherlands Consulate General in New York, WFF has programmed three Dutch titles: "Rendez-Vous," "Meet Me in Venice" and "Summer." All Dutch filmmakers will be in attendance for Q&As following their respective film's screening.

"It is only fitting that the Woodstock Film Festival embrace that global spirit and bring to its fold outstanding films and filmmakers from many cultures, religions, and nations," said WFF co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein. "As such, we are thrilled to have created a partnership with the Netherlands Consulate to develop this brand new World Cinema Competition category."

The full list of World Cinema titles is below. Synopses courtesy of the Woodstock Film Festival.

"Rendez-Vous" - U.S. Premiere
Director: Antionette Beumer
Simone needs a change. Together with her husband Eric and their two children, she buys a decrepit mansion in the south of France, to turn it into a home and B&B. While the chaos of the renovation grows, Simone flees into a thrilling affair with one of the French construction workers, the gorgeous twenty-year-old Michel. She slowly loses control of her life and the French dream turns into her worst nightmare.

"Meet Me in Venice" - U.S. Premiere
Director: Eddy Terstall
Recounted by Lisa through a video she makes for her son, this Dutch father-daughter story of reconciliation unfolds between a woman and the father she first meets in adulthood. When the absentee Mauro invites Lisa to join him in Venice, she decides to go. But the journey doesn't stop there, and the father-daughter road trip takes them from Italy to Istanbul along the Orient Express route, with breathtaking imagery of the Balkans and heartwarming musical interludes. In getting to know her father, Lisa gets to know herself.

"Summer" - New York Premiere
Director: Collette Bothof
Summer is sweltering in a Dutch village where everyday life is dominated by the continually droning power plant. Anne, a quiet girl who longs to escape the confines of her small town, often feels like an outsider -- until she meets Lena, a new girl in town who rides a motorbike, wears leather and is different from everybody else. With the awkward tenderness of youth and innocence, the two girls quickly form a bond and the audience gets to watch as young love unfolds. Authentic performances and cinematography that captures the languor and heat of summertime create a beautiful story of sexual awakening and a girl daring to be different. For those who have traveled beyond the teenage years, it is a reminder of the possibilities life holds.

"Moscow Never Sleeps" - U.S. Premiere
Director: Johnny O'Reilly (Russia)
"Moscow Never Sleeps" is a multi-narrative drama about the hidden bonds that connect us all. The film dives headlong into the volatile intersections of contemporary Moscow and the intimate lives of five people. O'Reilly's short "The Terms" screened at the 2001 Woodstock Film Fest, winning for Best Short Film.

"There Should Be Rules" - East Coast Premiere
Director: Linda-Marie Bribeck (Sweden)
Mia and Mirjam, two passionate, free-spirited 14-year-olds, along with Karl, who is inventive and wise beyond his years, are a close knit threesome in a small town in Sweden where nothing ever happens. Mia wishes there were no rules and tempts life again and again. Mirjam, seeking love, finds her road to adulthood in a steamy romance with an older man who claims he loves her. Karl, supporting Mia's sense of loss as her best friend, is pulled away by new love. While friendship and family bonds are tested and facades eventually crumble, the teens declare, "We are never becoming ordinary."

The 2015 Woodstock Film Festival runs September 30 - October 4. Visit the WFF website for more information.

READ MORE: 2014 Woodstock Film Festival Honors Darren Aronofsky, Announces Audience Awards

Woodstock Film Festival Celebrates 16 Years in Official Poster Art

Ethan Sapienza — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 20:10:29 GMT

READ MORE: 2014 Woodstock Film Festival Honors Darren Aronofsky, Announces Audience Awards

Celebrating its sixteenth year, the Woodstock Film Festival unveiled its official poster today. Designed by New York-based twin animators Joy Buran and Noelle Melody, stylized as JOY + NOELLE, the poster sees film reels stack up to form a rather inedible cinematic cake.

"We are so excited to have Joy and Noelle as our official poster artists this year," said Woodstock Executive Director and co-foudner Meira Blaustein. "Not only are they festival alumni, having their animation shown here before, but they perfectly encapsulated the Sweet 16 celebration aspect that is our theme this year. Incorporating past Maverick Award winners is a subtle nod to celebrating sixteen years of independent filmmaking."

"Woodstock is one of our favorite festivals, so we were pretty excited to be invited to illustrate the 2015 poster," added Noelle Melody. "When I visited the Film Center, we talked about palette and detail ideas, like scratched up stickers with the names of winning feature directors over the years."

Limited edition posters and other merchandise are being sold at the Film Center in Woodstock and online. The Woodstock Film Festival will be held from September 30-October 4 in the Hudson Valley towns of Woodstock, Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Kingston and Saugerties. More information regarding the opening night film and other events will be released soon. Check out the poster above.

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Unveils Lineup: Includes 'Equals' and 'The Danish Girl' World Premieres, New Noah Baumbach Documentary

How to Launch an International Film Festival in a Small Buddhist Country

Meira Blaustein — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:30:00 GMT

When film producer Ginny Galloway contacted me in November 2014 asking if I was interested in helping to launch the first Bhutan International Film Festival, I had to give it some serious thought. Bhutan is a long way from Woodstock.

It's a small, Buddhist, developing country set at the foot of the Himalayas between India and China, known for its Gross National Happiness and attention to environmental conservation. With only eight pilots in the world skilled enough to fly safely into Bhutan because of its harsh mountainous terrain, Bhutan is not an easy country to get to. Given that Bhutan, a monarchy steeped in tradition, had only introduced television and the Internet to its people in 1999, I figured a film festival would be an entirely new adventure for them.

READ MORE: How to Make a Movie in a Country with Virtually No Film Funding

Eventually, the idea of launching something entirely new in one of the most remote, untouched and developing places on the other side of the world, captured my imagination and I agreed to come on board as the official Head Consultant of the festival, with the Woodstock Film Festival as the official Advisor.

A couple of months of intense discussions and development among myself, co-programmer and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell, Ginny and our Bhutanese programming counterparts ensued. It was immediately clear that education and collaboration would be key elements of the festival. As part of that agreement, it was decided that each attending filmmaker would present a workshop in his or her field.

Given the limited budget and the difficulty in communication between the American and Bhutanese programmers, finalizing a program was challenging. In addition to programming, I was also advising and assisting on the festival's infrastructure, general identity, international publicity and industry support, so I was kept busy until the time finally came to set off on the long trip to Bhutan. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my trip from New York to Bhutan took a couple of days with some "Twilight Zone"-type stops along the way.

Once I arrived, I still had a long trip ahead of me. After the ride along a winding road hugging sheer mountainous drops onto a river that snaked through rice terraces and ancient temples, I made it from Paro Airport to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and to the festival’s headquarters at the lovely hotel Norbuling which was to be my home away from home for the next few weeks.

One of the things that struck me as I settled in to work during the days leading up to the start of the festival was the long hours all those young men and women, who came to work for the festival from Thimphu as well as places such as Nepal, India, England and the U.S., were putting in each night. It was not uncommon for many of them to work at the festival’s office, laptops open, drinking tea with yak milk and sugar cubes until 4 a.m. each morning.

The workload was huge as the festival had many facets: both international and local music, dance, food, photography and film. The general sense was that everyone working on the festival was creating something that has never been done before in a land that had never experienced something like this, not even close. So even if it was imperfect, I knew this would be a magical experience.

"Bhutanese Stretchable Time" was a new term I soon learned to embrace. No one was in a rush. Everything could wait. No one minded if something that was to start at 4 p.m. didn't get started until 6 p.m.  The Bhutanese would smile, take a walk, drink some tea with yak milk and sugar, chew Doma (a beetlenut the Bhutanese love to chew all day which has a very "acquired" smell…), talk and talk some more. Soon after I arrived, I affectionately nicknamed the festival "The Last Minute Festival," as so often things were arranged, decided or taken care of literally in the very last minute.

Over 100 local participating artists were in attendance, joined by approximately 100 international artists, hailing from as far as England, Germany, South Africa, India, the U.S. and elsewhere. They were dancers, musicians, beatboxers, filmmakers, photographers, inspirational speakers and other creative visionaries. They all integrated with the artistic community in Bhutan, teaching dance or music and then performing them, workshopping movies, photography, pottery and much more.

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Among the international attending filmmakers was documentarian Ondi Timoner, who flew in from L.A. Timoner, whose film "Brand: A Second Coming,"  about Russell Brand, is about to world premiere at SXSW, showed a few of her films including "We Live in Public," "Dig!," "Amanda F***ing Palmer on the Rocks" and "Russell Brands the Bird." Timoner presented talks that inspired the Bhutanese and international artists alike and like many attendees, developed strong new relationship and potential future collaborations.

"Bhutan is a perfect place to redefine the traditional film festival, from one in which we come and show our work to an audience, to more of a melting pot - where there is an exchange of culture and ideas, and where new work and film styles can emerge," Timoner told me. "We saw this happen in the fine arts and music portions of the festival as well. The country is a gem, full of wisdom and values we can all learn from, and they are incredibly open to our artistic expression. I look forward to returning and helping to shape the Bhutan International Arts Festival to fulfill all of its trailblazing potential."

Another attending filmmaker was Duncan Bridgeman, who flew in from  London. In addition to showing his film "One Giant Leap 2"  and giving a workshop, Bridgeman was given special permission to shoot things that generally were not permitted to (such as special events with the Royal family). Bridgman quickly fell in love with Bhutan and engaged with the local community to a point where he is now planning to return to Bhutan for an as yet undetermined length of time and make his next movie there.

NYC based producer and entertainment attorney Jonathan Gray (who was definitely one of the tallest people there) attended as well, showing "Words with Gods," which he executive produced, and presenting a lengthy workshop.

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"Standing in front of the audience in Bhutan after the screening of 'Words With Gods,' it struck me what a profound privilege it is to be a part of the independent film community, with the opportunity to share our stories throughout the world," Gray told me afterwards.

I too gave a workshop to a number of emerging Bhutanese filmmakers, talking to them about their individual projects. I was struck by the subject matters of their films; from the death and spirit of the dog of one filmmaker (Buddhists believe in reincarnation so the dog's life was to be depicted as just one stop in its' many lives); to an AIDS patient who discovered a unique way to maintain his health; to an experimental filmmaker who did not want to follow the typical rules of storytelling and who, when I mentioned that he should study filmmakers like Jem Cohen, made it clear that he was already familiar with Cohen's work.

The original plan was to hold the daily workshops and the first movie each day at one of the Domes that were erected last minute at the Coronation Park, with evening events to be held at Le Meridien, a 5-star hotel in the center of town which was the Premiere Sponsor of the festival. Coronation Park is long and narrow, set between a river on one side and the town's stadium on the other, with a large golden Buddha sitting in its center, surrounded by Lotus flowers. I affectionately called it the "Art Park" as much of the art related activities were taken place there throughout the ten days of the festival.

However, things changed last minute and the film festival part was moved in its entirety to Le Meridien. Jeff Kantor, technical director of the Woodstock Film Festival, in Bhutan to run the projection, worked for the first few days on setting up the Dome with projection, screen etc., but then he had to take it all down and transfer it to the beautiful Meridien, which, in retrospect, was far more comfortable and convenient than the Dome.

The Bhutanese films, programmed by Bhutanese women filmmakers, Upasna Dahal and Karma Deki, were of particular interest as they were so different from their Western counterparts. The film "Kushuthara: Pattern of Love," for example was about the intersection of past and present lives where a couple whose failed marriage in their former lives meet again in this life in an effort to make up for what they tragically lost previously. Or "Zero Waste Bhutan: The Choice is Ours" by Loday Chophel, a humble and spiritual young man who is one of Bhutan’s most accomplished directors and actors. The film is about a 7th grade student in Bhutan who is startled by a lecture about plastics in the oceans and takes action to eliminate garbage and plastics in Bhutan.

My time in Bhutan was filled with contradictions. The sight and sounds of the thousands stray dogs who filled the streets of Thimphu, resting during the day and barking at night (the story goes that a few years back those dogs were rounded up and shipped away to the center of Bhutan, a day and a half trip by car, only to return on their own days later) would follow me as I went to visit ancient temples, or the largest Buddha in the world, made of bronze and gilded in gold, towering high above the capital city of Thimphu.

One morning I was at the Sunday vegetable market in Paro looking at the countless baskets of red and green chilies only to be called by the festival’s office and quickly summoned back for an audience with their majesties the Royal King and Queen of Bhutan, back in Thimphu at the Taj Hotel. There, all of us Festival’s artists and principal staff, wearing traditional Bhutanese garb, had the honor to meet members of the Royal Family. His Majesty the King, a handsome and clearly enlightened 35-year-old, much revered by the nation, talked about his 48 days trek across Bhutan and his concern for melting glaciers and climate change in general, while her Majesty the Queen admitted laughingly that she is a fan of "House of Cards." Since one of the festival's participants/staff members was Kimberly Skyrme, one of the casting directors of "House of Cards," I believe a special "House of Cards" present is on its way to the Royal Family.

Ginny Galloway, co-director of the festival, summed things up following the event: "This international festival is unique because at its heart, it is about collaboration and knowledge sharing. Whereas other world class international festivals are about showcasing artists work, this goes one step further. It is about bridging cultures through a sharing of artistic disciplines."

The Festival ended February 22nd and Galloway said that she is still hearing from local artists thanking the festival for the experience and asking about what's in store for next year. "We are all very proud to be working together with the local artists to build a strong platform and economy around the arts, here in Bhutan and abroad," said Galloway.

As for me, the experience was challenging and yet deeply inspiring. I left Bhutan with my heart and my mind filled to the rim and with hopes for returning next year. I was so inspired that when it comes to programming this year's Woodstock Film Festival’s lineup, don't be surprised to see Bhutanese films featured.

Meira Blaustein is the Co-founder/Executive Director/Programmer of the Woodstock Film Festival (WFF), which was launched in 2000 and has quickly become one of the top 50 most respected and influential film festivals world wide. Find out more about the Bhutan International Festival here.

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And the winners of the 15th Annual Woodstock Film Festival are…

Susan Kouguell — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 21:00:00 GMT

On a picture perfect fall day two days before the 2014 Woodstock Film Festival awards ceremony, I sat down with Meira Blaustein, co-founder and Executive Director of the Festival.

Meira Blaustein: “It’s very easy to meet people here at the Festival; it’s casual, and friendly, yet high quality. One can have conversations with those who can potentially buy your film, buy your next film, challenge your creativity and elevate your creativity and push the envelope. The goal of the Festival is to bring together outstanding, thought-provoking, and passionate films. This year we have twenty-two world premieres. We have filmmakers from all over the world. I’m proud we have a spotlight on women in film; eight narratives directed by women is unique -- unfortunately it is unique but it is. These women are smart, talented and strong, and their films are powerful. We have a lineup that dares to ask questions, and dares to be bold. It’s important to put together a tapestry that is reflective of the current state of filmmaking and a reflection of the current state of what is happening in film.”

The Woodstock Film Festival Award Winners

The Maverick Award for BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE: "Patrick's Day," directed by Terry McMahon

The Maverick Award for BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: "Red Lines," directed by Andrea Kalin and Oliver Lukacs.

The Maverick Award for BEST ANIMATION: "My Kingdom," directed by Debra Solomon

The Diane Seligman Award for BEST SHORT NARRATIVE: "Sunday," directed by Iva Gocheva

The Diane Seligman Award for BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM: "So You've Grown Attached,"directed by Kate Tsang

The Diane Seligman Award for BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY: "Our Course" (Nasza Klatwa), directed by Tomasz Sliwinski

The Haskell Wexler Award for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: "Patrick's Day," directed by Terry McMahon with cinematography by Michael Lavelle

James Lyons Award for BEST EDITING of a FEATURE NARRATIVE:
"Patrick's Day," directed by Terry McMahon and edited by Emer Reynolds

James Lyons Award for BEST EDITING of a FEATURE DOCUMENTARY:
"Killswitch," directed by Ali Akbarzadeh and edited by Prichard Smith

ULTRA INDIE AWARD "Uncertain Terms," directed by Nathan Silver

TANGERINE ENTERTAINMENT JUICE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE FEATURE DIRECTOR: Caryn Waechter, director of "The Sisterhood of Night"

For more information about the Woodstock Film Festival:

http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College SUNY, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of SAVVY CHARACTERS SELL SCREENPLAYS! and THE SAVVY SCREENWRITER, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog

Women in the Director's Chair Panel at the Woodstock Film Festival

Susan Kouguell — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:00:00 GMT

Film critic Thelma Adams moderated a provocative discussion with filmmakers Courteney Cox (feature directorial debut "Just Before I Go," Friends actress, actress/producer/director Cougar Town), Debra Granik (Academy Award nominated director/co-writer "Winter’s Bone" nominated for four Oscars, "Down to the Bone" Best Director at 2004 Sundance Film Festival), Leah Meyerhoff ("I Believe in Unicorns" her debut feature premiered at SXSW 2014, previous award-winning short films have screened in over 200 film festivals), and Jenna Ricker (wrote, directed and produced her first feature film, "Ben's Plan" awarded Best Drama at the AOF Festival, Distinguished Debut at the London Independent Festival, and honored with the Mira Nair Award for Rising Female Filmmaker).

According to Celluloid Ceiling (the report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University) only 6% of directors working in the top movies in 2013 movies were women; a 3-point drop from 2012. Only 16% directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, cinematographers in 2013 were women. Women directors working independently, outside the Hollywood studio system, are finding more opportunities, but there is still a vast inequity.

Moderator Thelma Adams cited some additional statistics to which the panel commented about their dismay of the reality of these numbers before jumping in on the question:

What is this thing with the title women’s panel?

Granik: There’s always a question whether it’s a ghettoization of women or raising them up by using the word “women” as a gender identifier. Using language that allows a person to be a person without a gender identifier can feel more powerful than using the word “woman”.

Meyerhoff: We all struggle with how to identify as a female director. When I came to film, I felt I didn’t want to be pigeonholed. I founded a female filmmaker collective --Film Fatales (http://www.filmfatalesnyc.com/#!leah-meyerhoff/c14fk) for this reason. There’s strength in numbers.

COX: I had one man on set of a project I directed, who would go to other people to get their opinions before he would come to me, the director. I called him up so I could understand why he was doing that. And then I told him to get over it.

How do stories live without gender?

Kathryn Bigelow’s name came up in the discussion (the first woman director to win the Oscar) and how Hurt Locker was not categorized in Hollywood terms as a female film. The panelists agreed that there are myths about what audiences want, and wanting to make movies about women was important despite the naysayers; there is indeed an audience for these films – the box office numbers confirm this.

Whining?

I asked the panel their advice to student filmmakers about breaking into the (independent and/or Hollywood) industry, opening my question with the quote from director Agnès Varda: “Stop categorizing us as women filmmakers,” which I cited in an article I wrote about her at the Locarno Film Festival this year, and the vitriolic Facebook post comment I received from a male producer: “Stop complaining and just make movies.”

Granik: We’re going through pushback. There’s often that accusation of complaining, calling women “whiners” when discussing this topic. The reality is that it’s not so easy for women to get a film financed. For students, they need to come to their power and work together as a collective. Their power is not to look at the industry for reasons to make films; go smaller. Work together

Ricker: I was on panel at Sundance and a producer on the panel said: “I won’t trust money with women directors.” The producer was female. For students at college now, they need to start working with their peers -- these are the people with whom you’ll be forming meaningful work relationships, which will continue after you graduate. Take advantage of these relationships at school.

Perhaps using male pseudonyms might further women’s careers

Adams : There was George Eliot.

The directors agreed that their first names were often a hindrance in getting hired, and jokinly added that in order to get the word out about women directors was to start the hashtag: #wheresthecock.

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College SUNY, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of SAVVY CHARACTERS SELL SCREENPLAYS! and THE SAVVY SCREENWRITER, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog

2014 Woodstock Film Festival Honors Darren Aronofsky, Announces Audience Awards

Rachel Bernstein — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:06:12 GMT

The 2014 Woodstock Film Festival came to a close yesterday, capped off by the announcement of the Maverick and Audience award winners.

Terry McMahon's film "Patrick's Day" took home the Maverick award for Best Narrative Feature, while Sean Mullin's "Amira & Sam" also took home the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

Also, Darren Aronofsky was presented with the Honorary Maverick Award by two of his favorite muses, Natalie Portman and Jennifer Connelly. As he accepted his award, Aronofsky said, “It was a very inspiring night. All the independent spirit that was here touched me and inspired me. So thank you, Woodstock, for that, and I go home with some new energy."

Here is the full list of Audience Award Winners:

Best Narrative Feature:
"Amira and Sam" directed by Sean Mullin
Honorable Mention:
"The Man Who Saved The World" directed by Peter Anthony

Best Documentary Feature:
"Limited Partnership" directed by Thomas G. Miller
Honorable Mention:
"How I Got Over" directed by Nicole Boxer

And the Full List of Awards given at the Maverick Award Ceremony:

Best Feature Narrative:
"Patrick's Day"directed by Terry McMahon
Honorable Mention:
"Arwad" directed by Samer Najari and Dominique Chila

Best Feature Documentary:
"Red Lines" directed by Andrea Kalin and Oliver Lukacs
Honorable Mention:
"Mentor" directed by Alix Lambert and "A Snake Gives Birth To A Snake" directed by Michael Lessac

Best Animation:
"My Kingdom" directed by Debra Solomon
Honorable Mention:
"The Dam Keeper" directed by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

Best Short Narrative:
"Sunday" directed by Iva Gocheva
Honorable Mention:
"Nighthawks" directed by Jun Bung Lee

Best Student Short Film:
"So You've Grown Attached" directed by Kate Tsang
Honorable Mention:
"The Young Housefly" directed by Laurence Vannicelli

Best Short Documentary:
"Our Curse (Nasza Klatwa)"directed by Tomasz Sliwinski

Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography: "Patrick's Day" directed by Terry McMahon with cinematography by Michael Lavelle

James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Feature Narrative:
"Patrick's Day" directed by Terry McMahon and edited by Emer Reynolds
Honorable Mention:
"The Man Who Saved The World" directed by Peter Anthony and edited by Morten Hojbjerg

James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Feature Documentary:
"Killswitch" directed by Ali Akbarzadeh and edited by Prichard Smith
Honorable Mention:
"A Snake Gives Birth To A Snake" directed by Michael Lessac and edited by Joel Plotch

Ultra Indie Award:
"Uncertain Terms" directed by Nathan Silver
Honorable Mention:
"I Believe In Unicorns" directed by Leah Meyerhoff

Tangerine Juice Entertainment Award for Best Female Feature Director:
Caryn Waechter, director of "The Sisterhood of Night"

First Annual Fiercely Independent Award presented by Tom Quinn:
Mark Duplass

Honorary Maverick Award presented by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Connelly:
Darren Aronofsky

READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky on How The Bible Inspires Him and The Future of Indie Film

Connie Nielsen, Jonathan Sadowski and Sara Paxton All Have Flirty Eyes in Exclusive Poster for 'All Relative'

Michele Debczak — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:52:19 GMT

Indiewire has the exclusive new poster for J.C. Khoury's romantic comedy "All Relative." The film follows a graduate student from New York who successfully woos the woman of his dreams with some help from his divorced friend. When he's finally introduced to her parents, a shared secret turns the weekend into a living nightmare for both couples.

Connie Nielsen, Jonathan Sadowski and Sara Paxton star in this film centered on young romance and family drama. "All Relative" will premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend before it's theatrical release from FilmBuff on November 21. Check out the poster below:

READ MORE: FilmBuff picks up J.C. Khoury Rom-Com 'All Relative'

Exclusive: Winklevoss Twins Talk Mark Zuckerberg & Social Media In Clip From Doc 'Why I'm Not On Facebook'

Kevin Jagernauth — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 14:05:00 GMT

While we may puzzle over its stance on privacy and worry about the reams of data collected about its users, it's hard to escape the grip of Facebook. The service has proven to be a quantum leap in how we communicate and share information, but if you have yet to join, should you? That's the premise of the upcoming documentary "Why I'm Not On Facebook."

Directed by Brant Pinvidic, the movie follows his journey as he decides whether or not to log on with the social media giant. Family, friends, total strangers and celebrities all weigh in, as Pinvidic explores the benefits of staying in touch with old friends as well as the perils of a service that gives pick-up artists and thieves a way to ply their trade on a keyboard. In this exclusive clip, the filmmaker speaks with the Winklevoss twins, who you might remember as Mark Zuckerberg's nemeses in "The Social Network." They discuss how they were "sandbagged" by the Facebook CEO, but also make a surprising revelation about their use of the site.

"Why I'm Not On Facebook" premieres today at the Woodstock Film Festival. Watch below.

Darren Aronofsky on Why Digital is Not a Replacement for Shooting Film

Paula Bernstein — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:39:27 GMT

In advance of his being awarded the 2014 honorary Maverick Award at the upcoming Woodstock Film Festival, Indiewire spoke to the director about his thoughts on working with film vs. digital.

READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan and Judd Apatow Lead the Charge to Keep Film Stock Alive

Paul Thomas Anderson, Christoper Nolan and other film directors have been vocal about the need to keep film alive. Where do you fall on the film vs. digital debate?

The biggest issue I have with video is the death of the eyepiece. I shot a small project on video recently and everyone is staring at a TV screen. That was really shocking to me -- that the operator was working off of a monitor and not putting his eye against an eyepiece -- because the technology of that is really great and getting a ground glass where you can look through the lens is not really happening, which is really scary to me because that power of staring through the lens at your actors through the actual light that's happening -- losing that part of the process terrifies me because when you're staring at a TV screen, you're not fully focused on the universe of what's happening through the lens in the same way you are when you look through an eyepiece. So that's a real issue and was a real issue for me as a filmmaker.

READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky on The Bible as Inspiration and The Future of Film

But look, film is amazing. The alchemy is so amazing when you shoot something and you don't know what you have until 24 hours later or sometimes if you're shooting in a really weird location, sometimes much longer. There's something almost like gambling. There's this adrenaline where you're waiting for the magic of the chemicals to unleash the image.

With video, that type of magic is gone and it's the instant gratification thing where you're almost looking at your finished image in front of you. I don't think it's just nostalgia. I think something happens in the chemistry that is part of the process.

But having done "Noah" in 35mm, it's a very tricky time and it's a very difficult time. It's hard unless you have tremendous resources to pull it off now. I think when we did "Noah," it was basically the same exact price to do video or film and the studio was like 'you choose,' which was probably one of the few times where that's happened because the price difference was negligible between the two.

There were other issues, but a big issue that came up was we couldn't find a second AC to work on our 35mm film because they're not being trained in that art any more. They're all being trained in how to service a video camera and then when [Hurricane] Sandy happened and we were shooting and the lab shut down because we lost electricity in lower Manhattan, it caused other problems. The chemical baths went bad and it took us a long time to get going.

So there's that risk and that danger, but then the upside is these incredible versatile cameras that you can do amazing things with as far as where you can place them and work them and use them. I think it would be incredible if both options stayed alive for as long as possible. Chris [Nolan] called me when there was a campaign to help Kodak and I did what I could with the relationships that I have because I think it's a great art form and that if it dies, something is going to be lost. It's not a pure replacement. I really took advantage of film on "The Wrestler" and "Black Swan," which were both shot in 16mm film for the aesthetic of the grain. If you look at Matty's (cinematographer Matthew Libatique) work on "Noah," we really worked with what the film stock could do for us. I think the art form changes and the story changes as the media changes.

READ MORE: Martin Scorsese Rallies to Keep Film Stock Alive

Darren Aronofsky on How The Bible Inspires Him and The Future of Indie Film

Paula Bernstein — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:43:41 GMT

Since directing his debut feature, the award-winning "Pi" on a budget of $60,000 raised from family and friends, back in 1998, Darren Aronofsky has established himself as one of the few truly auteur directors who have the clout to bring their creative visions to cinemas. From "Requiem for a Dream" and "Black Swan," to "The Wrestler," "The Fountain" and "Noah," Aronofsky has consistently blurred the artificial lines between good and bad in the most original ways. Though he's pioneered the use of special effects in his films, ultimately, Aronofsky's films rely on strong stories to inform their visual style. Since his work is driven by creativity and an independent vision, it's no surprise that the Woodstock Film Festival is awarding him the 2014 Honorary Maverick Award.

READ MORE: Courteney Cox's Directorial Debut "Just Before I Go" and More from Woodstock Film Festival Lineup

Indiewire recently chatted with the director about what it means to be a maverick, his thoughts on digital vs. film and the Bible as inspiration for his films.

According to the description from the Woodstock Film Festival, the award is for people "whose life and work is driven by creativity, independent vision, and social activism." With that definition in mind, do you consider yourself a maverick?

You know it's funny, the first film festival I ever got into with a short film I made when I was an undergrad, I think it was called the Maverick Film Festival, I think it was in San Jose. I don't think it's around anymore, it may have turned into something else, but I remember having no idea what that word maverick meant, and looking it up in the dictionary.

Really? You went to Harvard and you had to look up maverick in the dictionary?

You have to remember, I'm a public school kid from Brooklyn, so my verbal skills were never quite my strength. So I looked it up and I went, "oh, that's a really cool thing to name for a film festival." And to win an award named after that is great. I'm just excited because Woodstock, being a New York City kid, and I guess being an American, Woodstock has this incredible...you know, it's such an iconic town and the ideas behind it are great. So getting it from that city is really cool because I think what they did in 20th century history, that town, was such a defining moment. So it's kind of cool to be linked to it through this award.

So you feel that the festival carries on that counter-culture legacy?

I don't know actually, I haven't been to the festival. It's my first time up there, so I don't really know much about the festival. But I do know about the town. I've been up there several times and it's a great place.

Who are some of your personal mavericks?

For some reason, I always think of John Cassavetes when I think of a maverick.

With good reason!

I don't know where that link came from, if there was some type of John Cassavetes maverick award somewhere, but somehow those are linked in my head. When you mention the definition, I think that's very truthful. And definitely as a film student I was watching his movies. I've been watching his movies for a very very long time and they've been a big inspiration for me.

Maverick makes me think of someone outside of the establishment and though you started out as sort of an indie wunderkind, now that you have made one of the biggest studio box office successes of the year, do you feel like you're part of the establishment?

For me it's always been about being an independent filmmaker, it doesn't matter if you're making films within the Hollywood or some other filmmaking system or not. It's more when there's a division between the creative control, between the money and the filmmakers. I don't know about that idea of being in the system or out of the system. I think when you're trying to make films that are different, beggars can't be choosers. And you have to go to a place that seems to align with your aesthetics as much as possible, then have a marriage, then dive into it and try to make the best film you can. Something like "Noah," the only people that are supporting films of that scale and have the expertise to make films of that level because they've done it many times, it made sense to work with Paramount and Regency.

And also in terms of being able to distribute them internationally.

Exactly, exactly. To have the incredible support that they gave us in releasing the film and getting the word out there that we made the film. They were great at it.

Speaking of "Noah," which was an incredible film that elicited some really strong and very mixed responses, and then went on to be this huge box office success in the U.S. and internationally, what did you learn from that experience? The reception of the film, did that go at all like you expected?

It was strange because I'm still learning from it. And I think the studio which has done this many times is learning from it. It was a very very different experience for everyone involved. And things didn't play out in any way that was expected or seen before. And that happened with the making of the film as well as the release of the film. So I'm still processing to be honest about it all. There were a lot of vocal people who had a lot of different opinions. It didn't matter if you were a believer or a non-believer or a filmgoer, the reactions were really really varied. But I think I get that on all my movies. This was just on a much bigger scale, and because when you're working on a title that has a lot of preconceptions to it, it just magnified it. But I think if you look at everything I've done before, the reactions are always all over the map. For me that's what's exciting is having discussion.

A big goal for me was to take this Bible story, which really belongs -- it's one of humanity's oldest stories and it belongs to not just the three main religions that subscribe to it but it belongs to everyone on the planet because it's one of the great antiquities, one of the great treasures, one of the great literary works, like "Ulysses," like "The Odyssey." So taking that kind of source material and translating it to the big screen for the first time was to hopefully present it in a way that belonged to everyone, not just one group. And I think that suddenly a lot of the groups that had felt they had ownership of it got very disturbed by that. I think that was going to happen because the exercise itself was to say this is a mythology that belongs to everyone and anyone can take these stories and interpret it to make meaning out of their life, out of their experiences, and out of the world like we do with all myths. Sort of like you take the story of Icarus and apply it to "don't have too much hubris." There are great messages in these ancient myths that can apply to us and the reason we've been telling these stories over and over again is because they're so rich with ideas that can apply to us.

Would you be inspired to return to those old stories in the Bible to adapt something else?

Look, I think they're such great, powerful stories and I think...most of my films reference parts of the Bible so I imagine it will be a source of inspiration for a long time.

Getting back to this idea of mavericks, mavericks are people who are always pushing the boundaries. In what ways do you want to continue to push the boundaries?

[Laughs] I don't know. Consciously, it's definitely not a goal to push the boundaries. It just sort of comes out that way. I don't go into it with a punk attitude to sort of make noise. It's more like that's kind of what I'm driven and inspired to do. I think I go into it -- and "Noah" is a perfect story. As a child, I had great love for the story and over the years, I have revisited it and would always find I was able to apply the story to what was going on in my life and also what was going on on the planet and so I came to "Noah" with love to tell that story and to share it in a unique way and to reinvent it for the 21st century audience. That was the approach. It wasn't "hey, we're going to mess around with this story" in any way. It was more positive.

The same thing with -- maybe my most aggressive film would be "Requiem for a Dream," that was a love for the material and for what Hubert Selby Jr. had written, the way he captured the spirit of those four characters and brought them to life in such a rich and human way. That was the reason I wanted to make it, was to capture that. It wasn't to disturb audiences in the way that it did. I think if you go into it trying to be disruptive and disturbed. That's definitely not my approach. I don't come into it pushing boundaries. I come into it with -- the only thing I could have when I approach a film is some passion for the material but that's what gets me out of bed every morning is that passion.

Looking back even further to "Pi," how has indie filmmaking changed since you started out? Would "Pi" have a shot at theatrical today or would it be direct to VOD, which is not necessarily a bad thing?

[Laughs] No, it's not. I think the VOD window is really interesting for filmmakers and even as film viewers. I'm constantly, as a parent, wishing there were more options on VOD. Films come out and I get really excited to see the movies and then I have no way to see them until they reach me on video if I don't get to the cinema.

I'm teaching at NYU now and I feel like a lot of the students are still approaching film the same way I was approaching film in the 90s. It's a very different playing field now. I don't know what I would do if I was a starting out filmmaker now and I don't even know if the 90-minute form would be the form I'd be pursuing. I think the art of storytelling and there's many many ways to tell stories in individual medium and there's many ways to distribute that now that are exciting. There are many types of options. This almost lottery feeling where you make a film and hope to get it into Sundance and then hope it gets picked up and hope it gets one of the slots -- it's not one in a million, but it was a pretty longshot when we started the process. I would probably approach it in a different way. I think it's pretty exciting, the self-distribution internet option now. I think if I was a starting filmmaker, I'd probably figure out a way to exploit that.

Right, there's no longer the element of the "gatekeeper" giving you permission to get your film out.

You can get your stories out in so many other ways now. I'm not sure the 90s version is the best version right now and I don't know if the model is fully worked out about what the next system is going to be. But it's an exciting time because people are just trying to figure out what that is.

The 15th annual festival runs Oct. 15-19

READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky on Why Digital is Not a Replacement for Shooting Film

Woodstock Film Festival Women Directors: Jenna Ricker -- 'The American Side'

Melissa Silverstein — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 15:00:00 GMT

There's three sides to every story. The truth, the lie, and the American Side. Following a mysterious suicide at Niagara Falls, a low-rent detective unravels a conspiracy to build a revolutionary invention by enigmatic genius, Nikola Tesla. The American Side directed by Jenna Ricker will play at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 16 and 18.

WaH: Please give us your description of the film playing.

Jenna Ricker: It's a noir-inspired mystery. A low-rent detective stumbles into a conspiracy for control over lost designs by the genius inventor, Nikola Tesla.

WaH: What drew you to this story?

JR:When Greg Stuhr (my collaborator) first told me about this story he'd been kicking around it reminded me of my favorite Hitchcock films and the conspiracy thrillers of the 70's. I was inspired by the clever details in the mystery, the rich history of the location (Buffalo, NY) and the Tesla aspect.

WaH: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

JR: Making films is a series of challenges, I suppose each in its way feels like the "biggest challenge". Seeking finance was a lesson in the delicate balance between patience and tenacity. I'm sure every filmmaker feels a bit like Sisyphus while securing their budget. Aside from that, I'd say that the nature of our shoot -- limited budget, on location, multiple actors in key roles and on set for a few days or less- that my biggest challenge was to assure them they were in good hands in very short order.

WaH: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theatre?

JR: "Is that Tesla stuff for real?!" Most of all I want them to leave feeling a bit giddy -- like they just got off a carnival ride. I want them to enjoy being entertained by an ambitious genre Indie.

WaH: What advice do you have for other female directors?

JR: Go for it. Have thick skin. Surround yourself with great people who will inspire and challenge you to be better. Really hone your intuition. There are differences that may just be inherent between in the sexes. Is that nature or nurture? Well, who knows. But, as women we have more or less been raised with a standard of deferring our needs, ignoring our instincts, and being unnecessarily apologetic. So, if you want to be a director (or CEO, or producer, or manager or any leadership role) start to pay attention to those qualities in yourself and take the best aspects of them for your work -- thoughtfulness, empathy, and balance them with your purpose and vision. Then trust you're making the film you set out to make and totally go for it.

WaH: What's the biggest misconception about you and your work?

JR: Well, with only two films under my belt, I'm not sure I have enough work worthy of a misconception yet. But, I was told that my first film (Ben's Plan- a coming of age story about two brothers) really struck a nerve with men, and the question in Q&A's was how I accomplished that as a woman. With The American Side a festival programmer said to me, "I really liked what you did. You directed a very masculine film." The comment got me thinking: what makes a film's direction masculine or feminine? Sure, there's genre, but is it characters, subject matter? Do we say to James L. Brooks "Terms of Endearment was a feminine directed film." Or to Robert Redford, "Ordinary People was about a family unhinging -- that's a very female story." Maybe just the notion that a story doesn't need to be determined as either masculine or feminine -- that might be something I can answer to or discover throughout my career.

WaH: How did you get your film funded? (Is it a studio film, a crowdsourced film, somewhere in between?) Share some insights into how you got the film made.

JR: Before we approached anyone, I thought it would be good to make a trailer -- as if the film was already complete -- to highlight the mood of the story, convince a producer and investors that I could direct a genre piece, and frankly, because more people will watch something before reading a script. With the trailer and script in hand, Greg and I approached Jonathan Shoemaker. He didn't know us from Adam, but thankfully, he liked what he saw in the work and decided to take a chance on us and joined as our producer. As for the financing, I'd made my first film on a micro-budget and the generosity and talent of friends. During that time, I was lucky to develop the support and encouragement of Mary Henry, a business-savvy woman with an artistic bent, who eventually became our executive producer on The American Side. With the team complete, Mary helped introduce the project to others, kicking off our private equity march. The budget shifted as we sought to get the most value for our investors up on the screen and give them value added pieces- such as name cast- to help minimize their risk. We were extremely diligent in how we cast the film, we wanted actors who would fit in the specific world we were creating, and though recognizable, instead of throwing the audience out of the movie, would draw them in further. Once we were ready to go, Jonathan brought some first rate department heads onboard who really capitalized on the production values Buffalo and Niagara Falls had to offer.

WaH: Name your favorite women directed film and why.

JR: I remember watching Yentl as a kid and my dad telling me that Barbra Streisand had directed it. Seemed so cool to me -- I was eight years old and had recently been told that as a girl I couldn't grow up to be a "soccer player" -- so this woman directing a whole movie was very hopeful news. Aside from that I would say that some of the most resonate films, for one reason or another, that have inspired me are: Ida Lupino's On Dangerous Ground (co-directed with Nicholas Ray), Jane Campion's The Piano, Lynn Ramsey's Ratcatcher, Andrea Arnold's short film Wasp. I still get sad and sick to my stomach with injustice just recalling Deepa Mehta's Water, and Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry. There are so many more -- I mean, Mira Nair, Debra Granik, Anne Fontaine, Lone Scherfig... The only bummer about these amazing women, and others, is that their filmographies should all be MUCH longer! This is my best short answer.

Woodstock Film Festival to Close With Terrence Malick Produced 'The Better Angels'

Jake Folsom — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:01:13 GMT

Woodstock Film Festival has announced its closing film: "The Better Angels." The film is A.J. Edwards' first directorial effort, but in the past he has directed second unit on Terrence Malick "The New World" and "Tree of Life." Malick is also among the producers for "The Better Angels."

READ MORE: Watch the trailer for "The Better Angels."

The film is a biopic about the early years of President Abraham Lincoln; the title is taken from one of his speeches. Diane Kruger plays Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah; Jason Clarke as his father, Thomas; Brit Marling as his mother, Nancy; and Braydon Denney as "Abe."

READ MORE: Get acquainted with director A.J. Edwards.

Courteney Cox's Directorial Debut 'Just Before I Go' and More in Woodstock Film Festival Lineup

Jake Folsom — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 18:34:05 GMT

For its 15th annual year, The Woodstock Film Festival will bring big names to Upstate New York’s Hudson Valley region.

READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky to Receive Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival

The festival's centerpiece film is "The Sisterhood of Night directed by Caryn Waechter. Included among the general competition are several world premieres: Khalil Sullins' "Listening," Peter Anthony's "The Man Who Saved the World," Tom DiCillo's "Down In Shadowland," Ali Akbarzadeh's "Killswitch," Liz Manashil's "Bread and Butter" and Jenna Ricker's "The American Side." Also included is Courteney Cox's directorial debut, "Just Before I Go."

The narrative film portion of the festival includes some of the features not screened in general competition. One highlight will be former Indiewire Project of the Day, "Amira and Sam," directed by Sean Mullin. The documentary category includes Mexican visual environmentalist spectacular "Angel Azul" (dir. Marcelina Cravat), Israeli political doc "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem" directed by Erez Miller and Henrique Cymerman and Debra Granik's "Stray Dog."

READ MORE: 'East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem' to Kick Off 15th Woodstock Film Festival

Woodstock will also offer an array of special events — from the kick-off screening of "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem," to special screenings of "Creep" (dir. Patrick Brice, featuring Mark Duplass)to "Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" (directed by Chuck Workman). Special awards will be presented to Mark Duplass and Darren Aronofsky, presented by Jennifer Connelly.

The Woodstock Film Festival Runs from October 15-19. The full lineup can be found here.

'East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem' to Kick Off 15th Woodstock Film Festival

Zack Sharf — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:47:43 GMT

The Woodstock Film Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary this October with a special kick-off event featuring the world premiere of Erez Miller and Henrique Cymerman's feature documentary, "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem." Miller and two of the film's subjects, Israeli musician David Broza and American musician/producer Steve Earle, will attend the premiere and partake in both a post-screening Q&A and an acoustic concert featuring songs from the film.

READ MORE: Darren Aronofsky to Receive Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival

Chronicling the making of Broza's titular album, "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem" explores the diverse inspirations and sounds of the eclectic musician as he fuses together Israeli, Palestinian and American musical influences. At a time when Israel and Palestine seem as hopelessly divided as ever, the documentary shows how artistry can wrestle with heavy societal themes to inspire personal, soul-stirring music.

"It's been four years since I started working on the 'East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem' project," says Broza. "It's hard to describe in one sentence the anticipation and sense of completion coming to this point and letting it all be seen and hopefully having it inspire as much as I have been while in the process."

The 15th Woodstock Film Festival begins on October 15. Head over to the website for ticketing information.

Darren Aronofsky to Receive Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival

Zainab Akande — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 19:21:07 GMT

Academy Award-nominated director Darren Aronofsky will be presented the Woodstock Film Festival's 2014 honorary Maverick Award on October 18 at Backstage Studio Productions in New York.

Known for films such as "Noah," "Black Swan," and "Requiem for a Dream," Aronofsky will be joining a class of previous winners that include Woody Harrelson, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Barbara Kopple and Tim Robbins.

The Woodstock Film Festival will be celebrating its 15th anniversary from October 15-19. Tickets to the Maverick Awards Ceremony can be purchased here.