Monday, October 6, 2008

Another big year



The Woodstock Film Festival wrapped up Sunday night.

There's a certain unnamed festival public relations person who has implied in more than one occasion that the Freeman's coverage of the festival has been inadequate.
For the record, here's a list of the Freeman's festival stories for the past month, in chronological order.






By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WOODSTOCK - Usually uninhibited, actor Jason Mewes was surprisingly apprehensive about baring all in the Woodstock Film Festival's closing night feature "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," said director Kevin Smith.




By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WOODSTOCK - Panelists from Sunday's Woodstock Film Festival's "Movies That Matter: Do They Count?" concluded those movies do indeed count, and sometimes even movies that do not matter also count.






By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
KINGSTON - Ron Nyswaner, the Ulster County resident who wrote the screenplay for "Philadelphia" and spoke at the opening of the Woodstock Film Festival awards ceremony Saturday night, noted that Honorary Maverick Award winner Kevin Smith is now "qualified to be a heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world."






By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WOODSTOCK - "Gospel Hill" is about "how we work through our fears," director Giancarlo Esposito says of the movie, which screened on Friday at the Woodstock Film Festival."It's about the human dilemma," Esposito said during an interview on Saturday. "Some of us are followers, some of us are leade...
Top Stories




By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
BOICEVILLE - Kaela Smith-Chaves began to lose her motivation to do schoolwork in seventh and eighth grade, recalled her mother, Suzanne Chaves, who was worried at the time about her daughter's transition to the Onteora High School.

Industry pros offer guidance to young filmmakers


By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WOODSTOCK - Mike Caffrey, an 11-year-old Saugerties Middle School student, said the message he took away from the Woodstock Film Festival's "Career Day Roundtable" on Friday was "you need to make it happen - don't just talk about it."
Top Stories

Woodstock Film Festival award winners
Here's a list of Woodstock Film Festival awards handed out Saturday night at Backstage Productions in Uptown Kingston.


* October 03, 2008



By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
BOICEVILLE - When Steve Heller saw a large steam shovel clamp at Larry Shurder's Olivebridge sawmill in the early 1990s, he immediately knew what it really was. "I knew it was a tyrannosaurus rex jaw bone the minute I saw it," recalled Heller, the local sculptor and furniture maker who is the subject of the 18-minute documentary "Dinosaurs and Rocketships," which is being shown at this week's Woodstock Film Festival.




By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WOODSTOCK - Even though most of the police depicted in the Woodstock Film Festival's opening movie "Pride and Glory" were corrupt at some level, Gavin O'Connor, the director and co-screenwriter, described it as "a celebration of honest cops."


* October 02, 2008




By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
BEARSVILLE - The ninth annual Woodstock Film Festival opened Wednesday with a concert beginning with a West African keyboard percussion performance by Valerie Naranjo, who preceded Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet - but most of the audience was there to see Bela Fleck."He's the best banjo...


Film student's work ethic impresses screenwriter


By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
WEST HURLEY - Philip Dorling learned about film through Onteora High School's Indie Programs before he went on to study the trade at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan, but nothing prepared him for the industry like helping to renovate his mother's West Hurley home.

* October 01, 2008

Concert opens Woodstock Film Festival


By Kyle Wind, Freeman staff
Woodstock Film Festival staff, volunteers, and organizers were working feverishly Tuesday to set the stage for the ninth annual festival, which kicks off today with a musical performance by Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet and runs through Sunday.


* September 27, 2008
Freeman staff
Film fest awards ceremony open to public this year
KINGSTON - For the first time in its nine-year history, the Woodstock Film Festival is opening its awards ceremony to the public.The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday at venues in Woodstock, Rosendale and Rhinebeck.




By Blaise Schweitzer, Freeman staff
Some say that the banjo has roots in Africa, but try to tell that to Africans and witness some vibrant disbelief.That's what banjo legend Bela Fleck discovered during a month-long trip to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali three years ago.





By William J. Kemble, Correspondent
WOODSTOCK - Woodstock Film Festival co-founder Lawrence Rejto said on Wednesday that only the closing night film "Zak and Miri Make a Porno" has sold out at the Woodstock Film Festival and that handicapped accessibility will be available for all 129 movies being presented at the annual event.




By William J. Kemble, Correspondent
WOODSTOCK - The Town Board on Tuesday agreed to give the Woodstock Film Festival a discounted rate for the use of town buildings but plans to review complaints that people with impaired vision people are at a disadvantage when buying tickets for the festival.
Regional News

* September 12, 2008

Masterson, Spurlock, Wexler to be on film fest panels


By Kyle Wind, Freemnan staff
WOODSTOCK - Woodstock Film Festival organizers have announced who will participate in the panel discussions at this year's festival.