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Woodstock Times - Featured News | 9/24/2009 |
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In the thick of it
Local films, filmmakers brighten Festival |
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| | Mickey Breitenstein and Anmy Leuthold.
[ Dion Ogust ] | |
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by Paul Smart
Mickey Breitenstein says he's been trying to play it cool, what with his first narrative film, Stooge, set to play the Woodstock Film Festival next week. But the Woodstock native and Onteora graduate quickly adds that he can't help but say what's obvious as soon as you start talking to him: He's feeling really good. Excited even.
"I grew up in an artist's colony but not in a family of artists," he said, after noting how he'd followed his 1988 graduation from OCS with several years at Ulster County Community College and the State University of New York at New Paltz before heading off into life. "It feels good to be premiering this work here. After all, it was shot near where I grew up, in a barn on Elwyn Lane."
Breitenstein, who ended up in Los Angeles for almost a decade after taking a western road trip to see a friend and do some camping, got into film after answering a producer friend's call for some stunt help.
"I knew some karate," he said. "It was really easy."
From there he moved on to stunt coordination, and then the writing and directing of commercials and music videos. Eventually he joined up with the Beverly Hills Playhouse to train himself in acting and directing. Picked up some gigs in indie films, which in turn took him to the Sundance Festival three times.
Two and a half years ago, Breitenstein and his fianc￩e and producer Anmy Leuthold, also from Woodstock, moved back east...to a home in their hometown and a studio in Brooklyn, from which they've been struggling to restart their film careers in a new scene. One and a half years ago, he adds, he broke his heel playing basketball and got laid up for a number of months.
"A friend said I should use this time and write," Breitenstein says. "He asked me to write him a short and I ended up writing two, one of which he said was too long." That became the current film, which the Woodstocker ended up shooting with two friends from L.A. and a local actor, Aren Stirbl. He hired a cinematographer, Will Lytle, out of the local INDIE program. And before you could say "cut," Breitenstein had a finished film on his hand.
His experience, it turns out, is akin to many Hudson valley filmmakers who will be unspooling new flicks at the Woodstock Film festival over the coming week, along with works by outside filmmakers shooting in the Hudson Valley...and helping set dreams, and careers like Breitenstein's, into action with increasing regularity.
So what's playing, during this 10th outing of the Woodstock Film Festival, that's from, of, and or involving the Hudson Valley?
Most prominently, there's Peter Callahan's Against the Current, the fictional true story account of a man, haunted by a tragic loss in his past, who is determined to swim the length of the Hudson River from Troy to New York City. Showcasing a tour-de-force performance by Joseph Fiennes as the swimmer (talk about a theme this season...), the film's use of in-water and on-river locations builds up a unique portrait of the Hudson River and its surroundings.
Then there's Woodstock producer Joe White's latest, The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll featuring Lukas Haas, Peter Fonda and Ruby Dee in a story about a young musician eager to avoid being a one hit wonder, returning home to unite with a former collaborator and childhood friend. Talk about something truly of this town...
The funny geo-caching comedy Splinterheads (see box) was partly shot in New Paltz and High Falls. And 2B writer/director Richard Kroehling, now based in Cold Spring, spent several summers in Phoenicia and maintains a mountain getaway outside Andes, from whence he says he still draws his greatest inspiration.
The true power of the local, though, may currently be in the realm of the festival's many shorts, screening throughout its schedule.
Miranda Rhyne's The 4th of July Parade is a touching mother and daughter story shot all around the Hudson Valley in Woodstock, Saugerties, Kingston, and Catskill. A Horse is Not a Metaphor is by longtime Woodstock resident Barbara Hammer, a stalwart of the local arts scene for years. The Bell, based on an Emerson poem, stars local children and was filmed on location at the Woodstock Day School. Knife Point, directed by Delaware County native Carlo Mirabella-Davis, was filmed farther up the Route 28 corridor near Delhi. Finally, Music We Are, a documentary by Woodstock resident Mirav Ozeri, provides a rare look into the creative process of legendary jazz drummer Jack Dejohnette of Silver Hollow.
And did we not mention Michael Lang, producer of the latest on his franchise, Woodstock Then and Now? Or the various Onteora students getting lined up for the festival's Teen section? You get the idea...
So how do local filmmakers and industry insiders prepare for a festival like their hometown's?
Breitenstein said he's been to such events, but never with so much at stake. And not. He said that he hasn't really worried about what's coming, yet he's been inundated with the tasks of getting publicity and other materials together. And he hasn't looked to see what else he might want to see in the lineup of films playing alongside his.
So, has he thought about what he's going to wear?
Mickey Breitenstein laughs, noting that it's his fianc￩e, Anmy, who's "the fahionista."
"But I do think I looked cool last night at Libation," he added of the 10th Annual Woodstock Film festival's launch party in Manhattan Tuesday night, September 22. "I kept my country roots but showed off my city savvy, too."
So will he have projects to push, following his premiere?
"It turns out I wrote a feature that same time I wrote Stooge," he said.
Guess, at least in Woodstock, it can end up paying, at least creatively, to be laid up for a spell.++
For more on the screening times and details of all the 10th Annual Woodstock Film festival's Hudson valley films, features, documentaries and shorts, as well as the full schedule of events lined up for Wednesday, September 30 through Sunday, October 4, check out the fest's website for further information and a full catalogue at www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.
Docs and features shine
Every year we ask the Woodstock Film fest folks what some of the sleeper hits of the festival might be, according to what they've seen and heard. More particularly, we want to know what's hot that might not make it into local cinemas anytime soon, for which tickets are still available. Some years, the lists we're given are hit and miss, at least to our jaundiced eye. But not this time around.
Herein, a few should- and must-sees.
Knowing our weakness for documentaries, and New Orleans, we anticipated more from After The Storm, by Hilla Medalia, than we saw in its depiction of a group of spirited kids putting on a musical in the Lower Ninth Ward. Maybe it was the theatrical nature of emotions in such situations that kept us skeptical, although we do recommend it for some nevertheless effective scenes charting that great city and culture's devastation, as well as a killer ending that is truly indicative of the Big Easy's continuing liveliness and promise.
Tiger Next Door, meanwhile, is fascinating as it follows a former biker and meth addict as he is forced to downsize his controversial business breeding and selling tigers to private owners. The story is epic in its strangeness, but also epochal in the issues it raises about the exploitative underbelly of commerce these days.
As is, as well, the deeply effective new work about sex slavery and child prostitution in Cambodia, Redlight, which will be premiered at the festival with narrator Lucy Liu and director Guy Jacobson on hand. As with all good docs, this one has a way of consistently answering the many questions it raises as it goes on, spinning out its topic from the sensational to a point where we all have to ask ourselves, as with Tiger, about how far we take our purchasing power, and where we start to bring morality to capitalism.
For sheer complexity, Convention, directed by A.J. Schnack, working with a huge crew of the medium's best cinematographers, seems to be everywhere simultaneously with summer 2008's epochal Democratic Convention in Denver, taking us from City Hall and Denver Post preparations through all sides of street protests to the in-stadium effect of Barack Obama's soaring acceptance speech. Talk about capturing history for posterity...and possibly affecting next year's political races, should it find its legs in wide release.
On the feature film side, meaning fictional narratives to those outside the industry, we have a sense that Brant Serson's Splinterheads, set for release in November, may turn into a breakway hit, or at least become one of those cult films beloved as much for its tone as its breakout performances by three new film presences. A shaggy dog story about a slacker transformed by a visiting carnival, what makes this one memorable is the way it mixes oddities such as a geo-caching subplot with great performances and a strong sense of small town life, and its subtler forms of humor. Topping it off, we expect big things from stand-up comedian Thomas Middleditch.
In a completely different vein, Easier With Practice, from Kyl Patrick Alvarez, is as memorable for its scene set-ups and way with a truly odd but painfully familiar story about loneliness and creativity. Although minimalist in scale and potential appeal, the work is spot-on in all its choices, from acting to music and dialogue (or lack of it).
Lastly, overleaping all boundaries, we found that the documentary Big River Man, from director John Maringouin, may be the most refreshing thing we've seen since Guy Maddin's My Winnepeg. All about the Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel, who has swum the Danube, Mississippi and Yangtze rivers despite being overweight (and usually drunk), the film not only follows the protagonist's attempt to swim the length of the Amazon, but does so with narration by Strel's son, and in a wildly excitable way that pretty much captures the swimmer's long-distance madness, and heroism. It's like a digitalized, expanded take on all that the great Werner Herzog started, and no one thought could be followed up on...Think of Whitman taking up Blake's mantle, and Allen Ginsberg following from Blake.
We'll get to two other films in our pile, the dysfunctional family documentary 21 Below and Ricky, from the great contemporary French film master Francois Ozon, in next week's stories.++
Paul Smart
Visit www.woodstockfilmfestival.com or visit the box office on Rock City Road to reserve space for any or all of these.
Up in the Air to close Festival
So The Messenger, which everyone's touting for its career-defining performances by Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson, will be opening the upcoming 10th Annual Woodstock Film Festival, set to run September 30 through October 4 throughout town and its environs. And the centerpiece film is latest coming-of-age ensemble piece, Youth In Revolt, with Michael Cera, Steve Buscemi and Ray Liotta being directed by the hot new Hollywood maverick, Miguel Arteta.
What's the closer for this year's stellar line-up?
"We are thrilled to close this year's festival with the newest work by one of today's sharpest directors" said Film Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Meira Baustein in a statement embargoed until the finish of the WFF's star-studded launch party at New York's Libation Tuesday night. "By exploring the lives of the people affected by socially relevant issues, (Jason) Reitman's films uncover the unexpected human aspect so easily overlooked. Up in the Air's beauty comes from that human perspective.
She was talking about the big buzz film of the moment, fresh from a major critical success at the Toronto Film Festival, Up in the Air. Co-written by and directed by Jason Reitman, of Juno fame, the story of a career traveling businessman seeking to set down roots stars George Clooney and Vera Farmiga, with the latter scheduled to share the stage with Lucy Liu for the festival's always popular Actor's Dialogue on Sunday morning.
The film, which be screened twice on Sunday evening, October 4, at the Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock, is Clooney's second in the festival this year.
Could that possibly mean, perhaps, that...?++
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