Just two weeks after an inspiring long weekend attending one of the country’s fastest-growing documentary film festivals in the U.S. — Maine’s Camden Film Festival – I’ll travel into the midst of the fall foliage to speak on a panel at the Hudson Valley’s Woodstock Film Festival. A gem of a festival, Woodstock has long been a retreat for N.Y.C. industry players, who get to stop texting their assistants (there is no cell phone service in town) and actually soak in entire movies.
At Camden, The Orchard’s Happy Hour attracted dozens of young filmmakers and industry people, many of whom participated in the festival’s Points North Documentary Forum. These included Daniel Chalfen, one of the nonfiction world’s most esteemed producers (Code of the West, The Revisionairies), Elisabeth Holm, the film program director of Kickstarter, Beth Janson of the Tribeca Film Institute, and the legendary Simon Kilmurry, Executive Producer of PBS’s award-winning documentary series P.O.V. Among the many filmmakers I got to talk with were Meghan O’Hara, whose fascinating documentary about a group of young Oregon men who re-enact the Vietnam War won the Points North Pitch Award, and Angad Bhalla, whose film Herman’s House has been a staple of the festival circuit since its premiere at True/False Film Festival in March.
Woodstock is sure to bring more fantastic interactions with filmmakers, along with the ability to share ideas with some esteemed film distributors at a panel called Distribution Paradigms. The panel, which also features Oscilloscope Picture’s David Laubis, Richard Abramowitz of the theatrical release company Abramorama, and Ron Mann, acclaimed documentarian and found of Canadian distributor Films We Like, will be moderated by Scott Macaulay, editor of Filmmaker Magazine. It takes place on Saturday, October 13th at 4:00 pm.
And just for fun, here’s a picture of me with filmmakers Iyabo Boyd and Rodrigo Reyes at CFF, courtesy of Meghan Brosnan Photography:
