Filmaker Leon Gast poses with Kimberly Kay
By Kimberly Kay
WOODSTOCK — The 17th annual Woodstock Film Festival has been a whirlwind
four days of ground-breaking independent films, panel discussions, parties
and networking and the festival closes today with several very special
screenings.
The narrative film “Halfway” which won the “Ultra Indie
Award at Saturday night’s Maverick Awards will be screened today
at 4:30 p.m. at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck. British filmmaker Ben Caird
presents a powerful film about the failed American prison system with
an outstanding performance by Quinton Aaron (Blind Side) who plays a former
prisoner sent to work on his white step brother’s farm in Wisconsin.
A documentary film that comes to the festival all the way from the Ukraine
is “The Women of Maiden”. Directed by Olha Onyshko, the documentary
began with a call from her mother in the Ukraine crying about women who
were beaten in the square or “maiden”. The film follows the
struggle known as the “Revolution of Dignity” There is a screening
at 7:30 PM tonight at The Bearsville Theater.
The film “Shepherds and Butchers” which won the Maverick Award
for “Best Feature Narrative” and “Cinematography”
last night has a final showing today at 2:15 pm at The Woodstock Playhouse.
The timely film takes place in 1987 in apartheid divided South Africa
where a white man is on trial for his own life after gunning down seven
black men.
The closing night presentation is a new film by Academy Award winning
documentary filmmaker and the last nights’ winner of the Woodstock
Film Festival “Lifetime Achievement Award”, Leon Gast. The
film Woodstock: A Love Poem features the stories of people known to the
town he loves. The screening is at The Woodstock Playhouse at 8 p.m.
For ticket Information log on to www.woodstockfilmfestival.com
