Stuck indoors? The Woodstock Film Festival is sharing short and full-length films curated by our alum filmmakers, programmers, industry friends, and staff for you to stream from the comfort of your home. With so many festivals and movie theaters shuttering across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting independent filmmakers is more important than ever. So sit back, cozy up, and enjoy a cinematic escape from quarantines and hand sanitizer shortages!
MARRIAGE MATERIAL
WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL 2019
"BEST STUDENT SHORT" WINNER
INTRO FROM THE FILMMAKER & LEAD ACTOR:
About the filmmaker:
Oran Zegman is an award-winning director based in Los Angeles. In 2018, Oran received her Masters as a directing fellow from the world-renowned American Film Institute. Her thesis film, MARRIAGE MATERIAL, was a Student Academy Awards FINALIST. Growing up in an Israeli-Greek-Polish family has inspired her to look for the comedic perspective in dark and often tragic themes, and built her unorthodox humorous storytelling. —WME
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
After her boyfriend rejects her marriage proposal, Leah checks herself into the LATE BLOOMING BRIDE retreat, which re-packages women into “Marriage Material" at all costs. But, in the demanding pursuit of perfection, how much is Leah willing to sacrifice?
THE MIGHTY HUDSON
INTRO FROM THE FILMMAKER:
About the filmmaker:
Writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon Bowermaster is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled.
Jon has written eleven books and produced/directed more than thirty documentary films. His feature documentaries include DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA, ANTARCTICA, ON THE EDGE, AFTER THE SPILL and GHOST FLEET. (oceans8films.com)
His National Geographic-sponsored Oceans 8 project took him and his teams around the world by sea kayak over the course of ten years (1999-2008), bringing back stories from the Aleutian Islands to French Polynesia, Gabon to Tasmania, and more, reporting on how the planet’s one ocean and its various coastlines are faring in today’s busy world.
Jon lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the President of the One Ocean Media Foundation and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.
For the past several years, Jon and his One Ocean Media Foundation / Oceans 8 Films team have focused on a series of short films about the environmental risks to, and hopes for the Hudson River Valley, the birthplace of the American environmental movement. (hudsonriverstories.com)
Jon is a Visiting Lecturer at Bard College, in the Environment and Urban Studies Department; tune into his weekly radio show/podcast, The Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster, at radiokingston.org.
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
A pure-cinema odyssey that takes you through the four seasons of America's first river, the mighty Hudson.
THE OPPOSITES GAME
WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL 2019
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION PROGRAMMERS JOY BURAN AND NOELLE MELODY
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS & FILMMAKERS:
About the filmmakers:
Anna Samo was born in Moscow, Russia. As a child she dreamed about becoming a clown - or a superintendent but she became an animator instead. Her favorite activities during this time were drawing on wallpaper, declaiming poems and destroying the family porcelain.
In 1999 Samo started studying architecture in Moscow. After two years she gave up and switched to animation, spending 2002-2006 studying art-direction of animated films at VGIK (Film University, Moscow) and 2006-2013 studying animation at HFF “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam, Germany.
Since October 2011 she has been working as a freelance animator in Berlin and New York. Samo's films have screened at several acclaimed film festivals around the world such as Berlinale, Annecy, Stuttgart, Hiroshima, Encounters FF, Cork FF, and Aspen Shortsfest.
Lisa LaBracio is an animation director, filmmaker, and educator living and working Brooklyn, New York.
Lisa has been juggling working in independent film & animation, producing short animated films, commercials, & graphics for documentaries, educating aspiring artists & animators of all ages, and her insatiable passion for traveling and working with new people in new places, since graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 2006. While in school, Lisa began as an intern for Oscar© nominated animator, Bill Plympton's animation studio, where she continued to work as a production artist for 4 years, and where she fell in love with the independent world of animation filmmaking.
Her travels have taken her to a good many places, including Tanzania, where she taught English and animation to the children of the Living Waters Children Centre, as well as to India, where she had the opportunity to work as an English tutor to Tibetan refugees, simultaneously learning and recording stories of escape and exile.
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
A classroom erupts into a war of words as students grapple with a seemingly simple prompt: what is the opposite of a gun? The film screened at the 2019 Woodstock Film Festival as part of the shorts program.
A CLOCKWORK BETA
premiere
INTRO FROM THE FILMMAKER:
About the filmmaker:
Now a resident of Upstate New York, Constant van Hoeven was born in the Netherlands and holds a degree in film from the prestigious film school, The Netherlands Film and Television Academy. He has written and directed over a dozen shorts and feature film screenplays. Constant's short films have been shown and won awards at prestigious film festivals around the world, including Hollywood Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival and Pusan International Film Festival in Korea.
Constant is currently in post production of a feature documentary about ‘the Godfather’ of street art Ron English. For more information visit: www.mrkaleidoscope.com
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
In his tiny workshop and showroom, artist Matthew Pleva creates illustrated narratives comprised of thousands of crosshatched marks. He then painstakingly cuts out the drawings and mounts them on brass armatures, so that the drawn narrative becomes dimensional dioramas. In this short documentary Matthew creates a Clockwork Orange Betamax Tape.
BEAN
Woodstock film festival 2017
INTRO FROM THE FILM’S SUBJECT:
About the filmmaker:
Emilie Bunnell is a passionate storyteller. After receiving her BA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Alabama, Emilie moved to New York City where she has worked for the past ten years in various facets of the television and film industry. Since starting her career as an NBC Page, she has had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the most influential figures in the industry. Her diverse portfolio includes experience in developing, casting, and producing for documentary, scripted, and web series, as well as live programming. Emilie's credits include Peabody, Emmy, GLAAD, and Telly award nominations and wins. Emilie enjoys being able to tell engaging human stories that educate and inspire. BEAN was Emilie's directorial debut.
WATCH TRAILER:
About the film:
Lori and Alana matched on Tinder and quickly became best friends and lovers. Soon after, Lori discovered that Alana, a bright and endearing young woman suffering from Lupus, was in kidney failure and facing an uncertain but abbreviated lifetime of nightly dialysis and a myriad of related health issues. When Lori learns she's the perfect kidney donor match, she doesn't hesitate to offer her healthy "bean." If the transplant succeeds, Alana's life expectancy could be doubled or tripled. But if it fails, Lori will go through risky surgery and lose a healthy organ in vain. Is it love, foolishness or the ultimate act of selflessness on Lori's part? "How do you repay someone for something like this?" asks Alana. "You don't," says Lori. "It's a gift," summing up what the film itself is to viewers.
BEAN is now available to stream for free on Amazon Prime, click the button below to visit the movie's webpage.
TEAT BEAT OF SEX
Episodes 1-3
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION CURATORS, NOELLE MELODY & JOY BURAN
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS AND FILMMAKER:
About the filmmaker:
Signe Baumane was born in Latvia. After she received a BA in Philosophy from Moscow State University, she started to work at Riga's Animated Film Studio at the entry-level position – cel painter. Around that time, Signe illustrated 3 children's books and made sets for a puppet theater. With support of Latvian Government grants, Signe made 3 animated shorts in Latvia.
Seeking a challenge, Signe moved to New York where (1996 - 2003) she worked for independent animator Bill Plympton in capacity of cel painter, art director and production manager. In 2005 she became a NYFA Fellow in Film. She received 2 grants from Jerome Foundation - one for her animated short "Birth", the other for her animated feature "Rocks In My Pockets". She also received 2 grants from NYSCA in support of "Rocks In My Pockets". Signe has written, directed and animated 15 shorts and one feature film. Collectively, they’ve been accepted in over 300 film festivals around the world and received many awards. She was also awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.
Signe is currently working on her second animated feature, titled "My Love Affair With Marriage", which will use music and science to examine the biological chemistry of love and gender, as well as the societal pressures on an individual to conform to social mores. You can donate to the project by clicking here.
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
TEAT BEAT OF SEX is compendium of short tales about sex and intimacy from a woman's point of view. Humorous and unabashedly honest, TEAT BEAT OF SEX gives us a refreshingly candid perspective from the opposite end of the male gaze.
DOWN TO THE BONE
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION CURATORS, NOELLE MELODY & JOY BURAN
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS AND FILMMAKER:
About the filmmaker:
Peter Ahern is an award winning animator, illustrator and paper cut survivor living in Brooklyn, New York.Having graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Film & Animation, he has over 10 years of freelance experience as a 2D animator, designer and animation supervisor on a wide variety of commercial projects for clients such as the NBA, Nike, Chobani, Nickelodeon, Showtime, MTV, Sephora and the X-Games. In addition, he’s had his short films screened at dozens of prestigious festivals, illustrations featured in prominent gallery exhibitions and has served on several film festival juries. In his free time Peter loves to explore nature, watch cheesy horror flicks, talk about animals and fill his hollow leg with delicious food.
WATCH HERE:
About the film:
DOWN TO THE BONE follows Little Michael, who has vicious allergies, and when babysitter Meredith arrives for a night of no-nonsense, he's swiftly dispatched to the yard...where his delicate condition takes a turn for the worse. DOWN TO THE BONE screened at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2010.
SIMON SHAHEEN: A MUSICAL JOURNEY
2019 Woodstock FIlm Festival
Official Kickoff EVENT
About the film:
Go behind the scenes with Palestinian icon and musical virtuoso, Simon Shaheen, one of the most significant and celebrated Arab musicians of his generation. Since childhood, Simon Shaheen's artistic hunger and dynamic personality have helped him move from his native Palestine to cross cultural boundaries. He won a music scholarship from Columbia University in New York and later settled in the United States.But he looked to Palestine, the land of his birth, and to other parts of the Middle East, for the next generation of Arab musical talent. This film shows a series of Skype auditions with Shaheen in the US and his potential students in Ramallah.SIMON SHAHEEN: A MUSICAL JOURNEY was the official kickoff event for the 2019 Woodstock Film Festival. The film's sold-out screening was followed by a live performance by Shaheen and several musical guests.
About the filmmaker:
Tarik Benbrahim is a New York-based filmmaker. He has directed and produced documentaries and works of fiction in North America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. He has worked with Vanessa Redgrave (LETTERS FROM NEW YORK TO SARAJEVO, 1996), Jerry Shcatzberg (WRITER, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED GO, Michael Moore (BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, FAHRENHEIT 9/11 French subtitles). Tarik subtitled the 2004 re-release of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) for Rialto pictures and for the Criterion Collection release of the film. He also interviewed director Abbas Kiarostami in 2009 for the Criterion Collection release of the film CLOSE UP(1990).
Tarik is currently developing COFFEE: HISTORY IN A CUP, a documentary about the history of coffee around the world and the stories and lives of coffee farmers. Tarik is also an accomplished Oud player and musician. He has performed with Simon Shaheen, Walter Thompson, Butch Morris and Henry Threadgill’s Zooid (Pulitzer Prize Award for music 2016).
Bonus Short: THE PAYOFF
BY TARIK BENBRAHIM
THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW
WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL 2019
"BEST NARRATIVE SHORT" WINNER
2020 ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER FOR
"BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM"
INTRO FROM THE FILMMAKER:
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Marshall Curry is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and multiple-time alum of the Woodstock Film Festival who has written and directed both fiction and documentary films.
He won the Oscar for THE NEIGHBORS' WINDOW, a short narrative film that he wrote and directed. He was previously nominated three times for Academy Awards for his documentary films, STREET FIGHT, IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT, and A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN. He also directed the award-winning documentaries RACING DREAMS and POINT AND SHOOT and was executive producer of MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS.
Curry's work has won top awards at Sundance, Tribeca, and the Woodstock Film Festival, screening on televisions around the world. His writing has been nominated twice for Writers Guild of America awards.
WATCH HERE:
ABOUT THE FILM:
THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW (written & directed by four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Marshall Curry) tells the story of Alli (Maria Dizzia), a mother of young children who has grown frustrated with her daily routine and husband (Greg Keller). But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see into their apartment.This fictional film was inspired by a true story told by Diane Weipert on Love + Radio's "The Living Room," produced by Briana Breen and Brendan Baker.
AN EXQUISITE TASK
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION CURATORS NOELLE MELODY & JOY BURAN
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS AND FILMMAKER:
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Beck Underwood rarely knows what she is doing, but is always doing something.
She credits her family and friends with inspiring and encouraging this questionable work ethic. She wakes up on most days surrounded by the bustle of her family, the work of her friends, and rooms and rooms of strange inanimate objects. Sometimes she makes these objects move and sometimes they move her. She is very proud of her collaborations in theater, film, software and product design, and publishing.
She lives in the lower east side of New York City with Scary Larry, a pair of sister cats, and sometimes a boy named Jack.
WATCH HERE:
ABOUT THE FILM:
AN EXQUISITE TASK is set in an old barn slated for teardown, a vintage doll, a mysterious barn spirit and some mischievous farm critters, come together in this stop motion short about motherhood, creativity and letting go. The short screened at the 2017 Woodstock Film Festival.
PITTARI
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION CURATORS, NOELLE MELODY & JOY BURAN
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS AND FILMMAKER:
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Animator Patrick Smith is known for his bizarre hand-drawn interpretations of human emotions and identity. Smith made his directorial debut for the MTV series DARIA. His formative years were spent as a storyboard artist for Walt Disney, and other major studios in New York and Los Angeles. During the past decade, he has animated, directed and produced seven award-winning short films as well as many iconic television commercials and music videos. Smith spent five years in Singapore as a professor at the graduate film program for New York University, under artistic director Oliver Stone. Patrick is a fellow of the New York Foundation of the Arts and a curator for multiple international film and animation festivals. He lives and works in Montauk, NY with his wife Kaori Ishida, and their daughter, and has participated in the Woodstock Film Festival, as filmmaker or juror, multiple times.
WATCH HERE:
ABOUT THE FILM:
Winner of the MAVERICK AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION at the 2017 Woodstock Film Festival, PITTARI is about Satan's boulder busting destruction being halted by a stubborn foe, testing his shape shifting abilities. Scored to an old phonographic gospel recording, Pittari uses hand drawn imagery to illustrate the relentless resistance to Satan's gritty penetration.
FANTAISIE IN BUBBLEWRAP
SELECTED BY OUR ANIMATION CURATORS, NOELLE MELODY & JOY BURAN
INTRO + Q&A BETWEEN THE CURATORS AND FILMMAKER:
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Arthur Metcalf is a director/animator. known for his work on He's Watching (2017), Fantaisie in Bubblewrap (which won best animated short at the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival) and In the Beginning (2013). He is the creator of the mobile game 'Stress Baal.'
WATCH HERE:
ABOUT THE FILM:
Winner of the MAVERICK AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION at the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival, FANTAISIE IN BUBBLEWRAP is about the final minutes of a society of vocal bubblewrap as it faces its apocalypse.
