WFF Returns To Upstate Films With Sean Penn’s FLAG DAY

Author Jennifer Vogel (left) with WFF Co-Founder & Executive Director Meira Blaustein (center) and producer Bill Horberg (right).

This past weekend the Woodstock Film Festival presented a special sneak peek screening of Sean Penn’s new film FLAG DAY in collaboration with Upstate Films at their theater in Rhinebeck, New York.

Based on Jennifer Vogel’s memoir Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father's Counterfeit Life, FLAG DAY stars Sean Penn as serial con artist John Vogel, who rose to notoriety during the 1990s after counterfeiting almost $20 million in US dollars. The film was acquired by MGM ahead of its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and is the first project Penn has starred in and directed. Playing the lead role of Jennifer Vogel is Penn’s real-life daughter Dylan Penn, who gives a standout performance as a young woman struggling to define her complicated relationship with her devilishly charming criminal father. Josh Brolin, Norbert Leo Butz, Dale Dickey, Eddie Marsan, Bailey Noble, Sean Penn’s son Hopper Jack Penn and Katheryn Winnick round out the cast.

Both Jennifer Vogel and Woodstock Film Festival Advisory Board member Bill Horberg, who produced the film with Jon Kilik and Fernando Sulichin, came to the screening to host an introduction and live Q&A. During the discussion, Bill spoke about the myriad of challenges that came with financing FLAG DAY and how Sean Penn went from being the top casting choice for John Vogel to taking on the additional responsibility of director so the film could get made. Bill also mentioned how it was Penn’s desire to collaborate with his daughter that brought Dylan onto the project and noted how she impressed the crew with her acting chops during production. Jennifer talked about how telling the story about her complex bond with her father helped her process what happened to her as a child and updated the audience members on the lives of her family members that were featured in the film.

FLAG DAY will be released in select U.S. theaters on August 20th.

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