The Woodstock Film Festival is pleased to present a special screening of Megan Mylan’s SIMPLE AS WATER in collaboration with Upstate Films and courtesy of HBO Documentary Films. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer Robin Hessman moderated by documentary filmmaker Pamela Yates at the freshly renovated Orpheum Theatre in Saugerties.
Before the film, join us for a complimentary brunch at The Dutch in Saugerties, NY from 11am to 12:45pm.
A discount code is available for Academy voters. Please email us at info@woodstockfilmfestival.org for more information.
“Ultimately the strength of ‘Simple as Water’ lies in its austerity: There’s no political agenda here, no overt commentary on the global refugee crisis, no indictment of Syrian individuals on either side. From the looks of the film, you wouldn’t seem wrong to think that Mylan simply observed her subjects. Instead, she visibly had a level of deep, intimate access and rapport that few filmmakers can hope to achieve.”
ABOUT THE FILM:
Epic in scope, but intimate in feel, SIMPLE AS WATER is a meditation on the elemental bonds between parent and child from Academy Award winner Megan Mylan. A masterful look at the impact of war, separation and displacement, SIMPLE AS WATER takes us into Syrian families’ quests for normalcy and through the whirlwind of obstacles—to building life anew. Filmed in Turkey, Greece, Germany, Syria and the US, Mylan’s sensitive camera reifies the universal importance of family.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Megan Mylan creates intimate observational films on complex global issues. She won an Academy Award for her documentary Smile Pinki and an Independent Spirit Award for Lost Boys of Sudan which was short-listed for an Oscar and named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Her films have screened theatrically and on television throughout the world including HBO, PBS, ARTE, BBC, NHK, NDTV, Sundance Channel, Doordarshan and TV Brasil. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and multiple Emmy nominations. She served for several years on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Executive Committee for Documentary. Before beginning in documentary, Megan worked with Ashoka, an international development non-profit, in the U.S. and Brazil. She has a Bachelor’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Masters' degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley where she was also guest director of the Graduate Documentary program.