Join us in collaboration with our friends at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, New York for a special sneak peek screening of Sean Penn’s new film FLAG DAY courtesy of MGM. Adapted from Jennifer Vogel’s memoir Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life, FLAG DAY is the first project Penn has directed and also acted in, joined by his daughter Dylan Penn who gives a breakout performance of her own. The pair play real life father-daughter duo John and Jennifer Vogel, the former a charming serial con man on the run from the law and the latter a neglected child struggling to understand her complicated relationship with her absentee dad. The film world premiered at Cannes earlier this July after being acquired by MGM Studios for a North American theatrical release.
Deadline Hollywood’s Pete Hammond writes: “Flag Day actually is a solid and worthwhile effort for [Sean Penn] both as actor and director. But first and foremost, it will be remembered as a dazzling showcase for the acting talents of his daughter, Dylan Penn, who takes on the key role in a real-life story based on Jennifer Vogel’s memoir, Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life.”
FLAG DAY’s producer Bill Horberg (THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT) and Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life author Jennifer Vogel will be on-site for an intro and live audience Q&A.
Patrons are required to bring proof of vaccination to attend the screening. Face masks are required when inside the theater. Click here to see the Woodstock Film Festival’s current COVID-19 protocols.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Jennifer Vogel’s father John was larger than life. As a child, Jennifer marveled at his magnetizing energy and ability to make life feel like a grand adventure. He taught her so much about love and joy, but he also happened to be the most notorious counterfeiter in US history. Based on a true story and directed by Sean Penn, FLAG DAY stars Penn and his real-life daughter Dylan Penn in an intimate family portrait about a young woman who struggles to rise above the wreckage of her past while reconciling the inescapable bond between a daughter and her father.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Two-time Academy Award® winner Sean Penn is an American film icon, who has given some of the most memorable performances in modern cinema. His humanitarian work is no less noteworthy.
Penn has been nominated five times for the Academy Award® as Best Actor for DEAD MAN WALKING, SWEET AND LOWDOWN, I AM SAM and won his first Oscar® in 2003 for his searing performance in Clint Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER and his second Oscar® as Best Actor in 2009 for Gus Van Sant's MILK. The performance as gay rights icon Harvey Milk also garnered Penn "Best Actor" awards from The Screen Actors Guild, New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Additionally, Penn received Best Actor awards at the Cannes (SHE’S SO LOVELY) and Berlin (DEAD MAN WALKING) Film Festivals, as well as being a two-time winner of Best Actor honors at the Venice Film Festival (HURLYBURLY, 21 GRAMS).
As a filmmaker, Penn's features include THE INDIAN RUNNER, THE PLEDGE and INTO THE WILD. Based on Jon Krakauer's best-selling non-fiction book, INTO THE WILD landed on numerous critics lists for the top ten films of 2007, garnered two Academy Award nominations and nominations from the DGA and WGA for Penn. Penn's latest directorial effort, FLAG DAY, is based on Jennifer Vogel's memoir and stars Dylan Penn.
ABOUT THE PRODUCER:
Bill Horberg is the founder of Wonderful Films, an independent film and television production company. His latest production, FLAG DAY, adapted by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sean Penn from the memoir by Jennifer Vogel and starring Sean Penn and Dylan Penn, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released by MGM/UA. He most recently produced THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT, a seven-part series for Netflix, written and directed by Scott Frank and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, the most-watched scripted limited series in Netflix history, for which Horberg won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and PGA awards for Best Limited Series, as well as the Mick Jagger starring noir thriller THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY in Italy for Sony Pictures Classics. Along with Mike Medavoy and Eric Esraillian, Horberg produced Terry George’s epic Armenian genocide drama THE PROMISE, starring Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte LeBon.
Other Wonderful Films include the Gospel-themed musical BLACK NATIVITY, directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, and Jennifer Hudson for Fox Searchlight. His other productions include DISCONNECT, directed by Henry-Alex Rubin and starring Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Alexander Skarsgard, and Andrea Riseborough, and THERESE RAQUIN, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, and Jessica Lange for Liddell Entertainment. Horberg was also a producer on THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN, starring Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, and Mads Mikkelsen for Voltage Pictures, and DEATH AT A FUNERAL, starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Tracy Morgan for Columbia Screen Gems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jennifer Vogel was born in Minneapolis, but spent parts of her childhood in small cities in South Dakota and Iowa, as well as Seattle. She attended the University of Minnesota where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. For decades, she has worked as a reporter and editor for news organizations across the country, including City Pages newspaper in Minneapolis, The Stranger newspaper in Seattle, Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco, and Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media in St. Paul. In 2003, she returned to Minneapolis from Oaxaca, where she’d spent several months and the advance on her memoir, Flim-Flam Man, upon which FLAG DAY is based. There she met and married her husband, a fellow journalist, bought a house, and acquired a dog. She is completing her first novel.