Film
Critic Notebook: Random
Screenings: A Modified Preview of 2007, Woodstock Film Festival
by
Jay Blotcher
As
much a true sign of autumn as leaves on the wind or weekenders snatching
up pumpkins, the Woodstock Film Festival has become, with little
fanfare, a local tradition. For five days in October, the MidHudson
Valley becomes a cineaste’s playground, descended upon by
film makers and art house acting legends alike, all mixing it up
on Tinker Street and in various venues across the region. There
is a reassuring consistency to the Festival, now in its 7th year:
you can expect films that explore the counterculture spirit which,
despite rising real estate prices, still seems to pervade Woodstock.
You can catch films about musical artists. And you can savor films
enfolded in progressive politics that will rip Bush a new one without
blinking.
Another
aspect of WFF is the roster of films with local ties: encompassing
films shot in the area, directed or produced by locals, or starring
actors who have second homes here. Already immersed in piles of
WFF screeners by mid-August, your faithful film critic has slogged
through some well-meaning work as well as some revelations that
looked as if the director didn’t break a sweat but still produced
a small classic. Seeking out films with local ties, I gathered together
these three works that will screen in October.
CHICAGO
10 (Director: Brett Morgen) THE PITCH: In our current political
crisis, past is more than prologue; it’s an effin’ flashback.
Chicago 10 revisits the cataclysmic Democratic Convention which
took place in August 1968 and the riots that ensued. Morgen’s
film combines actual footage of the protests and head-breaking with
animated recreations of the trials of protest organizers (Yippies
Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, et al) accused of conspiracy
in a landmark case that pitted the WWII generation against the Viet
Nam-era teens. CONTINUE...
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