Saturday, October 14----One of the more unusual and highly anticipated programs of the Woodstock Film Festival will be tonight's special event, THE MITCH SHOW, a retrospective of comedic short films spanning the oeuvre of Hollywood-based filmmaker Mitchell Rose. The program includes several audience-participation segments, humorous performance pieces and short comic gems by this professional wisenheimer.

Highlights of the program include MODERN DAYDREAMS, a suite of four Chaplinesque films that see a man and a 22-ton John Deere excavator dance a dance of discovery, fulfillment, and eventually, loss; ELEVATOR WORLD, an essay on the spatial politics of elevator riding; and CASE STUDIES FROM THE GROAT CENTER FOR SLEEP DISORDERS, a hilarious faux-scientific investigation of sleep disorder that features "rare" archival footage from the renowned (but fictitious) clinic of the same name.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Rose was a New York-based performance artist. The New York Times has called him "a rare and wonderful talent ... Woody Allen, with more than a dash of Abbie Hoffman thrown in." His mix of comedy, pathos with a hint of social criticism is reminiscent of the works of Chaplin, Keaton and Tati.

Sandy Mandelberger
Festivals Editor