The 12th edition of the Woodstock Film Festival, an event that takes seriously its reputation for being “fiercely independent” is in full flower (power) this weekend in the center of Woodstock, New York and neighboring towns through Sunday, September 25. For this year’s edition, the Festival is presenting nearly 150 films, along with a series of professional panels, music performances and special events. Among the highlights taking place this weekend are a repeat screening of the...

  As you walk along the Main Street of Woodstock, New York, it is often hard to tell which decade you are in. Peace signs, hippie clothing and psychedelic posters dominate the storefronts and the streets are filled with women with impossibly frizzy hair and men still wearing plaid shirts and bellbottom jeans. The music that spills out of the street is more 1960s rock than current urban hip hop…..in short, the spirit of dissidence, individuality and questioning of the institution...

  You maybe have heard of Woodstock.....the pastoral country town, not just the famed music festival. For those in the know, the two should not be confused, since the seminal 1969 music concert happened nearly 50 miles away. But the spirit of those times lives on in Woodstock, New York, where films fill the screen, music rocks the clubs and, oh yes, pot smoke (still) is in the air. Tie-dye still reigns in this Catskills bohemia, and each year the hippies (now entering menopause) joi...

The Philadelphia Film Society is pleased to announce that it has promoted Director of Programming Michael Lerman to Artistic Director and hired Tom Quinn and Ryan Werner as programmers of the Philadelphia Film Festival. Lerman, Quinn and Werner previously worked together as programmers for the Woodstock Film Festival, successfully building the Festival through the programming of diverse, intelligent and engaging films. Quinn and Werner begin immediately, and will work with Lerman to curate the s...

As he packs his bags for the Czech Republic to attend the Opening Night Gala screening of his film THE PERFECT AGE OF ROCK N ROLL as the kick-off event for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Zlin Film Festival on Monday evening, I had a chance to talk with the film's director Scott Rosenbaum about his American indie rock n roll drama. Rosenbaum, who also is serving on the jury for the Official Competition, is primed for his Zlin adventure. Sandy Mandelberger (SM): When did the idea of maki...

As he packs his bags for the Czech Republic to attend the Opening Night Gala screening of his film THE PERFECT AGE OF ROCK N ROLL as the kick-off event for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Zlin Film Festival on Monday evening, I had a chance to talk with the film's director Scott Rosenbaum about his American indie rock n roll drama. Rosenbaum, who also is serving on the jury for the Official Competition, is primed for his Zlin adventure. Sandy Mandelberger (SM): When did...

  CHILDREN OF INVENTION    With a festival which prides itself as being “fiercely independent”, the Woodstock Film Festival, which concludes today, is committed to the discovery of new talents, both behind and in front of the screen. With budgets that are tight in the extreme, more often that not, the actors used are new to the screen and unknown to the public (I included myself in this). However, when a performance of great depth or realism is given by someone you do not know, my tende...

  Woodstock is synonymous with music, so it makes perfect sense that one of the highlights of the Woodstock Film Festival is a series of highly anticipated music films. The films range from folk to rock to punk and everything in between, and are often accompanied with live music performances (another Woodstock staple). Festivities kick off Friday evening with a live music event featuring the “father of Ukulele hip hop”, rapper/songwriter Jon Braman, Jim & Liz Beloff, and...

  The Woodstock Film Festival, which opens this evening with a pre-Festival screening of Oscar winning documentarian Barbara Kopple's WOODSTOCK: NOW AND THEN, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of the independent film festival's most intriguing and enjoyable events. The Festival, which runs through Sunday, is set in the idyllic town of Woodstock, New York, about 3 hours north of Manhattan. While many might associate the town with the legendary 1969 rock concert (and cultur...

With director Ang Lee and stars Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Demetri Martin present, the premier of "Taking Woodstock" last night was an event not to be missed. While the film's mixed reviews were nothing short of extraordinary, on the contrary the crowd's response to the film was a pleasant one. It could have been the fact that it was my first premier and I was not used to sitting in an tuxedo for two hours while watching a film on 1969's Woodstock, but it plainly did not hold my...

About the film: Twelve years after his Best Screenplay award for Ice Storm, Ang Lee returns to the Croisette to present Taking Woodstock in Competition. It refers, of course, to the famed three days of love, peace, mud, and music which took place in 1969. Based on the book by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte, Taking Woodstock : A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life, the film merely tells "a tiny piece of that story, from a little corner of unexpected joy that happened...

Ang Lee is a two-time Golden Lion winner -- in 2005 for "Brokeback Mountain," and in 2007 for "Lust, Caution" -- Lee. Lee, who was born in Taiwan and trained at NYU Film School, is in post on the comedy "Taking Woodstock," based on the memoir about the leadup to the 1969 Woodstock concert by author Elliot Tiber. While fest organizers declined to confirm whether "Woodstock" -- slated by Focus Features for an Aug.14 U.S. release date -- will unspool at the Lido, a Venice bow in an out-of-competit...

Tuesday, October 2--------For those who actually attended the famous Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 (or just claim to) or have visited it in their dreams, the word "Woodstock" evokes a fabled time of flower power, sexual revolution, drug-fueled ectasy and a time when youth culture subsumed the status quo. It is becoming increasingly harder to find that spirit of the Sixties in contemporary America (where we have our own Vietnam, but nary a student protest), but that freewhee...

Tuesday, October 2--------For those who actually attended the famous Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 (or just claim to) or have visited it in their dreams, the word "Woodstock" evokes a fabled time of flower power, sexual revolution, drug-fueled ectasy and a time when youth culture subsumed the status quo. It is becoming increasingly harder to find that spirit of the Sixties in contemporary America (where we have our own Vietnam, but nary a student protest), but that freewhee...

Saturday, October 14----Aside from all the films, the parties, the music concerts and other special events, the Woodstock Film Festival offers local filmmakers and visiting film talents an intensive education on all aspects of the filmmaking and distribution process through an exhaustive series of professional seminars. Drawing mainly on film executives, film critics and film mavens from Manhattan (only 100 miles to the south), the Festival offers a rare opportunity to get the lowdown on the s...