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As many of your know, our department has enjoyed ties with the Woodstock Film Festival and the Hudson Valley Film Commission for a number of years. This year, there was record involvement from faculty and students, as faculty took on meaningful roles in the festival operations and programming, and students appeared in film credits in a variety of responsibilities from Assistant Director to Production Assistant positions.

A big congratulations to Professor Megan Sperry. This summer, Professor Sperry served as the Program Director for the Woodstock Film Festival’s inaugural Youth Summer Filmmaking Lab, a three- week intensive that brought in teens to work with industry professionals and mentors to create short films. Those films screened as part of Woodstock’s Teen Shorts program. Professor Sperry lead the film screening at the Bearsville Theater this weekend, including the post-screening Q and A.

In addition, Professor Sperry moderated the impressive The Power of Youth panel this past Sunday (more here)
Sperry at Festival

It was a deeply insightful and moving panel.

Since 2008, SUNY NP student teams create videos for the festival, featuring filmmaker’s panels, Film Q and A’s, Promotional Interviews, and other press and marketing support. Many of the students’ videos, including this year’s videos, can be found on the festival’s YouTube Channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/woodstockfilmfestiva

Finally congratulations to Professor Joe Vlachos who served as the Photography Coordinator this year. He had the herculean task of finding and securing photographers for all screenings, parties, panels, and other events, oftentimes photographing key events himself.

You can see the photos at the flickr account below

Woodstock Photos


I’ve got a few smart phone photos here (the better quality ones are from Megan Sperry).

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ASC Award Nominees

Congratulations to recent graduate Minagi Tanaka. Her Seminar in Digital Filmmaking documentary, “She Comes at Night,” has earned her a nomination for the American Society of Cinematographers Student Heritage Award.

From the site:
“The ASC’s Student Documentary Award is named for Haskell Wexler, ASC. He earned two Academy Awards — in 1966 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And in 1976 for Bound for Glory. He received additional nominations for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (shared with Bill Butler, ASC), Matewan and Blaze. In 1969, Wexler wrote, directed and shot Medium Cool, which is studied by film students worldwide for its breakthrough cinéma vérité style. He began his career shooting documentaries and was a passionate non-fiction filmmaker throughout his life. He was also an active member of the ASC Board of Governors and International Cinematographers Guild Local 600 for many years. In 1992, Wexler was honored with the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Minagi is in competition with students from UCLA and School of Visual Arts. Congratulations to her, and to her teammates, on such a remarkable achievement. Best of luck in the finals! 🙂

The winner will be announced at the October 13th Gala in Hollywood.

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And that’s a wrap!

For the last three weeks I have had the honor of working with the Woodstock Film Festival Youth Film Lab in Kingston, NY, under program director (and colleague) Megan Sperry. A group of exciting young creatives worked tirelessly to produce three original short films, which were screened last night at the Center for Creative Education in Kingston, and will have their formal premieres at the Woodstock Film Festival this October.

It was a pleasure and privilege to work alongside filmmakers Nicole Quinn and David Becker, and with TA’s Zach Bell, Jessica Peeters, and Sadie.

The guest mentors provided (in Sperry’s words) “master classes,” in all aspects of filmmaking. Guest Mentors included Oscar winners Melissa Leo, and Roger Ross Williams, filmmakers Alex Smith and Janet Grillo, editor Sabine Hoffman, audio guru Carl Welden, grip Greg Meola, set photographer/ production manager Jacob Hutching, and more!

Such an amazing three weeks! Some photos provided by Megan Sperry and the Woodstock Film Festival Facebook page. Keep an eye out for these young people as they establish themselves in the industry. Thank you Meira Blaustein (WFF Executive Director) for inviting me to participate!