Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Guest Speaker”
A funny and poignant coming-of-age story celebrating the love for friendship, romance and life.
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In honor of Women’s History Month, local filmmaker and historian Stephen Blauweiss will present a sampling from his collection of short films featuring past and present female artists and artisans from around the Hudson Valley.
The Woodstock Film Festival hosts a special screening of Giuseppe Capotondi’s soon-to-be-released thriller THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY at Upstate Films/Woodstock! A Q&A with the film’s producer Bill Horberg (MILK, THE KITE RUNNER, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) follows the show.
Tickets on sale through WFF – http://bit.ly/burntorangeheresy
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Delving as it does into the not-so-secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, this personal film asks if it’s possible to forgive.
Eleven newly minted filmmakers, trained by the Hudson Valley Oral History Project to produce high-quality videos using professional production systems, premier four films they’ve made about local Rhinebeckians including Bentley Scholldorf, Sally Mazzarella, Luis Fernandez, and Peg Howe.
Josh (ORCHESTRA OF EXILES, SOUND AND FURY, TALENT HAS HUNGER) Aronson’s new film explores the stories of veterans returning home from the maw of war burdened with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who, paired with service dogs, discover a new measure of happiness and hope.
A cinematic journey that sounds the alarm that’s been ringing for more than a decade – no bees, no food.
“One of the most controversial American men of the 20th Century, Roy Cohn was a ruthless lawyer and political power broker whose 28-year career ranged from acting as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist-hunting subcommittee to molding the career of a young Queens real estate developer named Donald Trump.”
A Free Fundraising screening of a work in progress with filmmakers & some of the participants.
Sunday November 3 11:30am Rhinebeck
The uplifting stories of four low-income women who overcame tremendous odds to earn college degrees and help others to forge a path out of poverty.
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A Free Fundraising screening of a work in progress with the filmmaker & some of the participants.
Sunday November 3 11:30am Rhinebeck
The uplifting stories of four low-income women who overcame tremendous odds to earn college degrees and help others to forge a path out of poverty.
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Friday, October 11th at 8:15 in Rhinebeck: Film, Q&A, and book signing with author Jake Bernstein. Each ticket includes a copy of The Laundromat (previously published as Secrecy World) by Jake Bernstein, courtesy of Netflix. Jake will sign books before the film begins.
CLICK here for Tickets (2 free per courtesy of Netflix) (*If asked for a code, enter: UpstateFilms)
The film is adapted from Secrecy World by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Jake Bernstein, and directed by Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brockovich, The Limey, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, Contagion, Side Effects…)
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FANTASTIC FUNGI is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet.
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In Person: Director Tom Donahue. Friday, August 16th at 8:15pm in Rhinebeck. Co-presented by the Woodstock Film Festival.
Told first-hand by some of the industry’s leading voices — including Executive Producer Geena Davis, living legends like Meryl Streep, and younger talent such as Yara Shahidi and Chloe Moretz — THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING uncovers what is behind one of the most confounding dilemmas in the entertainment industry… the under-representation and misrepresentation of women.
Click here to purchase tickets through the Woodstock Film Festival website in advance
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Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am offers an artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the legendary storyteller and Nobel prize-winner.
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The Black Maria Film Festival returns to Upstate Films Friday August 2nd! Named after Thomas Edison’s film studio, dubbed the “Black Maria” because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same name, the program features a collection of award-winning works — including animation, narrative, and documentary films chosen by the festival jury. Immediately following the screening, Festival Director Jane Steuerwald will conduct a Q & A with the audience, along with filmmaker Seth Kramer & writer/performer Ann Talman. The show begins at 8:15pm and will take place at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck.
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Saturday July 27th at 1pm, join us for a film screening and dialogue about justice, accountability and forgiveness with teens from Northeast Community Center’s Youth Council and facilitators from the Mediation Center of Dutchess County. Read More
Saturday June 29th at 1pm in Rhinebeck, join us for a work-in-progress screening and discussion about women at the forefront of science and farming. The discussion will be moderated by Danielle Nierenberg, President and Founder of Food Tank, an organization highlighting stories of hope and success in the food system. Panelists also include investigative journalist and filmmaker Amy Wu; Le Vuong, Founder and CEO of Fishrock Laboratories; Tinia Pina, sustainability professional and Founder & CEO of Re-Nuble, and Lindsey Shute from Hearty Roots Farm. This is a FREE screening. Donations taken at the door will benefit the completion of the Farms to Incubators initiative, which includes the documentary and an upcoming book.
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What took place in that teeming mass of humanity — the rain-soaked, starving, tripping, half a-million strong throng of young people — was nothing less than a miracle of unity, a manifestation of the “peace and love” the festival had touted.
Presented in association with the One Mile Gallery, Upstate Films presents filmmaker/cultural iconoclast/artist Guy Maddin in person, with his homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s spellbinding VERTIGO. Admission $12/$10 seniors/$8 members. Click here to purchase tickets in advance
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AMAZING GRACE captures Aretha Franklin at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972.
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In Person: Producer & Star Alan Ssali Hofmanis. Thursday, May 30th at 9:15 in Woodstock
Welcome to Wakaliwood, Uganda: home of “DA BEST OF DA BEST MOVIES!” and the vanguards of DIY commando cinema. Under the guidance of writer/producer/director Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (IGG) and with producer/star Alan Ssali Hofmanis, this crack crew of self-taught filmmakers and martial arts aficionados produce dozens of gonzo action films in the Kampala ghetto with budgets that rarely exceed $200 USD.
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Sold Out… Sunday, May 5th at 12:30 in Rhinebeck, join Upstate Films and Oblong Books for a special screening and discussion with author Neil Gaiman. Tickets $18 Adults / $15 Seniors and Students / $12 Members and Kids under 16.
When Coraline moves to a new home in this stop-motion animated tale, she feels neglected by her stressed-out parents but soon finds a magic portal leading to a parallel world where everything seems perfect.
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AMAZING GRACE captures Aretha Franklin at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972. Read More
This powerful film gives voice and body(ies) to the term “refugees” as it accompanies a family on foot from Aleppo, Syria on their trek to reach relatives in Germany. Join us Saturday, April 13th at noon for a screening and discussion with filmmaker Joshua Bennett; Lea Matheson, senior advisor on migration and humanitarian issues in the Office of the President at the UN; Vassar College professor Maria Höhn, co-founder of the Mid-Hudson Refugee Solidarity Alliance and Director of the Consortium on Forced Displacement, Migration, and Education; and Ahed Festuk, an activist from Aleppo who is now living in NY, and who was one of the pioneering women demonstrators against Bashar al-Assad. This event is being presented for FREE. Donations taken at the door will benefit the Refugee Welcome Corporation in Albany (suggested donation $10).
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From award-winning filmmaker Dan Habib comes Intelligent Lives, a catalyst to transform the label of intellectual disability from a life sentence of isolation into a life of possibility for some of the most systematically segregated people in America. Join us for a special benefit screening (suggested donation $10) on Saturday, March 16th at noon, followed by a panel discussion anchored by Richard Feldman and Janice Fialka, who are featured in the film; Renee Brenner, ECDC specialist from Independent Living, Inc & Co-Chair for the Mid-Hudson Special Education Task Force; Diann Keyser, Supervisor for Care Management at the Resource Center for Accessible Learning; and Rhinebeck mayor Gary Bassett. Proceeds will benefit Rhinebeck’s Autism Supportive Committee (#1thing).
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March 31st at noon, Upstate Films and Oblong Books are featuring the Dickens classic Great Expectations with the 1946 Academy Award-winning film directed by David Lean, starring John Mills, Jean Simmons, Valerie Hobson and Sir Alec Guinness. Read the book, then see the film!
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The David-and-Goliath story of Israel’s national baseball team, Heading Home tells the tale of the underdog crew that warmed the hearts of Jewish people across the globe as they competed in their very first World Baseball Classic.
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In this landmark film by acclaimed director Oren Rudavsky, Adam Driver is the narrator while Liev Schreiber, Tim Blake Nelson and Rachel Brosnahan voice key roles; together, they bring to life the virtually unknown American icon.
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Although 59 percent of US adults say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, it remains one of the most divisive issues in America. Join us Saturday, February 9th at noon in Rhinebeck for a benefit screening of selected shorts from Bill Moyers’ No Choice series, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Elana Michelson, SUNY Empire State College professor, activist, and author. The panel will also feature Ruth-Ellen Blodgett, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley; Robin Marty, author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America; Shannon Wong, Chapter Director of the NYCLU Lower Hudson Valley Chapter, and Eileen Meltzer, nurse practitioner. Proceeds from this screening will benefit Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley. Suggested donation $10.
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Join us February 15th at 8:15pm in Rhinebeck for a tribute to disco! Scott Taylor, a former Studio 54 bartender; Myra Sheer, Steve Rubell’s assistant; and Susan Shapiro, one of the videographers who contributed original footage to Tyrnauer’s documentary, will be at the screening in person for a Q&A. Come in costume! A prize will be awarded for the best outfit. Tickets $12 Adults / $10 Seniors & Students / $8 Members. Proceeds from this screening will benefit LEAF of the Hudson Valley, a legal environmental advocacy fund protecting natural resources and curbing overdevelopment in Rockland County. Online ticket sales have ended, but tickets are still available for purchase at the box office, beginning at 1:45 today.
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Academy Award Nominee – Viggo Mortensen (Best Actor), Mahershala Ali (Best Supporting Actor), Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay
Golden Globe Nominee – Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy (Viggo Mortensen), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Best Director, Best Screenplay
Tonight – After our last show, Charles Wessler who produced the movie, and who also produced THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and many others, will be on hand to talk about the film.
GREEN BOOK, winner of this year’s coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, shares this honor with some other recent recipients, many of which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture including THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI; LA LA LAND; ROOM; THE IMITATION GAME; 12 YEARS A SLAVE; THE KING’S SPEECH; SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
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Legendary blues musician Paul Butterfield was a white, teen-age harmonica player who grew up on Chicago’s south side where he learned the blues from the original black masters performing nightly in his own back yard. Muddy Waters became Paul’s mentor and lifelong friend, happy to share his wisdom and expertise with such a gifted young acolyte.
Post-Screening Q&A with Gabe Butterfield at Upstate & later at Colony 8pm – Gabe Butterfield & Friends play the music of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
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In Person: Director Jeff Springer. Friday, November 16th at 8:15pm in Rhinebeck
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina put 80% of New Orleans underwater and demolished nearly all waterfront structures. But this film is not about Katrina, it is about the larger region south of New Orleans that survived the hurricane and is now facing its latest threat — hordes of monstrous 20 pound rodents known as “nutria”.
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Saturday October 20th at 1pm, join the Engage Film Series for a benefit screening of WE THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN, followed by a panel discussion on the international community’s involvement with women’s rights and opportunities abroad. The discussion will be anchored by filmmaker Nahid Shahalimi, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, and Susan Findel. Proceeds will benefit Let Us Learn, a UNICEF initiative bringing innovative educational opportunities to some of the world’s most vulnerable children (Suggested donation $10).
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Saturday October 27th, LIVES WELL LIVED returns to the Hudson Valley for a special screening celebrating the incredible wit, wisdom and experiences of adults aged 75 to 100. In Person: Director Sky Bergman. Saturday, October 27th at 2:30 in Woodstock.
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Beloved comedienne Gilda Radner was an original cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” and won an Emmy for “Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music” in 1977, and received a posthumous Grammy in 1990.
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DISTURBING THE PEACE follows sworn enemies – former Israeli soldiers from elite units and Palestinian fighters, many of whom served years in prison – who have joined together to challenge the status quo and say “enough.”
IN PERSON: Steve Apkon, Marcina Hale, & Combatants for Peace from the film ($12/$10 seniors/$8 members/under 16)
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In Person: Karen Shapiro, the film’s producer…
$12/$10 Seniors/$8 Upstate & WAAM members & Students
Eva Hesse (1936-1970) is one of America’s foremost postwar artists whose pioneering sculptures, using latex, fiberglass, and plastics, helped establish the post-minimalist movement.
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In Person: Director Seth Kramer. Friday December 9 at 8:15pm in Rhinebeck. Tickets on sale now at the Rhinebeck box office. ($10 Adults / $8 Seniors and Students / $6 Members and kids under 16)
From Siberia to the Andes, the South Pacific, and the Chesapeake Bay, anthropologist Susan Crate is fascinated by how societies are forced to negotiate the disruption of their ways of life as a result of climate change. By following her work, THE ANTHROPOLOGIST reveals the scale of the issue while giving it a variety of human faces.
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In Person: Filmmaker Jen Senko
When her father transformed from a non-political, lifelong Democrat into a Right-Wing fanatic after listening to talk radio, filmmaker Jen Senko set out to uncover the forces behind the media that changed him.
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*Academy Award Nominee – Best Documentary Feature
Directed by Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams, LIFE, ANIMATED, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind’s best-selling book Life Animated: a story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism, tells the real-life inspirational story of his son Owen, a boy who couldn’t speak for years until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films.
IN PERSON: Roger Ross Williams Wed Oct 12 Rhinebeck 8pm – A co-presentation of The Devereux Foundation and Upstate Films ($12/$10 seniors/$8members)
A Free Screening brought to you by The Gillespie Forum.
In Person: Filmmaker Dana Weidman.
Nobody’s Perfect is about the discovery of the genetic mutation that causes Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy in the filmmaker’s family.
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IN PERSON: Sergei Polunin, Choreographer Jade Hale-Christofi, Producer Gabrielle Tana, Executive producer Carolyn Marks Blackwood. All attend this special show – a benefit for Upstate Films’ Fund for the Future. Tickets: $20/Upstate Members $15. Thank you to Carolyn Marks Blackwood & Gabrielle Tana from Magnolia Mae Films and to IFC Entertainment!
Ukrainian-born “bad boy of ballet” Sergei Polunin, blessed with astonishing power and poise, took the dance world by storm becoming the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal dancer at age 19. But two years later — at the height of his success — he walked away from it all, driven to the brink of self-destruction by stardom – his talent more a burden than a gift. DANCER follows Polunin over four years as he travels between London, Russia and Los Angeles while he works out what he wants to do. It includes never-before-seen footage shot by his family and fellow Royal Ballet School pupils.
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In Person: Writer-director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Last Days of Disco, Barcelona, Damsels in Distress). Friday June 22nd at 5:45 in Rhinebeck. This show will be followed by a q&a. Tickets on sale now at the Rhinebeck box office.
Stillman brings a unique sense and sensibility to his adaptation of an unpublished Jane Austen novel that stars Kate Beckinsale as a sassy social climber in the 1790s who’s blissfully unaware of her own self-absorption, and who doesn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story, after all “facts are horrid things”.
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The Woodstock Film Festival presents this deeply personal portrait of acclaimed New York–based artist Ida Applebroog was shot with mischievous reverence by her filmmaker daughter, Beth B. In Person: Artists Joan Snyder & Ida Applebroog, and director Beth B.
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This Special Preview showing of Ivy Meeropol’s award-wining documentatry, INDIAN POINT is a fund-raising screening for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater that still needs another year of work to fully restore the sloop to coast guard standards. In Person: Director/Producer Ivy Meeropol and film subjects, activist Marilyn Elie and journalist Roger Witherspoon. Admission: $20; Senior Citizens: $15. For further information: mannajo@clearwater.org or 845-265-8080 x 7113.
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This is an eye-opening insider’s account of disability in 21st century America. IN PERSON: Christian von Tippelskirch and Simi Linton.
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The Historical Society of Woodstock’s Building Fund presents Maria DeLuca and her award-winning film on community gardening at Upstate Films/Woodstock. This inspiring film documents a wide-range of culturally diverse community gardens that were established in each of New York City’s five boroughs during the 1970s and 1980s.
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How to win friends when you’re a blue-collar kid at an elite boarding school?: smuggle kilos of uncut cocaine into your snooty prep school. IN PERSON: Producer Joseph Mensch
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