FILMCOLUMBIA CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 18-27 

FILMCOLUMBIA CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 18-27

WITH SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: ACCLAIMED FEATURES PLUS ILLUMINATING DOCUMENTARIES, FILMMAKER Q&AS, ECLECTIC SHORTS AND POST-SCREENING PARTIES

 

FESTIVAL TICKETS FOR CRANDELL THEATRE MEMBERS ON SALE NOW

AND FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC ON OCTOBER 12

 

(Chatham, NY: October 7, 2019)—FilmColumbia, Columbia County’s premier annual cultural event, will offer a rich and diverse schedule of documentaries, shorts, filmmaker Q&As and special events for film fans of all stripes to mark its 20th anniversary this year. FilmColumbia 2019 will take place October 18-27 in Chatham, NY, and is presented by the Crandell Theatre, with festival events also taking place at the Morris Memorial and other locations in town.

 

FilmColumbia’s rich documentary pedigree will once again be on display with a particularly strong collection of profiles of influential and eclectic creative spirits, including the late film and moving-image artist Agnès Varda, visionary choreographer Merce Cunningham (in 3D), celebrated New York Times street photographer Bill Cunningham, 1960s experimental filmmaker Barbara Rubin, abstract expressionist and photorealist Audrey Flack and a Russian oligarch-turned-dissident known as Citizen K, from Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney. Other standout documentaries include an examination of CRISPR and genetic editing produced by legendary news reporter Dan Rather, and a baby boomer’s delight: a look at WBCN, the groundbreaking FM radio station that almost single-handedly created Boston’s counterculture in the 1960s.

Some of the documentaries will screen at the Morris Memorial, the Chatham venue whose programming is dedicated to the best of local and regional films and filmmakers. Among that venue’s other offerings will be two programs of film shorts; several Q&As with FilmColumbia-featured filmmakers; a special festival screening of FilmColumbia’s After School Film Project, with movies from schools in Chatham, Germantown and Hudson; and [R]evolution Is Uncomfortable: Trusting the Process, the culmination of interviews conducted with local patrons during last year’s FilmColumbia that examines the country’s political landscape.

 

Additionally, film editor Bob Eisenhardt, an Emmy winner and Academy Award nominee who edited this year’s Oscar-winning Free Solo, among many other acclaimed films, will give audiences a rare inside look at the creative and critically important art of editing with a workshop at Tracy Memorial in Chatham on October 26. Editing plays a unique role in documentary filmmaking: finding the story, creating the structure, developing the characters and shaping the scenes, all culled from hours and hours of raw footage.

 

Other special events of FilmColumbia 2019 include a Makers on Main party featuring food and drink made in the Hudson Valley, parties at the People’s Pub and the Blue Plate in Chatham, and the highly anticipated Sneak Peek screening on Saturday, October 26, at 8:30 p.m.

 

FilmColumbia is programmed by executive director and co-artistic director Peter Biskind and co-artistic director Laurence Kardish. Biskind is an author, film historian, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Esquire, and past executive editor of Premiere magazine. His latest book, The Sky is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism, was published last year. Kardish is senior curator emeritus for film and media at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Calliope Nicholas is the managing director of the festival and the primary programmer of the Morris Memorial schedule.

 

Online tickets and All Film passes to FilmColumbia 2019 for Crandell Theater members are on sale now. Online sales for the general public will begin on Saturday, October 12, at 9 a.m. For details of ticket sales procedures and to purchase tickets, please go to http://www.filmcolumbia.org/.

 

The Crandell Theatre is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote and develop the appreciation of film to enrich the social, cultural and educational experience of the community, and to renovate and revitalize the Crandell Theatre as a cornerstone of culture in Chatham, NY. The theater, founded on the theme “small town, big movies,” is Columbia County’s oldest and largest movie theatre with 534 seats and was built in 1926 by Walter S. Crandell as a vaudeville house. It features mainstream and independent films daily, seven days a week, and hosts the FilmColumbia festival each year in October. We encourage you to become a member today.

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