26th Annual Woodstock Film Festival Features Student Short Films in Free-Spirited Environment
People at the Woodstock Playhouse in Woodstock, NY, during the 2023 Woodstock Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Woodstock Film Festival
From Oct. 15 through Oct. 19, the 26th annual Woodstock Film Festival is being held, bringing in people from all over to the Hudson Valley for a celebration of film. Taking place throughout theaters in Woodstock, Kingston, Rosendale and Saugerties, the festival leaves its footprint throughout the Hudson Valley, screening works from A-list directors to student filmmakers hoping to forge their own path in the industry.
Built out of the ethos of Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969 and the spirit that surrounds the town of Woodstock, the festival has become a staple of the community since its start in 2000.
Amanda Naseem, head shorts programmer for the Woodstock Film Festival, talks about the welcoming environment of Woodstock and how it has become a place of freedom and creativity for filmmakers and festival attendees.
“The magic of Woodstock is that people let their guard down because it’s a small town and they feel more relaxed in this beautiful nature setting,” said Naseem.
In the serenity of Woodstock, artistry is put on full display and the festival dedicates itself to being a space where innovation, dialogue and activism thrive.
“There’s no rope and stanchion like at higher level festivals like Sundance, for example, and so people are really in a place of trying to have critical conversations, they want to meet new people, they’re ready to have fun too, so it’s truly a place that supports the art and the artist,” said Naseem.
One of the areas the Woodstock Film Festival emphasizes is student short films, which are showcased as part of the film school shorts series. Giving opportunities to teen filmmakers and students in film school, the festival provides a platform to up-and-coming talent within the industry.
Naseem talks about how inviting aspiring filmmakers to the festival and allowing them to immerse themselves in a festival environment is beneficial to their growth as filmmakers and allows them to get ahead of the curve within the industry.
“So much about being in the film industry is about developing your personal network. There’s no track to follow, so it’s so much about starting to talk to people and being willing to put yourself out there, going to events, figuring out how to pitch yourself or pitch your projects or how to just personally start to connect with people,” said Naseem.
Unlike other higher-level, more prominent film festivals, Woodstock provides a more level playing field for student filmmakers, providing them with a domain where they connect with people on a more intimate level and engage with their work in a critical way.
“I would say that the Woodstock Film Fest is one of the top regional festivals in the United States, but also really serves the New England, New York and tristate area, and we are like a bridge from the New York City filmmaking community which is a big hub, of course,” said Naseem.
The Woodstock Film Festival exists at the threshold of the more tense, prestigious New York City film festival scene, serving as a formative stepping-stone experience for filmmakers to catapult their careers.
One of the filmmakers whose work is being screened at the festival is Hudson Price, a recent graduate from New York University's undergraduate film program. Having grown up in Woodstock, Price provides an interesting perspective on rural gentrification happening in the Hudson Valley in his short film, “Hotspot.”
Still from Hudson Price's film, "Hotspot." Photo courtesy of Woodstock Film Festival
“Hotspot” follows 16-year-old Wilson, a wealthy teen who attends private school in New York City and is dragged to Woodstock by his father and his father’s girlfriend to renovate their Airbnb that resides on the same property as a convicted arsonist.
“It’s totally a short film about the dynamic of city comers against local upstate Woodstockers," said Price. “I think growing up, since my family’s from Woodstock, seeing a lot of new people come and move up from the city and seeing how that disrupts the economy and the flow of social order is really interesting because Woodstock is specifically such a funnel from New York City.”
As a Woodstock native, Price highlights that having his work shown at the namesake film festival puts a bit more pressure on him as he is providing commentary on the area while also representing it.
Price talked about how having his short screened at the festival provided him with the chance to have people see it and give thoughts and feedback more directly.
“I think the most educational part of the whole process is seeing how it feels in a theater full of people and either sinking into my chair and sweating or laughing with them. So I’m excited and nervous because I have a lot of family and friends coming to see this movie that I’ve poured a lot of hard work into. But I’m excited to share it, I’m excited to hear feedback, meet people and see the other incredible films on the block,” said Price.
“I’m excited to go to a festival where I can represent some work because I’m used to going to festivals where I'm either part of the crew or helping on set, but it’s cool to represent something myself,” said Price, talking about how he hopes to benefit from his work being screened at the festival.
Kwesi Jones is another filmmaker being highlighted at the Woodstock Film Festival with his short film “The Wrath of Othell-Yo!” In this film, Jones, a recent graduate of the NYU graduate film school program and former teaching assistant to director and tenured NYU film professor Spike Lee, fuses the blaxploitation film genre with Shakespearean narratives to create a short that explores black masculinity and connects time and space.
“The Wrath of Othell-Yo!” follows Tommy, a Black production assistant on the set of an erotic, blaxploitation adaptation of the Shakespeare play, “Othello.” An aspiring actor, Tommy volunteers to step in when the lead actor of the film fails to get erect for a crucial shot. In his newfound role, Tommy finds himself in a situation that’s more than he bargained for.
Still from Kwesi Jones' film, "The Wrath of Othell-Yo!" Photo courtesy of Woodstock Film Festival
Tapping into his own experiences and the intersectionality between race and gender, Jones attempts to explore these concepts in the film and take them in the direction he wants to.
“Something I’m always thinking about is my own relationship with masculinity. I was trying to interrogate how a lot of the different insecurities I have, or different kinds of ideals I have for myself and how I should present my gender are kind of steeped in these older, antiquated ideas about black masculinity,” said Jones, talking about his inspiration for the film.
With this film, Jones blurs the lines between traditional and modern and offers a comedic approach to the dense topics being presented while also still attempting to engage the audience in critical conversations and thoughts.
“I was kind of trying to pull together all these disparate strands of tropes and pieces of media, like something as far-reaching as Shakespeare and something like blaxploitation that are hundreds of years apart and completely different forms, but you can find elements of the same kind of conception of black masculinity between them, albeit in a different way,” said Jones.
Kwesi details how he came to submit his film to the Woodstock Film Festival and what he had to consider during his submission.
“When I was in the process of applying to different festivals, I was trying to see what festivals felt like the film could have a home in and what festivals I felt like the tone or thing I was going for would be matched and understood,” said Jones.
Having an open audience and one that could feel uncomfortable with the topics and themes presented in “The Wrath of Othell-Yo!” was an important feature Jones looked for in a festival setting.
“The film is dealing with topics that can be kind of prickly and could be quite incendiary, dealing with race and sexuality, and there are moments in which the idea of consent is drawn into question, there are racial slurs, so there’s a lot there. It’s important for me to find an audience that is willing to engage with those topics,” said Jones.
The Woodstock Film Festival’s mission to engage with media that pushes boundaries aims to provide artistic outlets for works like Jones’s film.
“From what I’ve seen, the Woodstock Film Festival is a community in which people are willing to engage in certain topics like that,” said Jones.
As a cultural hub that emphasizes artistry and social activism, Woodstock is the ideal location for a film festival in which filmmakers can present their work in an intimate, open-minded and perceptive environment.
“Woodstock is known for being more accepting and open to different perspectives and following the Woodstock nature, which is kind of funky and quirky,” said Price. “It’s not like Cannes, where you show up and have to wear a button-down and a tie, I think Woodstock is pretty polar opposite from that. That’s the nature of it.”