HudsonValleyGoodStuff

Kingston Film Festival is giving back & getting started: Seeking submissions for Shorts, music documentaries & more!

Attention all film lovers! The 2nd annual Kingston Film Festival will be taking place the first week of August. On Tuesday, I caught up with Astrid Cybele, the festival's organizer about the 2nd Kingston Film Festival.  Cybele talked about the potential Kingston has to become a filmmaking hub, and sees a day where there could be many more filmmakers, and Hollywood actors walking around Kingston. (Speaking of Hollywood actors, last September I interviewed CSI Las Vegas star Jorja Fox when she  came to the Kingston Film Festival to screen a film she produced, How I Became an Elephant).

"Oh, if I could find an investor, I'd love to see TechCity turned into a studio," says Cybele, who is skilled at finding investors and grant writing.  (She is mutli-tasking event organizer and also organizes the San Diego Film Festival). Sometimes investors find her. Ric Dragon, president and owner of Dragon Search Marketing in Kingston, met Cybele last year during the first festival.  This year, Cybele says that Ric Dragon was very eager and enthusiastic about becoming a sponsor. DragonSearch Marketing is the Kingston Film Festival's main presenting sponsor. 

I emailed social media guru Ric Dragon to find out what the impetus was. He replied: "Uptown Kingston is going through an amazing revival. If you haven’t noticed, it’s become a hub of culture, entertainment, night life, and rich living. The Kingston Film Festival is a natural extension of this renaissance, amplifying the already burgeoning film industry in the Hudson Valley. The whole team at DragonSearch is proud to be sponsoring the event and a part of it in this nascent stage. Many of our colleagues live here in Kingston, and even for those that don’t, we all spend a lot of our time here. We’re invested both financially and emotionally in this community. Besides, who doesn’t love a good movie?""

Cybele has a strong love of Shorts, and her message to Shorts filmmakers is "Submit! Submit! Submit!"  The Academy of Motion Pictures is relying more and more on independent film festivals to discover Oscar-worthy shorts. Cybele's goal is to have the Kingston Film Festival become one of the Academy Awards qualifying Independent Film Festivals. The Kingston Film Festival plans on developing a rapport with the academy by showing a strong body of work. The festival also intends on creating an archival system of all films being screened so the film treasures will not fall into the abyss.

 

Kingston Film Festival co-founders Astrid Cybele,Trevor Dunworth, and Dan Votke delivering check to Mayor Shayne Gallo

One of the coolest things the Kingston Film Festival is doing is giving back to the Kingston community.  Today I joined Astrid Cybele, Trevor Dunworth and Dan Votke of BSP for a photo opportunity and meeting with the City of Kingston Mayor, Shayne Gallo at City Hall in Kingston. 

Cybele did tell me about a few potential Hollywood and music world big shots who may be part of the Kingston Film Festival in August 2013, but I have been sworn to secrecy until the line up is confirmed. Stay tuned! Hudson Valley Good Stuff is looking forward to promoting the Kingston Film Festival and giving readers the scoop!

Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo & Vanessa Ahern of Hudson Valley Good Stuff

 

Mentalist Lucas Handwerker wows the Woodstock crowd with mind games, charm & the unknown!

There was an impatient buzz swirling through the sold-out crowd at Byrdcliffe Kleinert/ James Center for the Arts in Woodstock last Friday night (Feb. 22nd) for The Process: Lucas Handwerker. I overhead one woman whisper, "He has been doing this since he was 8!" I was among the curious. The crowd applauded when 19 year old Lucas Handwerker appeared on the small stage. He asked all those who believe that certain people carry psychic powers to raise their hands.  He then reassured those people that was not his purpose. Instead of predicting our futures, he is going to lead us through a journey of the mind so he invited us to go along. My mind was open to wherever this boyish oracle was going to lead it. 

He asked us to write down our dream job on an index card, and summoned 4 volunteers to go on stage so he could figure out which dream job went with which person.  He guessed correctly, giving us insight into what their body language revealed.  (Tip: when you stop getting body language cues, look at the person's feet!)

Then audience members were asked to write down a "Will I Ever" type question on an index card, and he came close to pinpointing the man sitting a few seats away from me who was dreaming of a beach house. Then, we were asked to write down our biggest fear, and Handwerker led the audience through a mental exercise to help us shed our greatest fear.

The evening was fast paced, and I wanted to take notes, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself. (The last thing I wanted to do was to be targeted to get on stage with "Public Speaking" scrawled on my index card as my biggest fear).   At times Handwerker paced a bit, and played chess. Besides the climactic ending which I won't give away, the most memorable part was when volunteers from the audience were blind-folded while they practiced "free writing" and "free drawing" in front of the audience. My only involvement was that I was one of the 8 who were asked to pick a 6-digit number.

The Process definitely made me think, "How does he do that?" Before going to sleep that night I was trying to figure out his secrets. How did he know that woman's name? Does he just have a knack for knowing which women are named Donna? Well, Donna is a common enough name and all the Donna's I know are super nice, strong friendly women, but how could he know for sure? Ok, I guess he is plugged into to our brainwaves somehow.  

All I know is that Lucas Handwerker did captivate the audience in Woodstock. He has a very unassuming stage presence. His confidence comes across, but he is self-depricating, and funny at times. What will Handwerker be up to 10 years from now? I predict he will be performing in front of bigger crowds. He just launched a Kick Starter campaign to raise money for a feature length film on his work ("Discover The Hidden Power of Your Mind" to be presented at the Woodstock Film Festival.  Have you seen Lucas Handwerker perform? What did you think?

 

Interview with Jorja Fox of CSI Las Vegas & producer of documentary "How I Became an Elephant"

 

Jorja Fox of CSI Las Vegas being photographed by Astrid Cybele

Hudson Valley Good Stuff celebrity photo opp

 

Post screening Q & A: Jorja Fox and Tim Gorski

It was a pleasure sitting down with Jorja Fox on a park bench on a quiet Wall Street, near BSP Lounge, in Kingston on Labor Day to interview her about the new documentary she produced called "How I Became an Elephant." The documentary was one of the films screened in the first Kingston NY Film Festival. 

Jorja Fox is a vegetarian so I wanted to know where she dined. Which Hudson Valley restaurants offer good vegetarian cuisine? Does she visit the Hudson Valley often? 

"Wow! A gazillion places to eat which is so nice while you’re on vacation. I never had a car when I lived in NYC so this area is mostly a mystery to me.  I came to the first Woodstock reunion, back in the 1990s so I knew I was in the general area, but I couldn’t tell you exactly where I was (laughs)  I just got on the bus at Port Authority. Because of Astrid, we had a mutual friend in California, who invited me to come. For very strict vegetarian there is the Garden Café in Woodstock which is amazing," says Jorja Fox.

Jorja Fox enjoyed eating at two Kingston restaurants. "At Boitson's, I had these incredible vegan fried mushrooms, like oyster mushrooms, almost taste like calamari, and we also enjoyed DUO Bistro very much," adds Fox.

"How I Became an Elephant" tells the really sad and disturbing tale about the behind the scene story that most circus-goers and Thailand elephant trekking tourists don't know.  Elephants are my favorite animals, and I knew about illegal poaching, but I had no idea about the torture these poor mammals go through at the hands of the mahmouts--elephant trainers. Baby elephants are ripped away from their moms and "broken" and repeatedly hit with and beaten in order to perform tricks for the tourist dollar.  Many of the scenes of the abuse are hard to watch. (In fact, the young woman sitting next to me sobbed for half the movie!) I don't think I could ever go to a circus after seeing this movie now. Instead I would like to one day visit an elephant sanctuary in the US. Fox mentioned that there are only two right now, one in Tennesse and one in California. I will put those on my bucket list.

As a kid, Jorja Fox watched National Geographic every week with her progressive, environmentalist and wild life lover grandmother, never missing a show. When Jorja Fox met filmmaker Tim Gorski at a small dinner party in LA, they started talking about his work in Thailand with illegal wildlife trafficking, and she found a way to get invested with one of her passions, and later became the producer for "How I Became an Elephant" which stars a 15-year old animal activist Juliette West.

"I adore elephants for so many different reasons--their gentleness, intelligence. They are vegetarians. Like all of the really large land mammals, their habitats are in some of the most peril.   They are a great subject because what’s going on with them is so criticial, so immediate. Elephants just have a grace and dignity to them," says Fox.

Fox said she had a lovely weekend in the Kingston/Woodstock area and was very excited to be part of the Kingston Film Festival, especially since it was the first screening of the film in her home state of NY, and also because she got to hang out with family while she was here.

Although the documentary will appeal to animal lovers of all ages, Jorja Fox and Tim Gorski agree that their target demographic is junior high school to college age viewers since the movie's lead is 15-year old Juliette West. Besides a couple of distribution deals on the horizon, they also plan a Netflix release, and hope to have screenings at high schools and colleges. If you are interested in viewing or screening "How I Became an Elephant" contact them throught the movie's website.