Woodstock Film Festival 2011 Launch Party in NYC

By Deborah Medenbach

Hurricane Irene didn’t stop filmmakers from streaming down to the Lower East Side in NYC on Aug. 30 for the Woodstock Film Festival Launch Party. Squeezing in the front door, I was whisked up to the balcony for a quick chat with the director, writer, and two principal actors from “Coming Up Roses.”...

Reporting Live from the 2011 WFF Launch Party at Libation in NYC! Kathryn Erbe ("Mother's House" and "Law and Order") is here with Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo ("The Sea is All I know" and "The Fighter") among other 2011 Festival Participants!

...The party continued with a conversation with first time filmmaker Davis Hall of Stone Ridge about his short narrative “Mother’s House,” starring Kathryn Erbe; a viewing of the engineering wonderfilm “A Bridge Delivered” by Stephen Mallon; receiving an overview of “Taking a Chance on God” produced by High Falls resident Ilene Cutler; and meeting short film “Bang” director Holle Singer. More about these in future posts.

The festival’s schedule for Sept. 21-25 and tickets are now available online at www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.

“Mother’s House” and Stone Ridge’s Davis Hall

Most Ulster county live theater fans know Davis Hall from his acting performances with Actors & Writers in Rosendale. His experiences cleaning out his mother’s house after her death a couple of years ago spurred his new venture into filmmaking, writing and directing “Mother’s House.”

“It was shot in nine days in Stone Ridge at a house near where I live,” Hall said. “The story is about a couple coming to clear out a dead parent’s house. It brings what’s real and what’s memory into question.”

Kathryn Erbe, known for her role as Det. Alexandra Eames on the TV show “Law & Order,” welcomed the lead role alongside Tim Guinee in this 30-minute film.

“It’s a moving thing to care about someone and go through their things,” Erbe said. Davis described finding his parent’s World War II love letters and wondering if it was crossing a boundary to read them. The act of sorting personal effects often gives deeper insight into who they were and facets of their personality that might have been kept hidden.

“Could you ever allow someone to freely go through all of your belongings while you were still alive and accountable?” I asked.

Both conceded some stories can only be told when you’re dead.

“Mother’s House” has its New York Premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival.