Institute set to roll film
ALBANY — From newly emerging filmmakers to icons of the screen, the annual Albany Film Festival on April 6 will feature actors, authors, directors, producers, screenwriters, and movie critics coming together for a day of screenings and discussions, culminating in the Ironweed Award ceremony.
The all-day event, free and open to the public, will take place from 10:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. at the UAlbany Campus Center. Legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset, Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory, and iconic character actor Luis Guzmán will headline the 4th annual Albany Film Festival.
The Ironweed Award is unique to the film festival, named after William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work. The very first Ironweed Award was given to filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola in 2019. This year, the Ironweed recipients will be Jacquline Bisset and Luis Guzmán.
Bisset will join director Russell Brown for a screening and discussion of ‘Loren & Rose’, and Guzmán and director Aristotle Torres will screen and discuss their 2023 drama ‘Story Ave’.
“It’s always a great honor and pleasure to go with her [Jacqueline] to see this movie,” said ‘Loren & Rose’ director and writer Russell Brown. “She’s had such an incredible career, and she gives such a wonderful performance in the film that I’m just excited to help her celebrate it.”
The film, which unravels through Loren’s memories, tells the poignant story of mentorship and the power of the relationship between Bisset and co-star Kelly Blatz. “I just really hope that the audience is touched by the relationship and is moved by what goes on between these two people,” said Brown.
Brown described the filmmaking experience as ‘special’. “The three of us were just so in line with each other, and I think that shows up in the film,” he said. “This was a personal project for all three of us, and we all brought our best to this movie.”
Alongside the audience attending the screening at the Albany Film Festival, Brown looks forward to immersing himself in the festival’s atmosphere. “I always love the feeling of just being in an audience and seeing how they’re kind of reacting moment-to-moment to the film because it’s always different and different theaters have different vibes,” said Brown.
“It’s always just interesting to be in a new place and to see how different audiences are reacting to the movie, with which jokes are playing to the audience or which emotional moments work particularly well,” he said. “I’m looking forward to that.”
In keeping with the rest of the NYS Institute programs this year, the film festival celebrates the 180th anniversary of the University at Albany. “We want to celebrate the history and legacy and all the accomplishments of the University of Albany and how it has enriched this region,” said Paul Grondahl, Director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany.
“There’s a lot of film festivals, so we wanted to try to create something a little bit different,” he continued. “We think we come at it from a slightly different angle. We are the Writers Institute, and now it’s our 41st year. We’ve been going since 1983. But all along, we’ve been showing classic films. We had a classic film series, and we’ve shown hundreds of films. This is a continuation of what we’ve been doing. We always love when we can get screenwriters and filmmakers.”
Grondhal referred to it as a ‘bookish’ film festival, tying together the NYS Institute book festival with their film festival. “A lot of writers write multiple genres,” said Grondhal. “We’ve brought in over 2,500 writers over 41 years, and some of them write novels, but they also write screenplays.”
Film festival attendees can anticipate a full schedule. A screening and discussion of Stephen Soucy’s 2024 documentary ‘Merchant Ivory’ is followed by a discussion with Soucy and Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory, winner of an Ironweed Award in 2021. Audiences are also invited to join a screening of ‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales’ and a discussion with filmmaker Abigail Disney.
Author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong will explore why Mean Girls should be taken seriously as a quintessential film and a great comedy of the 21st century as she discusses the film and her 2024 book, ‘So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed with It)’.
In the discussion, Armstrong will analyze the extensive and lasting cultural effect that Mean Girls has had on pop culture. “‘Mean Girls’ has become a way for us to shorthand that—if you say someone is dealing with a Mean Girls situation or a Regina George, we know exactly what that means,” she said.
From the film’s arrival during the dawn of social media culture to the core of the story that is ‘timeless and universal’, Armstrong’s book explores the social hierarchies, youth cultures, and background of the film that keep it relevant to today.
“If something means a lot to many, many people, over many, many years, there’s something going on there that’s worth unpacking,” she added.
The literary theme of the festival continues with a discussion with David Rosenthal, editor of Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir, ‘The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man’ (2022), and Lizzie Gottlieb, director of the 2022 award-winning documentary, ‘Turn Every Page’, as she discusses the remarkable 50-year relationship between writer Robert Caro and his longtime editor (and Gottlieb’s father) Robert Gottlieb.
Richard Roundtree’s final movie, ‘Swedish Erotica (a comedy)’, will be screened, along with a conversation and Q&A with the film’s producer Bob Wishnoff and executive producer Larry Hummel.
The screenings will include the Oscar-nominated and winner of the Best Documentary Short at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, ‘Black Girls Play: A Story of Hand Games’. The discussion will be led by Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D., UAlbany professor, ethnomusicologist, and leading expert on the pastimes of Black girlhood.
Short films will dominate the festival, featuring the screenings and discussions of short films by two emerging filmmakers, Deni Cheng’s film ‘Sucker’, and Cindy Chu’s film ‘Bayard Street’, and a screening of Spencer Sherry’s ‘The Monkey’, based on a Stephen King short story.
Sherry will discuss how he received the rights from King to make the film as a participant in King’s “Dollar Baby” program, which offers filmmakers the chance to adapt one of his lesser-known stories for $1.
“There’s a lot more panel discussions than you might see at other film festivals,” noted Grondhal. “At other film festivals, you might just sit in your seat and the lights go down like you’re at the theater, and there might be a panel afterward. We do a lot of talking here.”
A discussion on film criticism poses the question: Will there even be film criticism 10 years from now? New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson and Matt Singer, author of ‘Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever’, will discuss the future of film criticism and film.
Audiences are also encouraged to join a timely session with film and media scholar Joshua Glick as he analyzes the growing impact of “deepfakes” and AI-generated content on visual culture, American politics, journalistic truth, and reality itself.
“We think you can easily chart out what interests you,” said Grondahl. “Several things are going on at one time, so pick and choose.”
Making the festival accessible “is important to us,” said Grondhal. “I don’t think you’ll find another film festival that’s this free and open. I want attendees to see some really interesting films; make sure they look at some of the short films, which are young people learning their craft, and come here for the veterans who have been in the film industry and learn from them.”
For more information and the full event schedule, visit www.albanyfilmfestival.org.
