UAlbany ushers in annual film fest
ALBANY — By celebrating its fifth annual Albany Film Festival, the New York State Writers Institute marks a return to the University at Albany on Saturday, March 29, with a full day of film and storytelling featuring award-winning actors, filmmakers, and writers, as well as screenings of feature-length and short films.
Screenings include “When My Sleeping Dragon Woke,” the true-life fairytale of actress and playwright Sharon Washington’s childhood living with her family in the New York City Public Library; “Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom”; “Desperately Seeking Susan”; and “It Starts with Us,” a short documentary about Fran Brown, the new head coach of the Syracuse University football team.
The film “Cajita” is based on the true story of an immigrant laborer who fled his country by shipping himself in a crate. It won Best U.S. Narrative Feature at the 2024 New York Latino Film Festival. The documentary “The Flagmakers” follows the lives of workers—many of them immigrants and refugees—at the employee-owned Eder Flag, the country’s largest manufacturer of American flags.
Featured guests will include Kelly Carlin, producer of the documentary “George Carlin’s American Dream” and author of the memoir “A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George,” and Washington, who will discuss the story behind “When My Sleeping Dragon Woke.”
Gregory Maguire, author of “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” will be featured with the release of his new novel, “Elphie: A Wicked Childhood,” published Tuesday, March 25. He is expected to share on-set stories from the 2024 film adaptation of “Wicked,” which stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Nicole London, co-director of “Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom,” is an Emmy-winning producer of “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.” Her newest film, “The Disappearance of Miss Scott,” tells the story of Hazel Scott, an African American jazz virtuoso, civil rights activist, and early television host who faced political backlash during the Red Scare of the 1950s.
Also featured is Mary Paley’s “The Neighborhood That Disappeared,” a documentary about the families and businesses displaced by the construction of the Empire State Plaza in 1962 under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Between 7,000 and 9,000 people and 3,500 families were displaced, and roughly 1,500 buildings and 350 businesses were seized in the 98.5-acre area, which had been a historically ethnic neighborhood.
Paley, who describes herself as an oral historian, was inspired by her father, who worked for the Knickerbocker News in Albany and was deeply familiar with the community. His photographs of the neighborhood before and after demolition motivated her to tell its story.
“It was really catastrophic,” said Paley. “The problem was that much of the built environment had historic value, and an ethnic community was living there; they’d created a wonderful, vital social fabric that they built over time throughout generations.”
Paley began working on the film in 2009. It includes interviews with dozens of community members who helped shape the neighborhood and whose stories continue to inform her preservation efforts.
“It’s important to preserve our cities,” she emphasized. “This film is really a preservationist product. The buildings are gone, the social fabric that was created over a period of generations is gone, but in a sense we’re giving them a virtual tour of what was there because it was a wonderful place to live.”
The festival will conclude with the presentation of the Ironweed Awards for Exemplary Achievement in Film and the Short Film Awards. Dozens of short films were selected for screening, offering a platform for emerging filmmakers in the Capital Region.
“That’s a really nice thing to see—these, mostly young, filmmakers come with their friends and family to accept their award,” noted Paul Grondahl, director of the New York State Writers Institute, praising the high quality of work submitted this season.
Susan Seidelman, director of “Desperately Seeking Susan” and author of the memoir “Desperately Seeking Something,” will receive an Ironweed Award alongside Frank Whaley, a University at Albany alumnus known for his roles in “Ironweed,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Field of Dreams,” and other major films.
“We love that we can celebrate and acknowledge lifetime achievement awards with the Ironweed Awards,” said Grondahl. “These are people who’ve made a long career of making great movies, whether they’re actors, editors, or directors.”
