 White Plains, NY - It’s not every day you can get a full day at the movies for 8 bucks. But that’s what the Westchester Film Festival is all about.Not only is it the best cinematic bargain in town but it’s a once a year chance to catch an eclectic collection of screenings that you won’t find anywhere else.
This year’s line-up tells the story of a Celtic rock band and Gaelic-speaking immigrants, Andy Warhol’s lover, baker siblings in the Bronx, an Iraqi filmmaker, New York Mets fans, Amadou Diallo, two teenagers in rehab, young stowaways and a doo wop group. Add to that a first-time screening of entries from local high school students and a sneak preview of a county-made film that casts a humorous spotlight on government services and you’ve got what promises to be a memorable weekend.
More than two dozen independent features, documentaries and shorts will make up the 9th Annual Westchester Film Festival coming to White Plains March 7-9. Screenings will begin at the City Center National Amusements’ 15 Cinema de Lux at 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon on Sunday and run back to back throughout the afternoon and evening. The event is co-sponsored by Westchester County and Cappelli Enterprises Inc.
“We have so many filming venues and activities throughout the county that it’s only fitting we should have our own festival - and it gets better and better every year,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “We’ve helped many a filmmaker get their start as we get some of the best entries on the independent circuit.”
New this year is a high school competition that will give aspiring filmmakers a chance to have their work judged and shown in an international film festival. On Sunday afternoon, 21 films created by local high school students will entertain on real-life subjects important to kids. Check out shorts on a food-eating contest, doing a school project with a do-nothing partner, an unpopular student yearning for attention, the struggles of a young man after the death of his girlfriend and a group of students getting tested for HIV, among others.
The teens’ films will be judged by a panel of professionals and filmmakers and the winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize and, for their school, a high-definition camera package. Second and third place winters will be given a $500 cash prize and their sponsoring high school will be given a $500 stipend to put towards film equipment of their choice. The cash prizes were donated by the Matthew S. Hisiger Film Foundation.
The festival will open Friday, March 7, with a suspense thriller shot in Westchester that you may have missed at the theatre, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet directs this classic heist-gone-wrong drama about a family facing the worst enemy of all – itself. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays an overextended broker who lures his younger brother, played by Ethan Hawke, into a scheme to rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is, the store owners are their actual mom and pop and, when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep. Also stars Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney.
On Saturday night, bring the kids to The Flyboys, an action adventure film telling the story of two boys from a small town who find their courage tested when they accidentally stow away aboard an airplane owned by the mob. Soon enough they are on the run from the FBI, the mob and the thieves.
Sunday’s closing highlight is a special showing of The Dukes, a heist movie set to 50's rock and roll. The Dukes, a doo wop group, were on top of the world when they were 17, and now decades later, they struggle to help their friends and family while holding on to the dreams of the past as they are forced to reinvent themselves in a new age. Desperate for cash, the musicians decide to work together to pull off an ill-concieved heist. Actor Robert Davi steps behind the camera to direct himself, Chazz Palminteri, and Peter Bogdanovich.
Three true-story shorts by local college students will also make their way onto the big screen: New Orleans Today by Lauren Beal was filmed 18 months post-Katrina and captures the harsh realities of New Orleans today; Sean Gallagher’s Black List looks at the SUNY Oneonta incident that led to the longest continually litigated civil rights case in America’s history; and Rio: I am a comic from Japan follows NYC’s only Japanese stand-up comedian and looks at how he has taken on the challenges of a new culture on and off the stage.
Among other highlights:
Black 47 -- A concert film featuring Black 47, the “House Band of New York City,” as they ring in the New Year at Connolly’s in NYC. Using early footage, interviews with band members and the audience, and the riotous performance itself, this documentary weaves together a history of the band’s beginnings, and by extension, a rich underlay of Irish-American history and the Diaspora.
Death of Two Sons -- A documentary telling the story of Amadou Diallo, the West African immigrant shot by New York City police officers in 1999, and Jesse Thyne, a Peace Corps volunteer who was living and working with Amadou's family in his home village in Guinea. Jesse himself was killed in Guinea less than a year after the Diallo shooting. This film explores the political, personal, and spiritual implications of their deaths.
A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory -- Director Esther Robinson’s personal inquiry into the truth behind her Uncle Danny Williams’ mysterious 1966 disappearance. Virtually unknown today, Danny was Andy Warhol’s lover and a promising young filmmaker. The discovery of 20 never-before-seen films Williams made during his time at the Factory – and whose many subjects include Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Paul Morrissey, Brigid Berlin, Billy Name – reveals a luminous talent and stark gap in the historical record.
Doughboys -- A slice-of-life comedy about Lou and Frank, two Bronx brothers -- one with a major gambling problem -- struggling to keep their family bakery out of a neighborhood gangster's clutches. Bronx-born Louis Lombardi – of 24 fame – co-produces the movie.
KINGS – An involving tale that offers a trenchant look at the recent Irish immigrant experience, focusing on a group of men whose expectations of the good life in England are crushed by disappointment and alcoholism. Largely set in the centempo London, but with flashbacks to the Connemara coast 30 years before. With a cast largely speaking Irish Gaelic, Kings is the first bilingual feature produced in the Emerald Isle.
Mathematically Alive – A Story of Fandom -- This engaging documentary is for all New York Mets fans and anyone who is devoted to a sports team. The film takes a look at an often unexamined part of everyday life – sport fandom – as it follows Mets devotees on a roller coaster ride of emotion through the 2006 playoffs.
Nice Bombs - Filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returns to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years. This documentary navigates through his unique relationship to an Iraq that is much different than the country of his childhood. With humor and resilience, Usama explores his dual role as both Iraqi and American and captures the conflicting reactions to the conditions of life in Baghdad.
Over the GW – A gritty and disturbing drama based on the writer/director’s own experiences with drug rehabilitation. The story follows Tony and Sofia, two troubled teenage siblings from the Bronx, when their mother brings them over the GW Bridge to a rehab in Jersey. A 30-day stay turns into a traumatic two and a half years in which the siblings experience abuse, brainwashing and false imprisonment.
The Awkward Stage – A comedic short film and self-described semi-mockumentary that follows five actors as they make their way to their first performance of “Puberty’s Okay With Me.”
After all the films are screened, winners will be announced Sunday evening in the following categories: feature, documentary shorts, documentary features, resident and non-resident student, international, animation and screenplay. Attendees will also be able to give their own opinion by voting for an Audience Choice award.
An added highlight this year will be the preview of a new feature-length film made by Westchester County. Chester West, film noir’s newest detective, takes viewers, not to exotic climes, but to locations right here in Westchester as he tries to solve a 40-year-old murder. The quirky gumshoe, whose migraine headaches produce clue-laden visions, quickly learns that a shady land deal is behind it all. But who did it? The greedy medical examiner, the attractive archives volunteer or the county legislator who has his own suspicious agenda. It’s a wild ride a la David Lynch, but with an ulterior motive: showing residents the various services of county government and how the public benefits.
The closing event will also feature a faculty jazz ensemble from the Music Conservatory of Westchester, and the Westchester Dreamcoats who will do a medley of music from the movies. Many of the youngsters in the latter performed on Broadway in the chorus of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
A full schedule of showings and times are available at www.westchestergov.com/filmfestival. For more information call the Westchester County Film Office at (914) 995-2917. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for seniors and students. One ticket admission covers all performances for a single day.
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