‘There’s really something for everybody’: Adirondack Film Festival returns Thursday

GLENS FALLS — The Adirondack Film Festival returns tomorrow for a seventh year, offering a weekend loaded with content spanning a wide variety of genres.

The festival is produced by the Adirondack Theatre Festival, which places it “at the nexus between theater, film, and television,” said Adirondack Theatre Festival producing artistic director Miriam Weisfeld.

Films will be screened at the Charles R. Wood Theater and at Crandall Public Library. For the second consecutive year, the festival will also be offering a hybrid model, said Weisfeld. 

“That’s a really cool option, because it gives you so much flexibility,” said Weisfeld. “If you wake up in the morning and you decide that you want to be out on the town all weekend, you can do that. If you decide that you want to be home on your couch, you still have a whole weekend of content that’s been curated for you.”

The festival begins Thursday with ‘Opening Night Rocks,’ a screening of music videos and the regional premiere of a short documentary titled “Blondie: Vivir en la Habana,” detailing the rock band Blondie’s trip to Havana, Cuba, for a concert in 2019. The screening will be at the Wood Theater, followed by a Q&A with director Rob Roth and an opening night reception at Park 26 in the Queensbury Hotel.

“This was part of an official cultural exchange between New York City and Havana, and it’s this amazing piece of filmmaking that was created by an artist named Rob Roth,” Weisfeld said. “He’s got these incredible stories about working with Blondie. … After that screening, Rob and I are going to do a discussion with the audience at the theater, and then we’ll move over to Park 26 for a celebration together.”

All content at the festival is recommended for ages 18 and up, according to the festival’s schedule.

Friday screenings include ‘Remember This,’ starring Academy Award nominee David Strathairn, and ‘A Love Song,’ starring Dale Dickey and Wes Studi.

Dickey has appeared in shows such as ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘The X-Files,’ ‘Gilmore Girls,’ ‘Frasier’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and more. Studi received a Governors Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019, becoming the first Native American actor to receive the honor, Weisfeld said. Studi has appeared in movies such as ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ ‘Dances with Wolves,’ ‘Avatar,’ and ‘Street Fighter.’

Saturday screenings include ‘There There,’ starring Jason Schwartzman and Lili Taylor, and ‘Cryptid,’ featuring Capital Region native Nicholas Baroudi.

“Another really exciting thing about the Adirondack Film Festival is that we are a platform for local filmmakers and for films that were shot in the Adirondack region,” said Weisfeld, noting that Baroudi, who has appeared as Joey Raven in five episodes of ‘Law and Order: Organized Crime,’ has also performed with the Adirondack Theatre Festival in the past.

Continuing the local focus, the festival will also screen several shorts throughout the weekend in multiple categories, including ‘Homegrown: Adirondack Regional Shorts.’ Other categories include ‘Stage to Screen,’ as well as Documentary, Comedy, and Suspense.

Weisfeld emphasized the wide variety of content throughout the weekend, saying, “There’s really something for everybody.”

“It’s over 35 films, so it’s a lot of content,” Weisfeld said. “Just about anybody is going to find something that they enjoy.”

The festival will also screen documentaries such as ‘The Quiet Epidemic,’ focused on the discovery of Lyme Disease.

“We feel like that is such an important topic around our region that we’re bringing in the directors of the film, and having a panel discussion with them and Dr. Holly Ahern from SUNY Adirondack, who’s the vice president of the Lyme Action Network,” said Weisfeld. “There’s serious substantive conversations happening about things that matter to our community, and there’s also a lot of entertainment value too.”

Other films that will be screened include ‘The Last Frankenstein,’ ‘Not a Tame Lion,’ ‘What We Do Next,’ and more.

Anyone interested in attending can choose between an in-person pass, a virtual pass, or an all-access pass, said Weisfeld. Single-day passes are also available throughout the weekend.

The festival reaches a close on Saturday night, with an awards presentation at 7:30 p.m. at the Wood Theater. There are six award categories: Documentary Short, Documentary Feature, Narrative Short, Narrative Feature, Music Video, and Best of the Festival. 

Weisfeld said that anyone who purchases a pass will be able to vote for the awards. 

“We’ll do the presentation live and live-streamed on Saturday night, and then we’ll go across the street to Downtown Social for another party,” said Weisfeld.

While the festival ends on Saturday, Weisfeld said that anyone who purchases a virtual or all-access pass will have on-demand access to content through midnight on Sunday. All films will be available for virtual screening, with the exception of three: ‘A Love Song,’ ‘Remember This,’ and ‘There There.’

“It’s been fantastic seeing the community support and the support of our business partners,” said Weisfeld of the community reception, giving thanks to partners such as the Queensbury Hotel, Fountain Square Outfitters, Lake George RV Park, Hudson Headwaters, Mannix Marketing, and Trampoline Design.

“We’re very appreciative of our board members, our committee members, and our volunteers. It’s really a community effort to get a project like this off the ground,” Weisfeld said. “We’re really excited to share all this material with the public tomorrow.”

Individual all-access passes begin at $80, while an individual in-person pass costs $65. Single-day passes are available for $35, with virtual passes beginning at $45. Visit www.adkfilmfestival.org for information regarding the festival’s schedule, how to purchase passes, and more.