BYRDCLIFFE FILM WORKSHOP

The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in conjunction with the Hudson Valley Film Commission, presents the inaugural BYRDCLIFFE FILM WORKSHOP in honor of Mark Braunstein.

This five-day workshop is designed as a fun, improvisational, hands-on class in making short films. All levels of filmmaking experience are welcome.

Head instructor Annie Nocenti, and Natalie Chau will oversee the class, which will include the basic elements of screenwriting and directing, using inspirational film screenings, group student improvisations, scene writing, rehearsal, shooting, all in an atmosphere of collaboration and creativity. The classes are designed to be relaxed, engaging, and fun, in order to demystify filmmaking, and embrace beginners. At the end of the five days, students should be capable of making short films in a zero-budget DO-IT-YOURSELF fashion with a small crew, and also understand the process of professional filmmaking.

Guest speakers will include experienced industry talent who will discuss their craft. (see GUEST BIOS below). Specific guests (TBA) will speak about different aspects of the business including acting, budgeting, casting, cinematography, directing, editing, and more.

This five-day film workshop will be taught in the
Historic Byrdcliffe Theater from June 6-10, 2022.

Class size is limited to 20 adults, 18 years of age & over.
Tuition is $875 for non-Byrdcliffe members and $800 for members.
Payment can also be made by credit card via Paypal.

Checks can be made payable to Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and sent to 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY 12498

BIOS

ANNIE NOCENTI taught fiction and documentary filmmaking at the Cine Institute in Jacmel, Haiti, at the Indigenous Film Circle in Finnmark, Norway, to Native Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Kingston, NY, and more. For her work in Haiti, Nocenti and the Cine Institute were honored with the Katrin Cartlidge Film Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and Nocenti received the Humanitarian Award, presented by Haskell Wexler, at the Tulsa International Film Festival. Her series about teaching film in Haiti, Goudou Goudou, can be found online at Hilobrow.

Nocenti made a documentary about the resistance fighters in Baluchistan (with Wendy Johnson) called The Baluch and a film Disarming Falcons (with Wendy Johnson) about falconing, which can be seen on Vimeo. Disarming Falcons was featured at DOC NYC 2014, and at the WFF. She was a screenwriter working for Canal Plus, Alliance Pictures, and more, and her feature script Taking Chances was produced in 2009, starring Justin Long. She was the script editor of The Fifth Night, a screenplay reading series, and the editor of Scenario, a screenwriting magazine.

Nocenti’s journalism appears in Details, PRINT, Filmmaker, Stop Smiling, Scenario and more. Her story The Most Expensive Road Trip in the World, about hunting with falcons, was chosen by Anthony Bourdain for Best Travel Writing 2008. Her latest work features the graphic novels Ruby Falls (2020) with artist Flavia Biondi and The Seeds (2021) with artist David Aja, both for Berger Books/Dark Horse. Annie is also known for her comic book work, writing Daredevil, Longshot and Typhoid for Marvel, and Catwoman, Katana and Klarion for DC. She uses her comics experience to teach storyboarding.

Assistant NATALIE CHAU is a filmmaker, podcaster, photographer, list-lover, and TikTok creator. She began telling stories as a child who wanted to be an illustrator for picture books and eventually found her way into the filmmaking world. After spending a few years freelancing on movies, TV shows, and commercials that were filmed in the Hudson Valley, Natalie found that she thrives in spaces where she can be involved in every part of the creative process.

Natalie recently began hosting a TikTok series where she teaches filmmaking tips and fun facts to an audience of over 19,000 aspiring filmmakers.

GUEST SPEAKERS:
Several guest speakers will visit to discuss their craft with students. Several other film industry professionals will be added (see below). They are booked depending on breaks in their production schedules. In the event that a guest is unable to make it, the workshop will endeavor to find a replacement.

LARRY FESSENDEN

For more than 40 years, Larry Fessenden has not only reinvented and reinvigorated the horror and fantasy genre through his contemporary re-imaginings of mythic archetypes—the chimera, the vampire and the Leviathan, the Wendigo and the Modern Prometheus—he has also, as the founder in 1985 of the scrappy, resolutely independent New York production company Glass Eye Pix, nurtured the early careers of a diverse array of talents including Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass and Wendy and Lucy), Ti West (The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers), Rick Alverson (The Comedy), Graham Reznick (I Can See You), Jim Mickle (Stake Land), Ilya Chaiken (Liberty Kid), and James Felix McKenney (Automatons).

Celebrating his extraordinary career as a writer, director, producer, actor, cinematographer, editor, and songwriter, the MoMa recently held a major retrospective of Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix, presenting more than 20 feature films screened in MoMA’s theaters, as well as an additional selection of features and shorts streaming on our Virtual Cinema platform. Perhaps the true terror—and the liberating promise—of Fessenden’s work, which includes Habit (1997), No Telling (1991), Wendigo (2000), The Last Winter (2007), and Depraved (2019), is the extent to which the world today, our so-called Anthropocene epoch, has come to mirror his own uncanny visions of existential crisis: of ecological collapse and worldwide plague, historical trauma and amnesia, the dehumanizing effects of technology, and a profound alienation from the animal world and ourselves through a failure of the empathic imagination.

Byrdcliffe was founded in 1902 and has operated as a nonprofit organization since 1938. The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild provides a vibrant center for arts and crafts in the beautiful and unique rural community of Woodstock, New York, while preserving the historic and natural environment of one of the earliest utopian arts colonies in America. It offers a unique and inspiring combination of residency, educational, exhibition, and performance programs that encourage creative collaboration among a diverse array of artists, students, arts professionals, and the public. For more details, visit www.woodstockguild.org

The Hudson Valley Film Commission, is a nonprofit organization with a mission to create educational and economic development opportunities by attracting, supporting and promoting regional Film & TV production. Since 2000, executive director Laurent Rejto has worked with hundreds of productions from student films to small indies to episodic TV for HBO, Hulu, NBC Universal and others. Production have brought thousands of jobs to the region and over $310 million in regional economic development. For more details, visit www.hudsonvalleyfilmcommission.org

Mark Steven Braunstein (1950-2021) truly left his mark on his community. His humble support was spread throughout the community, too many to list, but his generosity was felt by all. In his love for the Arts, his final contribution was toward the rehabilitation of the historic Byrdcliffe Arts Colony Theater, finished with lights on, in time for him to see it.

"I had the good fortune of meeting Mark in 2000 at the old Markertek company headquarters in Saugerties," remembers Laurent Rejto. "We became fast friends, and his support of the Hudson Valley Film Commission directly impacted hundreds of productions, helping to create thousands of jobs and regional economic development. His impact cannot be overstated! I miss his kindness, support, patience, mentorship, wisdom, and his friendship above all. Two themes that we kept chatting about included #1, finding a way to keep our kids close to home and #2, was starting a film workshop at the history Byrdcliffe Colony. I think Mark would have been happy with this inaugural Byrdliffe Film Workshop announcement and I hope it will last for decades and keep Mark's legacy as vibrant as he was."