Join us for the 12th annual Glimmerglass Film Days, November 7-11, 2024 in Cooperstown. We will have our signature combination of compelling independent films, filmmaker talks, art, books, parties, guided walks, and collaborations with local museums, nonprofits, restaurants, and businesses.

Schedule of Events:

Sunday, November 3, 2024

5pm: In Play: Borders & Edges Art Exhibition

Image, clockwise from upper left: Swallowhead (detail), Richard Barlow; Scrap Rapture (detail), Mark Mastroianni; Man in Doorway (detail), Gail Peachin; Nocturne (detail), Amy Cannon

Featuring works of Richard Barlow, Amy Cannon, Mark Mastroianni, and Gail Peachin

The 2024 companion art exhibition, In Play: Borders & Edges, presents the work of four inventive and highly original established artists, Richard Barlow (Oneonta, NY), Amy Cannon (Fly Creek, NY), Mark Mastroianni (Cherry Valley, NY), and Gail Peachin (Hudson NY/South Worcester, NY). Hailing from afar – NYC, New England, the UK/Minnesota and Chicago -- each has chosen to live in our remarkable region. The show riffs on this year’s Film Days theme, Boundaries, and invites viewers to examine and ponder the visual relationships and contrasts the artists evoke, sometimes sharp, sometimes blurred, sometimes both. Watch for coffee breaks with the artists in the Smithy during the festival, and for a reception and artist talks the weekend before opening day, on Sunday November 3. Curated by Sydney L. Waller, steering committee founding member and gallerist (the Art Garage).

Exhibition Hours:

4:00 - 6:00pm: Artists' Talk

Location:
The Smithy
55 Pioneer Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Thursday, November 7 2024

5:30 - 7:15 PM: The Night Visitors

Recently discovered fossils date the earliest moths back over 200 million years. Since then, they have evolved to become one of the most diverse living organisms on our planet, with close to 160,000 known moth species. Filmmaker Michael Gitlin’s fascination with moths started with the 200 or so species that gathered around the lights in his backyard. Gitlin uses his camera to overcome the focal limitations of the naked eye and examine these nocturnal creatures at a mesmerizing level of detail. These images give us a sampling of the awe-inducing array of patterns, textures, and colors to be found within this vast corner of the animal kingdom. The film takes us on a series of discursions as Gitlin highlights the stories of others who have found themselves similarly transfixed: a contemporary scientist logging moth flight patterns hoping to uncover clues about climate change and habitat degradation; a mid-20th century Russian entomologist who spent World War II drawing 40 million year old moth specimens bound in Baltic amber; and a mid-19th century French artist, astronomer, and amateur entomologist living in Medford, MA who conducted moth breeding experiments with hopes of making a fortune reviving the American silk industry (with wildly unintended consequences). Gitlin’s close study becomes a meditation on the ways proximity can both clarify and distort, and how obsession can become a means of reflection. As one moth enthusiast puts it in the beginning of the film: “I think the longer someone goes at this, one sees how everything is intertwined.”

Generously sponsored by DeNicola Design LLC

Post-screening Q&A discussion with director Michael Gitlin

Michael Gitlin makes work about some of the intricate conceptual and ideological systems out of which ways of knowing the world can be constructed. His films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Full Frame Documentary Festival, the London Film Festival, and the Whitney Biennial Exhibition. Gitlin’s experimental documentary, The Night Visitors, premiered at the 2023 New York Film Festival. His 2015 feature documentary, That Which Is Possible, screened at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. His 16mm film, The Birdpeople, is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Gitlin was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. Gitlin received an M.F.A. from Bard College. He teaches at Hunter College in New York City.

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

7:30 - 9:00 PM: Opening Party and Exhibition

Come celebrate a new season of Film Days! Catered by chef Alex Webster, the Opening Party will feature Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetarian Saag Paneer, Basmati Rice, Crispy Papadums, Vegetable Samosas, and for dessert, Pistachio Almond Rasmalai with saffron and cardamom.

Mix and mingle with filmmakers and fellow film lovers. Enjoy the Film Days companion art exhibit, In Play: Borders & Edges, with works by Richard Barlow, Amy Cannon, Mark Mastroianni, and Gail Peachin.

Ticket includes buffet and one complimentary beverage. Cash bar.

Wines donated by Rudy’s Wine & Liquor

Location:
The Smithy
55 Pioneer Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

9:00 - 10:45 PM: Incident at Loch Ness

After the opening party, hop over to our newest venue, Cooperstown CoWorks, for a retro screening of the Zack Penn/Werner Herzog classic mockumentary, with cash bar featuring whisky, a selection of aged cheeses, apples, and salty oat cookies from Chloe's Bake Shop. The film does take place in Scotland, after all.

Released in 2004, Incident at Loch Ness, marked the debut of Zak Penn as both a director and producer. Penn was well known at the time as a screenwriter of action- adventure films (Behind Enemy Lines, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Last Action Hero, Elektra). Co-written and featuring Werner Herzog (as himself), Incident at Loch Ness was filmed in tandem with a documentary (Herzog in Wonderland, an overview of Herzog’s work as he embarks on a new project) directed by John Bailey. Tensions between the novice director/producer and Herzog soon develop as it becomes clear that Penn intends to steer the film onto the more familiar ground of his previous blockbuster genre films. For those more familiar with Werner Herzog from his iconic brutalist documentaries and films (Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo), Incident at Loch Ness presents the famously iconoclast director and revered pioneer of New German Cinema in a different, yet somehow consistent, light (Herzog once famously filmed himself cooking and eating his own shoe after losing a bet, later released as Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe). What finally emerges with Incident at Loch Ness is a film within a film within a film that veers far afield from Herzog’s original intention to explore society’s collective psychological need to create legendary, unknown, or extinct monsters.  

Generously sponsored by blackstanleystudios

Cash bar with a selection of whiskeys; complimentary bread and cheese, salted oat cookies

Location:
Cooperstown Coworks
6 Doubleday Court,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Friday, November 8 2024

10:00 - 11:25 AM: Dahomey

For centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey (located in present-day Benin) was considered a center of power and influence in West Africa. This prominence was rooted in the Kingdom's active role in the transatlantic slave trade. As slavery was abolished across Europe through the 1800s, the Kingdom’s power began to fade. A weakened Dahomey faced increasing territorial challenges. An 1892 invasion by France led to the looting of the royal palace where thousands of royal treasures and other art works were taken.

In 2021, after years of negotiations, an agreement was reached under which 26 of these stolen objects would be returned to home soil in Benin. French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop documents every step of this journey of repatriation; from the careful packing and unpacking to the preparations for the jubilant homecoming fête. Deeper questions around the exchange emerge at a gathering at the nearby Université d’Abomey-Calavi. Here, students and teachers passionately debate the true legacy of these artifacts. Questions are raised about how these art treasures, stolen from ancestors, should be received in a country which has reinvented itself in their absence.

Dahomey is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into the real and diverging perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution.

In French with English subtitles

Post-screening Q&A discussion with speaker Mikayla Brown

This film and discussion, open to the public, also serve as the annual Film Days Professional Seminar for the Cooperstown Graduate Program students and faculty.

Mikayla Brown is a doctoral candidate in Media and Communication at Klein College, Temple University. Her research delves into how museums that are in possession of looted Benin Bronzes discursively address repatriation efforts, exploring the ways these institutions confront their colonial legacies and navigate ongoing identity crises amidst repatriation and restitution calls. Mikayla has presented her work at both national and international conferences, including in Canada and Australia. She served on the ethics review committee at Mutter Museum and her previous professional experience was in Marketing. Currently, Mikayla teaches critical media and identity studies at Temple University and Drexel University, engaging students with issues of culture, power, and representation. In addition, Mikayla is conducting research on Wikidata's ontology and Silicon Valley's weapons defense industry.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Lunch Between Films: Indigenous Flavors (advance purchase required)

Enjoy the flavors of New Mexico before our Friday Freebie film, Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon. Catered by the popular Mel's at 22 chef Brian Wrubleski. Purchase by November 1.

Please note: This lunch is not included with the Patron or Glimmerglass Pass. Please purchase lunch separately. Thank you.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:30 - 1:30 PM: Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon’s high-desert landscape in the American Southwest (approximately 70,000 square miles known as the Four Corners) was home to a once flourishing ancient culture with connections to Mesoamerica. Today it’s revealed in occasional physical remnants. For one, traces of their monumental architecture possess such incredible beauty and simplicity that they bring to mind the most creative of contemporary design. The cultural flowering of this civilization began in the mid-800s and lasted more than 300 years. A unifying and expressive cosmology, especially their integration of solar and lunar cycles, was a sublime key feature of the Chacoan way of life. Archeologist Anna Sofaer has spent her life studying the Chacoan people. In the film, she serves as our guide, sharing her Solstice Project’s latest research using aerial imagery and LiDAR (lasers that measure distances and create three-dimensional models). Astronomical alignments and their connections to the landscape in the canyon are reflected in the most unpredictable ways.

Generously sponsored by Patricia and Robert Hanft

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

1:45 - 3:15 PM: Taking Venice

Paris was still the world’s artistic capital in 1963—but all that was about to change. Following the 1964 Venice Biennale, the city of New York took over as the Cultural Capital. 1964 was the year that American painter Robert Rauschenberg won the coveted grand prize at the Biennale. Everyone was stunned. Was it maneuvering behind the scenes by the Americans, possibly the State Department in cahoots with influential New York dealers like Leo Castelli? Was it clever publicists working to boost American interests? Europe was livid to think that Rauschenberg’s Combines—assemblages of ugly everyday objects often smeared with paint—were taking precedent over more traditional painters with better credentials than those of this oddball from Port Arthur, Texas. Taking Venice grapples with these issues. But what it really discovers, in beautifully nostalgic footage, is a Venice as yet unpolluted and uncorrupted by the multitudes of marauding tourists that plague the city today.

Generously sponsored by Robert Nelson and Van Broughton Ramsey

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

3:30 - 4:45 PM: Boundaries: Shorts Program

Explore the theme “Boundaries” in the first of three shorts programs.  Find out about an amazing botanical mystery, watch a 15-year-old filmmaker’s effort to protect trees and the planet, learn how an artist transforms toxins into paint, and see what a father is willing to risk to ensure his son can drink clean water. Program includes: The Everlasting Pea (Su Rynard, 2024, Canada, 17 minutes), There Was a Cedar Forest (Arthur ?ech, 2023, France/Morocco, 3 minutes), Toxic Art (Jason Whalen, 2023, USA, 16 minutes), and Wings of Dust (Giorgio Ghiotto, 2022, Peru, 30 minutes).

3:30PM: The Everlasting Pea

The Everlasting Pea moves between an anesthetized pea plant that dreams of a time when it thrived in the ruins of the Roman Colosseum, and the 19th century botanist Richard Deakin who discovered over 420 species of plants, some quite rare, among the Colosseum ruins. The lowly pea plant and Deakin, who exposes an amazing botanical mystery, together are heroes of the story.

3:30PM: There Was a Cedar Forest

Screened as part of the Boundaries Shorts program

Fifteen-year-old Alex ?ech is a wildlife photographer whose main wish is to show the world the beauty of nature and encourage the long-term preservation of our planet. “I get very scared when I see that man can kill in a decade what nature has taken hundreds of years to grow. I can't stand by and do nothing. So I made this film.”

3:30PM: Toxic Art

Screened as part of the Boundaries shorts program

In southeastern Ohio, the heart and soul of Appalachia, acid mine drainage has been a huge issue, turning streams red with poisons and killing wildlife. Technology and funds to bring these streams back to life never happened—that is, until now, when artist John Sabraw and some friends developed a breakthrough process to upcycle the toxins into paint pigments. A creative and cooperative gamble became a money-making venture for artist pigments companies.

3:30PM: Wings of Dust

Screened as part of the Boundaries shorts program

Wings of Dust follows a Quechua indigenous journalist, Vidal Merma, who is fighting the damage inflicted on the K’ana Nation of Peru by aggressive mineral mining supported by the government. Vidal risks his life daily to secure a future where his son can savor the simple joy of drinking clean water.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

5:30 - 7:30 PM: All Illusions Must Be Broken

A collaboration of acclaimed filmmakers Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell, and backed by Executive Producers Terrence Malik and Robert Redford, All Illusions is the finale of a trilogy that delves into the tension between nature and our evolving culture, following The Unforeseen and Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, which was featured at Film Days in 2018. Ernest Becker was an American cultural anthropologist and author of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death. Becker’s premise, and one that has deep implications for the environment, was that human beings are motivated to create a meaningful world for themselves rooted in self-esteem—a kind of near-religious view that we must somehow rise above the fear of death and the unknown. Beyond that, and more and more, virtual environments are overtaking and displacing the actual environment, only furthering a tendency toward self-deception. Using Becker’s thought-provoking framework, the film examines the unintended consequences of depriving the environment of its natural character and properties.  

“All Illusions Must Be Broken is a cinematic interpretation of Becker’s ideas. His psychoanalytic exploration of human nature and the study of his own life challenge our fears and inspire us to see the beauty that surrounds us in our fragile lives. Part film essay, part verité study, the narrative interweaves Becker’s insights, contemporary interviews on the re-patterning power of screens, and scenes from a boyhood from birth to age 13.”—Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell

Post-screening Q&A discussion with filmmaker Jef Sewell

Generously sponsored by Eva Davy

Jef Sewell was born in Dallas, a fourth-generation Texan with family roots in the Texas Plains. Before joining Two Birds Film, Jef co-founded the satirical publisher Despair, Inc. and Amplifier®, a fulfillment company serving artists and brands. For his work on The Unforeseen (2007), he was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Graphics & Animation at the inaugural Cinema Eye Honors. In 2017, Jef received the SXSW Jury Prize for Visual Design for his contributions to Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry.

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

8:30 - 10:00 PM: Selections from Thomas Edison Film Festival

Enjoy award-winning shorts from the Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF), curated and presented by Jane Steuerwald, executive director of the Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium. Andrew Nadkarni, director of Between Earth & Sky, will attend to discuss his film which was shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Awards. All five shorts were selected for their relevance to the Film Days theme, "Boundaries." This program is a perennial Film Days favorite.

Complimentary popcorn and movie candy, cash bar

Films curated and presented by executive director Jane Steurwald

Jane Steuerwald is the executive director of the Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium-Thomas Edison Film Festival. She curates and presents film programs for colleges, universities, museums, cinemas, and arts venues across the country and abroad. Her films have screened at MoMA; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Anthology Film Archives; and festivals across the US. Steuerwald was a professor and chair of the Media Arts Department, NJ City University, for many years, where she taught media production, history, and aesthetics. She has worked with film and video as an art medium since 1980, creating installations, documentaries, found footage works, experimental films, and single edition art books. In 2012, she was a Women’s History Month Honoree in New Jersey for empowering women through education.

8:30 PM: A Life Like This

Screened as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival

A documentary portrait, highlighting the lived experiences and creative work of four outsider artists working and living with disability in Central Pennsylvania. Artists with both mental and physical disabilities consistently face discrimination, inequity, and underexposure at both local and national levels. A Life Like This tells the stories of these artists who create as a means to communicate and express how art shapes and impacts their lives.

8:30 PM: A Place for Us

Screened as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival

West Side Story is the tale of two rival male gangs who constantly fight to protect their territory. Their animosity is all consuming, to the point where the gang leaders fight to the death. Leonard Bernstein’s iconic score allows us to feel the joy, complication, and pain of what it means to love and lose. Six female cast members from Steven Spielberg's West Side Story play with a gender flip of the iconic prologue.

8:30 PM: Between Earth and Sky

Screened as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival

Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studies "what grows back” after a disturbance in the rainforest canopy. After surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself to explore the effects of disturbance and recovery throughout her own life. This film was shortlisted in the 2024 Academy Awards Documentary Short Film category.

Post-screening Q&A discussion with director Andrew Nadkarni and producer Katie Schiller

Andrew Nadkarni featured as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival) is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. His directorial debut, Between Earth & Sky, was shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Awards. The film played more than 50 festival screenings, won Best Short at Big Sky and Hot Springs Documentary Film Festivals, and received nominations for two Critics Choice Awards and the Cinema Eye Honors. Andrew integrates community care and trauma-informed practices into his filmmaking process, exploring generational stories within diaspora communities. A 2023 BRIClab Artist in Residence, he also reads for grant organizations, and serves as a festival juror and programmer. He was an associate producer on Bel Canto (Peacock), production supervisor on the NY Unit of Glass Onion (Netflix), and produced the narrative feature, Actual People (MUBI).

Katie Schiller featured as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival) is a queer filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She has developed, directed, and produced projects ranging from short films and branded content to television and feature-length productions. Katie received the John Cassavetes Award at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards for her work on Shiva Baby (SXSW, TIFF 2020). Katie produced the narrative short film, Chaperone (Sundance 2022), co-produced the Netflix documentary series The Principles of Pleasure, and served as a segment producer on Lady Gaga's The Power of Kindness for Facebook Watch. Katie holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Masters of Social Work from Fordham University. Katie owns and operates It Doesn’t **** Productions.

8:30 PM: Note of Defiance

Screened as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival

Filmed in early 2023, on the Ukrainian-Russian border, Note of Defiance explores two artists' use of art as a means of cultural survival. In Kharkiv, Ukraine, attacks on civilian centers have forced cultural sites to close. The Kharkiv State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the biggest cultural sites forced to close due to these attacks. These two featured performers provide concerts and lessons anywhere they can: from parking garages to bomb shelters.

8:30 PM: Tracing Imperfection

Screened as part of Selections from the Thomas Edison Film Festival

As master conservator Naoko Fukumaru demonstrates “Kintsugi,” the Japanese art of repairing pottery using gold, she recalls how learning the practice has taught her to embrace her own imperfections as its mended her own life.

Location:
Templeton Hall
63 Pioneer Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Saturday, November 9 2024

8:30AM - 9:30AM: Bird Walk with the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society

Join Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society trip leader Becky Gretton for a bird walk. Please meet promptly at 8:30am outside the entrance to the Fenimore Art Museum. The walk will take participants through the Fenimore grounds, along the shores of Otsego Lake and will loop around back to the starting point. Bring binoculars and dress for the weather conditions. This program is free and open to the public. Birdwatchers of all levels—novice to expert—are welcome to attend!

Location:

Fenimore Art Museum
5798 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

10:00 - 11:45 AM: As The Tide Comes In

As the Tide Comes In follows a handful of the 27 remaining residents of Mandø, an eight-square-kilometer island off the southern coast of Denmark. The island is cut off from the mainland at high-tide and has a history of violent storms which have brought periods of destruction over the years. Unpredictable weather and other climate-related changes have made calling this place home an increasingly difficult task. The film's co-director, visual anthropologist Sofie Husum Johannesen, spent time with the island’s community before any filming began. This unique approach shows in the intimacy, naturalness, and generosity with which the subjects are depicted. We meet a birdwatcher concerned with dwindling species, a centenarian with self-diagnosed “full moon sickness,” and an eighth-generation farmer aspiring to participate in a reality TV dating series. Director Juan Palacios employs stunning cinematography and immersive sound design to present a breathtaking portrait of a locale that might be hard to get to but seems even harder to leave.

In Danish with English subtitles

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

10:15 AM - 12:00 PM: Speedy

By the time Harold Lloyd made Speedy in 1928, he had already appeared in nearly 200 short comic hits. But he had never used Manhattan as a location—surprising, since the city is such a rich source of iconic neighborhoods, and millions of free extras. But it proved impractical to do all the shooting in real New York places so in the end a few sundry shots are LA doubling for NYC and cast and crew shuttled back and forth cross-country by train. For those who know the history of both cities, it’s fun to spot the different details—like streetlights. Lloyd himself, of course, is at his clownish best. He’s helped by figures like Babe Ruth (a great cab ride sequence) and a cameo from Lou Gehrig. Best of all, we have a chance to welcome back musicians Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton with their wonderful live musical score.

With live musical score performed by Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin

Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin specialize in silent film music for voice, percussion and keyboard. Film Days audiences enjoyed their 2023 performance accompanying the screening of Safety Last!, another Harold Lloyd film. Their scores for dozens of classic silents often include songs of the early 20th century and their own originals. They have?appeared at Lincoln Center and MoMA, at festivals in Telluride, San Francisco, Seattle, Berlin, Moscow, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Jecheon (South Korea) and at dozens of venues across?the U.S. A native New Yorker, Joanna began her career as a child model and Ivory Soap Baby. Called a "silvery soprano" by the New York Times, she has appeared in more than 80 shows, in New York and across the country, often playing leading roles in musicals. She founded and was artistic director for the Major's Inn Elizabethan Dinner Theatre in Gilbertsville, New York.?Joanna holds a Theatre Arts degree from Cornell University.?Donald grew up in Rye, New York and Munich, and has been composing and performing for 50?years. He has had commissions?from MoMA, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Odessa International Film Festival, and, with Joanna, the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Their?film music can be heard on?more than 60 DVDs on various labels and frequently on TCM. They live?in rural Connecticut and have two children. Website:?oldmoviemusic.com  

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:30 - 2:30 PM: Gaucho Gaucho

Gaucho Gaucho
New York State Premiere

Acclaimed filmmakers Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck return with a striking follow-up to their acclaimed The Truffle Hunters (GFD ‘21). Their focus is now on the vast mountains of Argentina, expressed in stunning black-and-white photography and with a soaring soundtrack.  

Gaucho Gaucho takes us into a community of Gauchos, cowboys and cowgirls in Northern Argentina living beyond the boundaries of the modern world. The mythology of the Gaucho culture is emblematic of the wild spirit that fills much of the vast rural land throughout Argentina. Early in their research, Dweck and Kershaw heard the phrase “Gaucho Gaucho,” and they learned that it meant someone who was a Gaucho through and through - someone who lived by the traditions and upheld the code of honor that was forged through the layers of history the Gaucho identity is built upon. As older generations dispense their wisdom, the film keeps its eye toward a new generation who continue to fight for their families’ legacy in a modern world.

Gaucho Gaucho merges the authenticity and immediacy of observational verité filmmaking with a deliberate and artful filmmaking technique. The film celebrates the beauty and passion of extraordinary humans on a grand cinematic scale and shares a unique vision of what a fully realized human life can be.

In Spanish with English subtitles

Generously sponsored by the Blue Mingo Grill

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:30 - 2:00 PM: Flow

Latvia’s entry for Best International Feature Film for upcoming 97th Academy Awards, this dialogue-less animated feature is a bold and emotionally captivating story with a deceptively simple narrative. Called “the most groundbreaking animated film about nature since Bambi” (IndieWire), Flow follows a cat after his home is devastated by a great flood in a world devoid of humans. He soon finds refuge on a boat populated by various species of animals and will have to team up with them despite their differences.

Complimentary popcorn, apple cider, and hot cocoa

Generously sponsored by Springbrook

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:15 - 3:15 PM: OCCA Kids Walk: Village Hall

Nature lovers, join OCCA for an exciting urban expedition in Cooperstown after the kids' movie Flow! We'll uncover hidden wonders in unexpected places around town.

This family-friendly nature walk is perfect for all ages. Spend an hour discovering the local ecosystem and bond with your little ones.

Meet at the Village Hall steps at 2:15. Bring your curiosity and sense of adventure. Nature's ready to play hide and seek, even in the heart of Cooperstown. See you soon, fellow nature detectives!

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:45 - 4:45 PM: A Boston (R)evolution

When Kim Janey, a black woman who was bused as a child to hostile neighborhoods, is catapulted to Acting Mayor, she breaks a 200-year history of white men in the city's top seat. Boston's traditional old school politics are further challenged when the top candidates in the historic 2021 mayoral race are four non-white women.

A Boston (R)evolution amplifies an underheard community in a city stuck in a tug of war between deeply progressive policies and entrenched segregation, the best and worst schools, and a jaw-dropping wage gap. The film traces Mel King’s 1983 mayoral run and Boston’s busing crisis of the 1970s, setting the stage for candidates who never envisioned themselves in decision-making positions; elections that will be increasingly decided by Americans inspired to vote for the first time; and resistance from those uncomfortable with anything that threatens the status quo. A Boston (R)evolution is a tight and fast-paced documentary that asks if America's bedrock city can finally confront its racist past.

Post-screening Q&A discussion with filmmaker Daphne McWilliams

Daphne McWilliams is an independent filmmaker, who began her career producing music videos for such artists as Queen Latifah, Blues Traveler, and Notorious B.I.G. In 1995, at Spike Lee’s request, she produced the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning 4 Little Girls, about the murder of four Black girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963. Working on the movie changed her life and her career path: Documentary filmmaking became her passion. Daphne has since produced, among many other works, a pair of episodes for The Blues (Martin Scorsese, 2003), The Curious Case of Curt Flood (Spike Lee, 2011), Slavery by Another Name (Samuel D. Pollard, 2012), Maynard (Pollard, 2017), and Black Art: In the Absence of Light (Pollard, 2021). Her directorial debut, In a Perfect World, garnered several festival awards and premiered on Showtime in 2016.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:45 - 4:15 PM: Good One

Seventeen-year-old high school senior Sam has agreed to join her father Chris and his longtime buddy Matt on a camping trip in the Catskills. Sam at first seems to enjoy the intergenerational bonding experience with the two divorced dads, yet the men’s own festering, middle-aged resentments begin to change the emotional tone of the trip—until something happens that alters Sam’s perception of these two men and her place in their orbit. Amidst the lush beauty of the forest, Good One?asks questions about the dynamics of family, friendship, and what it means to engage in or avoid conflict.

Generously sponsored by Alison and Tim Lord

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

5:30 - 7:00 PM: We Start With the Things We Find

The familiar corrugated-steel shipping container has become an inadvertent symbol of our postmodern age. Everything from dishwashers to computers to guitars—almost any item that makes our lives more functional and tolerable—is delivered inside one of these big dark windowless spaces. So it is high time to salute LOT-EK, a visionary design studio, founded in Naples, Italy and now based in New York City, which specializes in upcycling. LOT-EK has made it their mission to repurpose old and discarded shipping containers, transforming them into innovative architecture of all kinds, from homes to schools, libraries, stores, churches, or any type of building. With millions of obsolete containers now scattered around the world, this is a green and necessary wave of the future, one that tries to fix the mistakes of the past.  

Post-screening discussion with director Thomas Piper, as well as Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla, principals of LOT-EK

Thomas Piper is an award-winning filmmaker specialized in documenting contemporary artists and designers. He has directed, photographed and/or edited more than 25 films on painters, sculptors, photographers, architects, and writers. Film Days audiences will remember his film, Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf, which was featured here in 2018. Five Seasons won the 2018 Polly Krakora Award for Artistry in Film from the DC Environmental Film Festival and was in global theatrical release through the pandemic. His film, Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments, won Best Film for Television at the 2008 International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal. His feature length documentary, Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the Highline, was broadcast on PBS affiliates around the country, and accepted for over 25 festivals around the world.  

Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla have Master’s Degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universita’ di Napoli, Italy. After graduating they completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University as Visiting Scholars. They founded LOT-EK in Naples, Italy in 1993 and opened up LOT-EK's New York studio in 1995. LOT-EK is an award-winning architectural design studio renowned in the architecture/design/art world for its sustainable, innovative approach to construction, materials, and space through the upcycling of existing industrial objects and systems. Their work has been exhibited in major museums, including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Guggenheim, and the MAXXI. Besides heading their professional practice, they also teach at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Planning.

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326,

7:15 - 8:45 PM: A Taste of Argentina

To mark Glimmerglass Film Days' first New York premiere of a film -- Gaucho Gaucho -- our popular festival dinner buffet will feature the flavors of Argentina with catering provided by Mel's at 22. Get your tickets early as this event always sells out!

Cash bar

Location:
Templeton Hall
63 Pioneer Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

7:30 - 8:45 PM: Film Days Trivia

Raise a glass to our newest venue, Cooperstown Coworks, gather your best trivia minds and test your skills as local trivia buff Jeff Katz hosts Film Days trivia. Winning team walks away with Film Days merch!

Cash bar, Selection of crudites, crackers, dips and spreads, by donation.

Location:
Cooperstown Coworks
6 Doubleday Court,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

9:00 - 10:30 PM: Secret Mall Apartment

Providence Place Mall opened in 1999 to much fanfare. The project was an attempt to reverse years of economic decline in the Rhode Island capital’s downtown and led to a wave of corporate development projects looking to cash in on so-called “underutilized spaces.” Areas that had once offered a home to the community’s lower-income residents and creative class were rapidly transformed.

Faced with a feeling of powerlessness, a group of eight young Rhode Island artists set themselves to a subversive challenge: see who could live in the new mall the longest. Between dinner parties in the food court and movie marathons at the multiplex, the crew soon came across a forgotten “nowhere space” hidden deep within the mall. The group remakes this ultimate underutilized space, filming everything along the way. They sneak in furniture, tap into the mall’s electricity, and even construct a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for its inhabitants. It was a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a clubhouse in which large-scale charitable art projects were planned, and, finally, a 750 square-foot "F you" to The Man.

Secret Mall Apartment is more than just a bonkers true story. Director Jeremy Workman brings us along for the wild, surprising, and moving adventure as he delivers a poignant exploration of a group of artists who discovered their purpose within the most commercial and improbable places.

Complimentary popcorn, cash bar

Location:
Cooperstown Coworks
6 Doubleday Court,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Sunday, November 10 2024

10:00 - 11:45 AM: Rutkoff Brunch: Robert Frank Centennial Celebration

Join Film Days artistic director Peggy Parsons and Professor Peter Rutkoff, Kenyon College, in a centennial celebration of the seminal photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank. "One of the most important and influential filmmakers of the last half century." (Manohla Dargis), Frank gained worldwide attention in the 1950s with his book The Americans before turning to film in 1959. After enjoying a hearty brunch featuring diner classics catered by Mel's at 22, we will screen both films, followed by a lively interactive discussion.

Post-screening Q&A discussion with speakers Peter Rutkoff and Peggy Parsons

Peter Rutkoff is a founding member of the Department of American Studies at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He is the author of Fly Away and other recent non-fiction works that examine African-American art and culture, as well as two novels, most recently Irish Eyes. He is a regular summer visitor to Cooperstown, which is also the setting of his book of short stories, Cooperstown Chronicles. He is a member of the Film Days Steering Committee.

Margaret (Peggy) Parsons, Film Days founder and Artistic Director, founded the film program at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, an exhibition program and archival collection. She has served as board member for major film organizations including the Robert Flaherty Seminar and Washington Environmental Film Festival and has been on the editorial boards for The Moving Image and the Getty Trust’s Program for Art on Film. She has been a judge for international film festivals including Syracuse, Nashville, Turin, and Pozna?, and her work in film preservation has earned her awards from the governments of France, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, and Georgia. Other interests include folk and self-taught art, and her articles have appeared in Raw Vision, Folk Art, Folk Art Messenger, New York Folklore, Curator, and The Moving Image.

10:00 AM: Paper Route

Screened as part of the Rutkoff Brunch: Robert Frank Centennial

Filmmaker Robert Frank joins his neighbor Robert MacMillan on a subzero, pre-dawn morning in the country to accompany him on his daily rounds delivering newspapers to the towns in the rural Nova Scotia district where Frank has for years had a second home (he spent most of his time in a New York City apartment). Chatting amiably in voiceover as his camera observes the landscape and his buddy MacMillan’s encounters with his customers, Frank conducts a rambling interview inspired by his own desire to better understand how people live their lives in this isolated part of the world.

Note: Robert Frank also spent time locally at his Cherry Valley farm.

10:00 AM: Pull My Daisy

Screened as part of the Rutkoff Brunch: Robert Frank Centennial

Robert Frank’s photograph “Trolley — New Orleans” (1955) was cited by the New York Times in June of this year as one of the 25 photos that defined the modern age. While nearly everyone acknowledges Frank’s influence as a photographer, few know about his movies. Perhaps his most influential film is Pull My Daisy, his quirky 1959 portrait of his Beat friends with a cast that included Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Larry Rivers, Alice Neel, Delphine Seyrig, David Amram, and Walter Gutman. Loosely based on Jack Kerouac’s play The Beat Generation, the film is an informal tale about a bishop and his mom who out-of-the-blue visit a railroad worker called Milo in the same place where Ginsberg and the others are also staying. Today—65 years after its making—Pull My Daisy is recognized as one of the great works of American avant-garde cinema.

Restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

Location:
Templeton Hall
63 Pioneer Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:00 - 1:45 PM: Evil Does Not Exist

Evil Does Not Exist is Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car (2021). This new film is set in the rural alpine mountain hamlet of Mizubiki, not far from Tokyo. Takumi and his daughter, Hana, lead a modest life gathering water, wood, and wild wasabi for the local udon restaurant. Increasingly, the townsfolk become aware of a plan to build an opulent glamping site nearby, offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to the snowy wilderness. When two company representatives arrive and ask for local guidance, Takumi becomes conflicted in his involvement, as it becomes clear that the project will have a pernicious impact on the community.

The film was initially conceived as a 30-minute visual short, intended to be shown as a live performance accompaniment for musician Eiko Ishibashi. Unexpected inspiration during filming led Hamaguchi to evolve the project to feature length. This organic approach can be felt in the story's gentle unfolding. Ishibashi’s score remains a motivating presence throughout, playing with and against the natural rhythms of local routines. Despite the film's pleasantly languid pace and understated sense of humor, a simmering tension builds steadily from the first frame to the last. Evil Does Not Exist is a foreboding fable on humanity's mysterious, mystical relationship with nature. As the film reaches its conclusion, both the locals and the representatives are forced to confront their life choices and the haunting consequences they have.

In Japanese with English subtitles

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:00 PM: Otsego Land Trust Guided Forest Walk

Walk grade: steep

Join the Otsego Land Trust for a walk on privately owned land that has been protected forever through conservation and learn about Black Land Ownership with Christoper Banks Carr and Melissa Hunter Gurney. This walk is in conjunction with the film Farming While Black, which the Land Trust is sponsoring.

“We want our land to be a safe space for folks who would like to experience the great outdoors without the threat of harassment, intimidation, and overt racism.”

- Chris and Melissa, Black Land Ownership

Free. Please register in advance: www.otsegolandtrust/events

12:30 - 1:45 PM: Nets

Early in his career, the Austrian-born future Oscar winner Fred Zinnemann codirected with Emilio Go?mez Muriel the politically and emotionally searing Nets (Redes). In this vivid, documentary-like dramatization of the daily grind of Mexican workers struggling to make a living by fishing on the Gulf of Mexico (the cast itself mostly consists of real-life fishermen), one worker’s terrible loss instigates a political awakening among these laborers. Commissioned by a progressive Mexican government in the mid 1930s, Redes was cowritten and beautifully shot by the legendary photographer Paul Strand. (Janus Films). Redes was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Filmoteca de la UNAM in Mexico City.

In Spanish with English subtitles

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:15 - 4:00 PM: How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer

View all films tagged "Documentary Feature"

A star in the history of American letters, Norman Mailer lived a life that was stranger than fiction. Jeff Zimbalist’s documentary does an extraordinary job of capturing the substance of this man who in many ways shaped cultural life in mid-twentieth century America with his experimental fiction and nonfiction works, and general outspokenness and bold perspectives on the activities of the times. From his modest Brooklyn beginnings to a near-mythical reputation by mid-career, this intimate portrait of the literary giant reveals a life as complex and contentious as the works that he penned. Mailer was a pioneer of “New Journalism,” pushing the boundaries of traditional reporting, rebelling against traditional styles, and weaving fact with fiction. He produced multiple bestsellers and received Pulitzers for his efforts. Known for sharp societal insights, his penchant for controversy also spilled over into his roles as a filmmaker, talk show provocateur, and political activist. His tumultuous public persona was paralleled in his personal life by six marriages and nine children. Enriched with rarely seen interviews and abundant new footage, Zimbalist’s engaging biography captures the ironies, contradictions, and lasting power of this audacious literary titan.

Generously sponsored by the Raymond Han and Paul Kellogg Foundation

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:30 - 4:15 PM: Wilfred Buck

Lisa Jackson’s portrait of Cree Elder Wilfred Buck moves between earth and sky, past and present, bringing to life ancient teachings of Indigenous astronomy and cosmology to tell a story that spans generations.?

Buck grew up on the Saskatchewan River, where generations of his family had made their living. In the 1960s, hydro-electric infrastructure was developed in the area to fuel ever-increasing energy demands. The once thriving ecosystem which had provided the livelihood of thousands of families was suddenly rendered barren. Families, including Buck’s, were pushed into the margins of communities where they were not welcomed. Family ties disintegrated and a connection to a culture was lost. This displacement ultimately sent Buck into years of turmoil and addiction. It was in pursuit of sobriety that Buck eventually found himself in the company of elders who introduced him to the ancient stories found in the stars. These stories transformed Buck, waking him up to a deep sense of purpose. Buck has dedicated himself to passing on both these stories and the traditions and ceremonies integral to the culture that sustained his ancestors.

Adapted from Buck’s rollicking memoir, I Have Lived Four Lives, the film weaves together stories from his life, seamlessly fusing present-day scenes with cinematic re-enactments and archival footage. In this intimate yet expansive documentary, Jackson (herself Ojibwe) takes us on an inspiring journey to the space beyond, and to the spaces between us all.

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

3:00 - 4:30 PM: Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Walk

Join in a guided walk, "Business, Commercial, Residential? Boundaries and Land Use in Cooperstown," led by Dr. Cindy Falk, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY Oneonta and Professor of Material Culture at the University’s Cooperstown Graduate Program.

Zoning laws have shaped cities throughout the country, and Cooperstown is no exception. Zoning creates districts dedicated to certain land uses. Learn about how those districts and district boundaries have evolved over time and how zoning factors into development today.  

Free. Meet on the steps of the Village Hall at 22 Main Street, Cooperstown.

This walk is the last in the 2024 Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Walking Tour Series.

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

5:30 - 7:30 PM: Perfect Days

Hirayama (a Cannes Award-winning performance by Koji Yakusho) feels content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, reads books and takes photos. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world in this revelatory film from auteur Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire; Paris, Texas). In this striking and contemplative ode to his idol Yasujir? Ozu, Wenders crafts a film of immense warmth, kindness, and care that will make you appreciate all of the small, wondrous things that the world has to offer.

Perfect Days “should be the most soul-crushingly bleak film ever made – a?Groundhog Day?grind with added despair and urinal cakes. But Wim Wenders’s zen meditation on beauty, fulfilment, and simplicity is quite the opposite: it’s an achingly lovely and unexpectedly life-affirming picture.” -The Guardian

Generously sponsored by S. Tier French

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

7:45 - 9:45 PM: Ricardo and Painting

Ricardo Cavallo is an artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who now lives and works in Finistère, France. Cavallo takes full advantage of his adopted region’s naturally rugged beauty and spends much of his time painting in the secluded cliffs of Pointe du Raz near his home. In the film, he engages us in his everyday life as a teacher of art and the history of French painting, working on his own canvases plein air, preparing simple meals with local produce, and passing on his knowledge of art to the young people of his village. Though self-effacing about discussing his own life, he clearly adores having the camera focused on his picturesque region and likes having the company of his old friend, the film’s Iranian-born Swiss-French director Barbet Schroeder.

In French with English subtitles

Cheese and Charcuterie Selection, Cash Bar

Location:
Templeton Hall
63 Pioneer Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Monday, November 11 2024

10:00 - 11:30 AM: A New Kind of Wilderness

On a small farm in the Norwegian forest, the Payne family seeks a wild and free existence. They practice home-schooling, live off the land and strive for a closely-knit family dynamic in harmony with nature. However, when tragedy unexpectedly strikes the family, it upends their idyllic world and forces them to forge a new path into modern society. Intimate and deeply personal, this is a story that delves into life choices, one’s responsibility to the planet, family, and how to navigate life after a significant loss. The film won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year.

In Norwegian with English subtitles

Generously sponsored by the Otsego County Conservation Association

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Lunch Between Films: Alex's Soups (advance purchase required)

Enjoy a warming bowl of Alex Webster's delicious soup, Heidelberg Bakery roll, and a Middlefield Orchard apple for dessert between screenings. Choose between Jalapeno Sherry Cream Chicken Corn Chowder and Honey Roasted Acorn Squash Coconut Curry Bisque. Purchase by November 4.

Please note: This lunch is not included with the Patron or Glimmerglass Pass. Please purchase lunch separately. Thank you.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:00 - 1:15 PM: The Day Iceland Stood Still

On an October morning in 1975, women in Iceland walked off their jobs and out of their homes. Fed up with the inequity between wages for women’s labor and men's, these female employees, wives, and mothers stopped everything—their office jobs, their cooking, cleaning, childcare, really the works. And subsequently, the entire country came to a screeching halt. But a revolution had begun! Intriguing archival sequences alternate with new interviews, animation, and first-hand accounts in The Day Iceland Stood Still. A half-century later, movie director Pamela Hogan and producer Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir reconstructed the dramatic 12 hours that reimagined what was possible for Iceland—and, in fact, for the entire world. Relive the tense moments as these champions of equality (and reality) share what it was like to throw overboard a long-standing machine.

“The overriding mood of the film is joy.”-The Globe and Mail

In Icelandic and English with English subtitles

Generously sponsored by the Emery C. Jr./Nancy F. Herman Fund

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

1:30 - 3:00 PM: Farming While Black

In 1910, Black farmers owned 14 percent of all American farmland. Racism, discrimination, and dispossession over the subsequent decades brought that number below two percent. Farming While Black examines the historical plight of Black farmers in the United States and the rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.

The film chronicles Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. It was on this land just outside of Albany where Penniman developed and ultimately shared her mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim her ancestral connection to land. Influenced and inspired by Karen Washington, a pioneer in urban community gardens in New York City, and fellow farmer and organizer Blain Snipstal, Leah galvanizes around farming as the basis of revolutionary justice. These inspiring journeys of discovery and activism, shared with a disarming spirit of generosity and openness, move us to re-examine common assumptions around the agricultural systems we have inherited and their societal implications.

Generously sponsored by the Otsego Land Trust

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

3:15 - 5:15 PM: Shorts+Cake

The ever popular Shorts+Cake features short films set in Canajoharie, Cohoes, and Rochester as well as farther afield, accompanied by complimentary coffee, tea, and cake!

3:15 PM: 13 Driver's Licenses
Documentary Short

Screened as part of the Shorts+Cake Program

The discovery of 13 confiscated driver’s licenses from 1938 leads a small German town to face its unfortunate past. With no other clue but those small cards, a group of high-school students and their teacher research the fates of 13 Jewish license holders. One year later, an unexpected turn takes place. The modern-day young Germans and some of the Jewish descendants from overseas gather in the town, and a fortuitous friendship begins. “This high school project from a small Bavarian community is now used by educators as a teaching tool worldwide”—Lisa Salko.

Post-Screening Q&A with filmmakers Elisabeth Gareis and Ryoya Terao

Elisabeth Gareis teaches courses in intercultural communication at Baruch College, CUNY. Her research focus is on intercultural friendship and its role in prejudice reduction. Elisabeth’s work on the friendship between international and domestic students has been widely covered in the media. In recognition of her contributions at her home college, she received the Presidential Excellence Awards for Distinguished Service in 2018 and for Distinguished Teaching in 2021. She has authored the book Intercultural Friendship: A Qualitative Study, the textbook series A Novel Approach, and numerous journal articles.

Ryoya Terao has co-produced and/or directed documentaries focusing on human-interest subjects. For NHK and PBS, stories include Sled-Dog Dreams about a sled-dog team from an animal shelter in Durango, Colorado; Go Achilles! on disabled athletes from around the globe; Gun Runners on gun-violence through the eyes of former gang members in New York; and Klavierhaus on immigrant brothers who import and restore antique pianos. With respect to environmental concerns, he worked on a documentary about asbestos litigations and in the process, discovered a groundbreaking historic document that led to compensations for asbestos-related diseases in Japan. He also directed Bamboo Bicycle, a story on an innovative bike studio in Brooklyn operated by three young men, hand crafting bamboo bikes for eco-friendly New Yorkers and people in the developing world.

3:15 PM: Anomaly

Screened as part of Shorts+Cake

A renowned magician features a very strange illusion in his final run of performances. Meanwhile, a government agent who witnesses his baffling act becomes hell-bent on uncovering its method. Filmed at Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, NY, by Otsego County natives Ryan Jenkins and Spencer Sherry.

3:15 PM: Scars Along the Mohawk

Screened as part of Shorts+Cake

The town of Canajoharie, New York was the home of the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Nation. The identity of the town was built on folklore. (Canajoharie is mentioned in Drums Along the Mohawk). The remnants of the tribe are almost gone. At the start of the 20th Century, Beech-Nut built a plant in Canajoharie, and soon the town was known for the factory that made baby food and gum. The factory closed in 2011 after 118 years. The town has lost its identity once again and many scars remain.

3:15 PM: The Other Side of the Mountain

Screened as part of Shorts+Cake

After his father died in 2007 his mother moved, Phil Hopper inherited seven metal boxes full of Kodak color slides shot between 1955 and 1969. The arrangement of the slides in these boxes was meant to be chronological and well-organized, including a corresponding list that his mother took great pains to write. The list is faulty though and the images shifted. Perhaps someone was careless when putting them away after a family slideshow or perhaps they exist like memory in a fluid changeable order.

3:15 PM: Under the Hat: The Complicated History of the Pith Helmet
Documentary Short

Screened as part of Shorts+Cake

Filmmaker Olympia Stone explores the untold story of the sun helmet-an accessory which, over the last 200 years, has become a weighted symbol of power in the modern world.

Post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Olympia Stone

Olympia Stone is an independent documentary filmmaker with a focus on art, artists and collectors. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, her production company, Floating Stone Productions, creates films that explore the personal stories and creative processes of a wide range of artists and collectors, providing viewers with a deeper understanding of their work and inspirations. Her films have been recognized at numerous festivals, winning awards and receiving critical acclaim. Several of her works have premiered at prestigious events and gone on to be broadcast on PBS. Olympia’s first project, which centered on her own family’s connection to the art world through her father, a New York gallerist, set the tone for her ongoing exploration of the impact of art on both creators and collectors.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

5:45 - 7:20 PM: Checkpoint Zoo
Documentary Feature

In the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, next to the boundary with Russia, lies Feldman Ecopark, once home to many species of animals including lions, bears, tigers, and kangaroos. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2020, the zoo was trapped between the advancing Russian Army and the defending Ukrainian Army. Enter filmmaker Joshua Zeman who, perceiving the problem, began filming in the early days using his cellphone. The relentless shelling meant the animals needed to be evaluated. Checkpoint Zoo recounts the efforts of the brave team of zookeepers and volunteers as they work to save more than 1000 animals despite unimaginable adversity.

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326

7:30 - 9:15 PM: That's a Wrap! Party

Raise a glass to the wrap of another year of Glimmerglass Film Days, reflect on your favorite films of the festival with other filmgoers, and, in a nod to our closing film, enjoy delicious Ukrainian-inspired fare from Brian Wrubleski of Mel’s at 22.

Ticket includes buffet and one complimentary beverage. Cash bar.

Wines donated by Rudy’s Wine & Liquor.

Location:
The Smithy
55 Pioneer Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Buy Tickets

Date: November 7-11, 2024

Location: Various Venues in Cooperstown, NY

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