Career Day

Workshops

WFF in the Classroom

Screenings

Since its inception as an educational not-for-profit organization, the Woodstock Film Festival has been committed to youth and education as a means to positive development, conflict resolution and growth opportunity.

In addition to providing classes and internships for local schools, the Woodstock Film Festival has presented special workshops and seminars designed to stimulate and to provide resources not readily available in the local area. Additionally, local film production opportunities, made available through the Hudson Valley Film Commission have provided career opportunities.

WFF continues to produce, present and promote workshops for young, and old.. Most recently, the WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL presented a Summer Film Intensive Program for a dozen at-risk teens. They were given the opportunity to learn skills in the creative art of filmmaking and visual storytelling.

Guest teacher Zachary Sklar, an Academy Award nominated screenwriter (JFK), said, "Working with the young people at the Summer Filmmaking Workshop was exciting. To help first-time filmmakers learn the craft and find their voice is challenging, stimulating, and very satisfying."

Other guest teachers included Giancarlo Esposito, best known for his role as Buggin Out in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. He wowed the students on Tuesday with his lecture on acting and directing and was kind enough to pose for pictures with participating students. Tuesday morning, video engineer and WFF technical director Jeff Kantor gave the students a crash course on lighting and camera work.

Past workshops also include the two-day NYFA workshop on filmmaking and acting for students in grades 9-12. Students were admintted free of charge based on written essays.

One student with the best essay was awarded a week-long scholarship to the New York Film Academy (at either their NYC school or the Los Angeles school on the Universal Studios lot).

GUEST VISITS & LECTURES
As part of a college tour with Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton, WFF presented a special session for Onteorra High School students. Plymtpon presented a selection of some of his favorite work and followed each screeening with a Q&A. Students were enraptured.

FILM THEORY & CRITICISM: This weekly elective provided a forum in which students learn to learn and distinguish production and theoretical techniques.

VIDEO PRODUCTION INTENSIVE: Kindergarten students  were provided an opportunity to create and appear in a series of short films. The process taught pre-production through post-production.

CHILDREN'S MEDIA PROJECT presented The Animation Workshop, which featured a hands-on demonstration of various mixed media animation techniques and facilitated the making of a short animated film. In the Mini Movies Hands-on workshop, CMP provided cameras, editing facilities and media artist/teachers to help teenagers shoot, edit and add sound to create a short movie.

UNDER ONE ROOF - Emmy Award winning Hollywood producer/director Bruce Malmuth presented this intensive workshop, which has toured the world from St. Petersburg, Russia to Beverly Hills to local youth. Over the course of six hours, Malmuth taught the basics of writing, acting and directing.

Our commitment to presenting and promoting films and the students who made them continue full-fledged. Each year, WFF promotes and presents films by college and high school students fom around the world. Past initiatives have included:

YOUTH SCREENINGS have featured films by local youth and organizations including Indie Programs, Children’s Media Project, DCTV, Reel Teens, the Oxford Media School and many others. Topics have ranged from a short documentary that examined the media coverage on Bin Ladin to an animated short about a robot running low on his batteries.

Other youth oriented screenings have included The Children’s Hour - Movies, Magic, and a Dummy, and Family Hour.

For the Children’s Hour, which was co-presented by Nickelodeon, special host Steve Charney combined his magic, comedy and ventriloquism with a selection of short movies for children. Films included Low Down Underground, Patrick Swayze: Cartoon Sound Wizard, Shivelry, Sitting Next to Bernie, Swaroop in Bovine Bliss, Waldemar, and the award winning The Box.