News stories tagged with "film"

(03/22/12) In 1919, two intrepid cameramen left New York City to trek across the Canadian North. Traveling by foot, canoe, dog sled and icebreaker they filmed scenes from Hudson's Bay Company communities for that sponsor's upcoming 250th anniversary.

The finished two-hour movie was seen in Canada the following year. But once "talkies" took hold, interest in silent film faded. The original footage ended up tucked away in England, largely forgotten.

A collaborative project has been working to recover the film's source material for Canadians and the world. Some of the best segments will be shown April 3rd in a screening booked at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

To learn more, Lucy Martin reached filmmaker and event organizer Kevin Nikkel in Winnipeg. more

(10/24/11) A locally-produced film gets its premiere tonight in Potsdam as part of the weekly "Cinema 10" series at the Roxy Theater (7:15 pm). Dissection of an Olive was written, filmed and produced in the Potsdam area and includes a cast and crew composed of local residents and students, faculty and staff at the four local colleges.

Todd Moe talks with writer/director Summer Dorr, who says Dissection of an Olive is a quirky film about a young screenwriter and the protagonist in her story. In the film, characters struggle with issues like intimacy, stability and grieving. Dorr says the film is only remotely autobiographical.

(09/30/11) Scenes for the upcoming feature film "The Place Beyond the Pines" were shot in a farm field near Saranac Lake on Monday. Local residents say a large film crew was working all day near Norman Ridge Road in Vermontville filming several scenes for the movie.

The "Place Beyond the Pines" stars Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes and was mostly filmed this summer in the Schenectady area. As Chris Knight reports, this wasn't the only film shoot in the Saranac Lake area this week. more

(07/26/11) Our occasional series, "Moving the World" continues with a conversation with two St. Lawrence county men who are producing a documentary about water relief in Uganda.

Ben Hull and Joshua McGrath leave for Africa this week to begin filming the documentary that will focus on efforts to install rainwater collection tanks on community buildings to provide safe, accessible drinking water. Todd Moe spoke with them earlier this summer as they prepared for the trip.

(03/03/11) The North Country has the largest industrial wind farm East of the Mississippi, on the Tug Hill Plateau. There are also several in various stages of planning from Cape Vincent to Plattsburgh.

Many have been held up for years by battles over the pros- and cons- of wind power.

A new documentary sets out to warn about the potential negatives - aggressive power corporations, conflicts of interest for lawmakers, the noise, height, and setbacks of the turbines, and more.

Windfall tells the story of the little town of Meredith, near Oneonta, and how wind power divided the place. It's shown at the Toronto Film Festival and several other major festivals around the country.

Director Laura Israel brings Windfall to the Clayton Opera House this Saturday. She told David Sommerstein she bumped into the issue when she moved into a cabin in Meredith.

(03/03/11) She won the first "Best Actress" Emmy Award, garnered a Tony Award and was a broadcasting pioneer. Gertrude Berg is credited with inventing the first television sitcom in 1949. She was principal writer and star of "The Goldbergs", a popular radio and TV show in the 1940's and 50's. Todd Moe talks with filmmaker Aviva Kempner, whose work investigates non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and celebrates the under known stories of Jewish heroes. Kempner says Berg was the Oprah of her day, but many of her contributions to show business have been forgotten. Aviva Kempner will host a screening of the documentary film "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg," at St. Lawrence University tonight at 7 p.m. in Room 218 of Hepburn Hall. Free admission.

(11/23/10) Remember the classic 1980s horror flick, Nightmare on Elm Street, with Freddy Kreuger, the guy with razor claws haunting teenagers' dreams?

Legend has it that the film and its title was inspired a student film director Wes Craven made at a former fraternity house on Elm Street in Potsdam. Craven taught at Clarkson University in Potsdam for several years in the 1960s.

On his website, Craven denies the connection. Still, it remains part of local lore. It's even mentioned on the village's website. A Facebook-based movement to preserve the building won almost 8,000 fans.

But the so-called "Nightmare on Elm Street House" was in disrepair and had been condemned. Today it's being torn down. Local historian John Michaud led the effort to preserve the building. He met David Sommerstein outside the Nightmare on Elm Street House. more

(10/18/10) Americans have witnessed two wars in the Middle East over nine years and counting. Much of what we know about the combat in Iraq and Afghanistan comes from journalists embedded with U.S. troops.

A new documentary called Full Disclosure takes a self-reflective look at the embedding process and what it means for coverage of the wars. Director Brian Palmer will show the film tonight in Potsdam and take questions afterwards.

Palmer is a journalist who's reported for CNN, the Village Voice, and New York Times Magazine, among others over 20 years. He embedded with marines in Iraq three times. He spoke with David Sommerstein about the film. One scene shows marines hunkered down in a bunker during a deadly mortar attack.

Full Disclosure is showing tonight at 7:15 at the Roxy Theater in Potsdam as a part of the Cinema 10 film series. Palmer will be there for the showing and will take questions afterwards. more

(08/06/10) The Adirondack Film Society invites you to "follow the Yellow Brick Road" to the Palace Theatre in Lake Placid this Saturday for a special screening of The Wizard of Oz. And after the film, you'll meet a panel of experts on the 1939 musical fantasy film. It's an opportunity to ask any question about this enduring classic.

Todd Moe spoke with one of Saturday's panelists: film historian and Oz expert, John Fricke. He's written three books about the film, and is past president of its international fan club. Fricke says The Wizard of Oz has become, over the years, one of the best known of all films. He remembers watching it for the first time on network television in 1956.

(07/01/10) Last December, Jose Obeth Santiz Cruz of Mexico was killed when his shirt got caught in a machine on a Vermont dairy farm. The incident renewed concerns over Hispanic farmworkers in the dairy industry who are in this country illegally. An estimated 1500 work on dairy farms in Vermont. Hundreds more work in northern New York. A farmworkers' rights group helped return Santiz Cruz' remains to his family in Chiapas, Mexico. The Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project made a documentary about their journey. It's called "Silenced Voices" and debuts tonight at 7 at the Black Box Theater in Burlington. Brendan O'Neill teaches English to Hispanic farmworkers in Vermont. He co-directed the documentary and spoke with David Sommerstein.