FILMCOLUMBIA 21, OCTOBER 22-31, SHOWCASES NINE OF
THE BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF THE YEAR, INCLUDING THE WINNERS OF
THE GRAND PRIZE AT SUNDANCE AND THE AUDIENCE AWARD AT SXSW
ALSO ON TAP ARE FOUR POST-SCREENING AUDIENCE Q&A’S
WITH THE FILMMAKERS
TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR CRANDELL THEATRE MEMBERS AND
THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC
HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS WILL BE ENFORCED FOR
ALL ATTENDEES AND FESTIVAL STAFF
(Chatham, NY – October 12, 2021)—This year’s FilmColumbia 21, October 22-31, in Chatham, NY, will offer nine of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year, including Flee, the Sundance Grand Prize Winner for Documentary, and Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, which claimed the Documentary Audience Award at SXSW. The festival is presented by The Crandell Theatre, and the complete FilmColumbia 2021 lineup is available at https://crandelltheatre.org/filmcolumbia/. For a complete list of the health and safety protocols for the festival, go to https://crandelltheatre.org/filmcolumbia-2021-health-protocol/.
“Of special interest this year is the fabulous collection of non-fiction films, which range from the traditional to the very unconventional, that demonstrate vividly, dramatically and memorably the strength and variety of documentary films,” said Laurence Kardish, Co-Artistic Director of FilmColumbia 21 and senior curator emeritus for film and media at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “These works, whether recreations, archival, animated or even ‘acted,’ not only inform and entertain, but deliver unsuspected punches. They are as different, one from the other, as comedies are from mysteries, love stories from war stories, and thrillers from musicals. I guarantee most will re-appear as soon as major award nominations are announced.”
FilmColumbia 21, Columbia County’s premier annual cultural event, will take patrons on an extraordinarily compelling and varied trip to far-reaching places around the world through non-fiction film:
The Rescue, which chronicles the 2018 heroic rescue of a boys’ soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand; a Q&A with Columbia County resident Bob Eisenhardt, who also edited Free Solo, the Oscar® winner for Best Documentary in 2018, will follow. (October 23, 5 p.m.)
Cow, a unique look at a British dairy farm through the eyes of a bovine named Lumia that is more provocative than pastoral. (October 24, 3:30 p.m.)
A Cop Movie, about the life of police in Mexico City that is as much a love story as it is a tale of lives in danger that electrified the audience at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. (October 26, 12 Noon)
Bernstein’s Wall, a lively and quite personal autobiography of Bernstein as a major composer, conductor, humanist and American protester that relies on his own words to tell his remarkable story. (October 26, 5:30 p.m.)
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, a stark history of racism in America that runs from a hanging tree in Charleston to a 1947 lynching in Alabama to the modern myth of a “post-racial” America, and the SXSW winner. (October 26, 2:45 p.m.)
Julia, about iconic cook, writer and social activist Julia Child from the Oscar-nominated directors of RBG; a Q&A with celebrated food critic and Columbia County resident Ruth Reichl will follow. (October 27, 8 p.m.)
Flee, the story of an Afghan refugee about to marry his boyfriend but who still harbors a secret that forces him to remain anonymous, and the Sundance Grand Prize winner. (October 29, 5:30 p.m.)
The Land of Azaba, a chronicle of the beautiful cycles of nature and the first experiments in ecological reforestation in an area of central Spain from Columbia County filmmakers Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, who will participate in a Q&A following the screening. (October 31, 12 Noon)
The Village Detective: A Song Cycle, the unlikely transformation of four 35mm reels of a popular 1969 Soviet film─discovered underwater by an Icelandic fishing trawler─into a study of motion picture decomposition set to a score by Pulitzer-prize winning composer David Lang; a Q&A with filmmaker Bill Morrison will follow. (October 31, 8 p.m.)
This year, with reduced capacity at the Crandell due to COVID-19 protocols, Film Columbia 21 will sell only individual tickets and no festival passes. For details of ticket sales procedures and to purchase them, please go to http://www.filmcolumbia.org/.
The festival is programmed by Peter Biskind and Kardish. Biskind is an author, film historian, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Esquire, and past executive editor of Premiere magazine. His latest book is The Sky is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism. Kardish is senior curator emeritus for film and media at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Calliope Nicholas is the long-time managing director of the festival.
The Crandell Theatre is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote and develop the appreciation of film to enrich the social, cultural and educational experience of the community, and to renovate and revitalize the Crandell Theatre as a cornerstone of culture in Chatham, NY. The theater, founded on the theme “small town, big movies,” is Columbia County’s oldest and largest movie theatre with 534 seats and was built in 1926 by Walter S. Crandell as a vaudeville house. It features mainstream and independent films and hosts the FilmColumbia festival each year in October. We encourage you to become a member today.