The Woodstock Film Festival (2008)

I love the Woodstock Film Festival the way a drunkard loves his Christian Brothers brandy.  I go every year -- this was the ninth fest -- and each year everything improves.  Also, the festival gets more political.  This time, before each film, a video of the Women In Black protesting at the Woodstock Town Green was screened.  The camera zoomed in on the sign

WAR IS

NOT THE

ANSWER

then a narrator intoned: "This message was approved by the Woodstock Film Festival."

You don't see the friggin' Tribeca Film Festival opposing all military adventurism!

This year's gathering was dominated by Donovan, the ultimate Flower Child troubadour of the 1960s, featured in the documentary "Sunshine Superman: The Journey of Donovan."  He gave a concert at The Colony Café Saturday night, on solo guitar, that strewed love-blossoms in nine directions.  I never thought I'd be standing on a balcony in Woodstock howling:

Way down below the ocean,

Where I want to be,

She may be...

[the chorus of "Atlantis"] with hundreds of other grinning Donovanophiles!

I didn't see "Sunshine Superman," but then I saw few movies.  And I never discovered which was the "buzz film" of the festival.  (Last year, it was definitely "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.")  Although I did meet Darren Dean, producer of "The Prince of Broadway," who told me: "Our film opened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award, then we went to Locarno and won a Special Jury Mention," -- and sure enough, "Prince" was awarded the Lee Marvin Best Feature Narrative Award at Woodstock!  ("Prince of Broadway" is a feature film about two men selling knock-off designer handbags and sneakers on the streets of Manhattan; one is from Ghana, one is Armenian-Lebanese.)

And I noticed all my hipster friends were congregating at "Guest of Cindy Sherman" (a documentary about Paul H-O interviewing artist Cindy Sherman until they fall in love) -- including sought-after painter Laura Levine and renowned Beatles biographer Jon Gould.  "It was the most fantastic film I've seen in the festival!" enthused Jule Rousseau -- on his way into the film.  Any ordinary blogger can give you the reactions of filmgoers AFTER a movie, but only "Quarter To Three" offers reviews of films before they are viewed.