Glimmerglass Film Days set for Nov. 7-11
Film festival will offer 28 screenings exploring the theme “Boundaries”
Program includes the New York State Premiere of Gaucho Gaucho, filmmaker talks, shorts programs, and two free films
Glimmerglass Film Days, now in its 12th season, will present a slate of independent films—25 features plus three shorts programs— November 7-11 in multiple Cooperstown locations, including the Grandstand Theater at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and The Farmers’ Museum.
A program of Otsego 2000, Film Days also will offer filmmaker talks, an art exhibit, parties, film and food pairings, and guided walks. “Film Days has an environmental focus, but one we interpret broadly, so you will see films about architecture and art; history and war; farming and sustainability; family and parenting; conflict and intrigue. This year’s films ask big questions and tell great stories.” said Ellen Pope, executive director of Otsego 2000.
The Film Days program team of Peggy Parsons, founder of the film program at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Xander Moffat, an independent film producer; and Joey Katz, a film programmer; selected this year’s films based on the theme “Boundaries.”
“We hope the audience will relish the challenges and the delights contained in this year’s stories of boundaries and borders,” said Peggy Parsons.
"Boundaries are an inherent part of our everyday lives, whether we like it or not,” said Joey Katz. “How do we overcome the walls that we place on ourselves, our neighbors, and the natural world? Which boundaries are necessary and which ones need to be torn down in order to connect with the humanity that binds us all?" He added that the goal is to start impactful conversations.
“This might be our most geographically diverse line-up yet. True to this year's theme, we've ended up with a slate of films which truly span the globe. In addition to featuring some great US films of the past year, we'll have films from Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Iceland, Ukraine, Argentina, the UK, France, Germany, and, of course, our closest neighbors: Canada and Mexico,” said Xander Moffat.
Filmmakers and Special Guests
Filmmakers attending Glimmerglass Film Days include: Michael Gitlin (The Night Visitors), Jef Sewell (All Illusions Must Be Broken), Thomas Piper (We Start With The Things We Find), Daphne McWilliams (A Boston (R)Evolution), Andrew Nadkarni and Katie Schiller (Between Earth and Sky), Ryoya Teraro and Elisabeth Gareis (13 Driver’s Licenses), and Olympia Stone (Under the Hat: The Complicated History of the Pith Helmet). In addition, Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla, principals of LOT-EK who are featured in We Start With The Things We Find, Thomas Edison Film Festival executive director Jane Steuerwald, and scholar Mikayla Brown (Dahomey) will attend. Musicians Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton will attend and provide live musical accompaniment to the 1928 silent film Speedy. “The filmmakers and guest speakers really enrich the Film Days experience,” says Pope.
Glimmerglass Film Days begins on Thursday, November 7 at 5:30 pm at the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the Opening Film, The Night Visitors (Michael Gitlin, 2024, USA, 81 minutes) with Director Michael Gitlin in attendance. The Hall’s Grandstand Theater will also be the venue for All Illusions Must Be Broken (Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell, 2024, USA, 89 minutes) with director Jef Sewell in attendance on November 8; We Start With The Things That We Find (Thomas Piper, 2023, USA, 82 minutes) with director Thomas Piper, and Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla, film subjects and principals of LOT-EK, in attendance on November 9; Perfect Days (Wim Wenders, 2023, Japan, 124 minutes) on November 10; and the Closing Film, Checkpoint Zoo (Joshua Zeman, 2024, Ukraine, USA, 103 minutes) on November 11.
New York State Premiere: Gaucho Gaucho
“I'm really excited that we’ll have the New York State premiere of Gaucho Gaucho at this year's festival. This is a first for us,” said Xander Moffat. “Premieres are a big deal for festivals, but it's hard when you're in the same state as one of the centers of the industry. We surely could have claimed a number of ‘Central New York’ premieres over the years, but it's nice to drop the qualifier.” Gaucho Gaucho is about a community of Argentine cowboys and cowgirls, known as Gauchos, who live beyond the boundaries of the modern world. Moffat noted that the feature documentary was directed by the same filmmakers—Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw—behind The Truffle Hunters, which was shortlisted for Best Documentary for the 2021 Academy Awards and was a crowd pleaser at Film Days in 2021.
“Kershaw was born and raised in Utica and has family ties to Cooperstown. Although the filmmakers were unable to join in-person for the screening, we're honored to be introducing Gaucho Gaucho to the region,” said Moffat. The film will be shown on Saturday, November 9 at 12:30 pm at The Farmers’ Museum. To mark the festival’s first New York State Premiere, there will be A Taste of Argentina dinner buffet at 7:30 pm at Templeton Hall on November 9.
Art Exhibit and Events
The 2024 Film Days companion art exhibition, In Play: Borders & Edges, presents the work of four established artists who live in the region and exhibit locally, nationally and/or internationally: Richard Barlow, Amy Cannon, Mark Mastroianni, and Gail Peachin. “The show, which features four inventive and highly original artists, 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,” said Sydney L. Waller, who curated the exhibit. She is a gallerist and a founding member of the Film Days Steering Committee. In Play will be on view at The Smithy, 55 Pioneer Street in Cooperstown with an Artists’ Talk on Sunday, November 3 at 4-6 pm, and will be open 12 pm to 4 pm November 7-11 and other times by appointment. The Film Days Opening and Closing Parties both will be held at the Smithy to give people more opportunities to enjoy the exhibit.
Free guided walks will be held during the festival, including a bird walk led by the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, a kid-friendly walk with the Otsego County Conservation Association (held after the free kids’ film Flow), a guided forest walk with the Otsego Land Trust and Black Land Ownership, and a walk on boundaries and land use in Cooperstown with Otsego 2000. Film Days Trivia will be held on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 pm at Cooperstown Coworks, just prior to the screening of Secret Mall Apartment.
Venues
Films will be shown at multiple Cooperstown locations: the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum (25 Main Street), The Farmers’ Museum Louis C. Jones Center (5775 State Hwy 80), the Village Hall (22 Main Street), Templeton Hall (63 Pioneer Street), and new for this year, Cooperstown Coworks (6 Doubleday Court). The full schedule, including film trailers, is available at glimmerglassfilmdays.org.
Tickets, Passes and Free Films
Most film tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. A Take Five Pass includes five film tickets for $35, a 30% savings off the door price. Tickets to events with food range from $12-$50, when purchased in advance. Cash bar available at evening events. Passes and tickets can be purchased online at glimmerglassfilmdays.org or in person at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, 101 Main Street in Pioneer Alley, Cooperstown on October 26 and November 2 from 9 am – 2pm.
The film festival is offering two free films: Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon (Anna Sofaer, 2024, USA, 57 minutes) on November 8 and the animated ecofable Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024, Latvia, 84 minutes) on Saturday, November 9. Reserve a free ticket online at glimmerglassfilmdays.org.
Glimmerglass Film Days is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Film Days also is funded by the Scriven Foundation and the Otsego County Community Events Grant Program. Benefactor Level sponsors are Doreen DeNicola/DeNicola Design LLC, Five Star Subaru, Springbrook, and Anonymous. Director Level sponsors include Ashley-Connor Realty; blackstanleystudios; the Blue Mingo Grill; Eva Davy; S. Tier French; the Raymond Han and Paul Kellogg Foundation; Patricia and Robert Hanft; the Emery C. Jr./Nancy F. Herman Fund; Allison and Keyes Hill-Edgar; Alison and Tim Lord; Robert Nelson and Van Broughton Ramsey; and Peter Regan and Aviva Schneider. Additional sponsors can be found at glimmerglassfilmdays.org
About Otsego 2000
Otsego 2000 is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1981 to ensure the Otsego Lake region remains a masterpiece of nature by protecting and supporting its environmental, scenic, cultural, historic, and agricultural resources as well as its economic well-being. Otsego 2000 accomplishes its mission through programs like Glimmerglass Film Days, the year-round Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Otsego Outdoors, historic preservation initiatives, and environmental stewardship.