Glimmerglass Film Days Festival

Join us for the 12th annual Glimmerglass Film Days, November 7-11, 2024 in Cooperstown. We will have our signature combination of compelling independent films, filmmaker talks, art, books, parties, guided walks, and collaborations with local museums, nonprofits, restaurants, and businesses.

Schedule:

8:30AM - 9:30AM: Bird Walk with the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society

Join Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society trip leader Becky Gretton for a bird walk. Please meet promptly at 8:30am outside the entrance to the Fenimore Art Museum. The walk will take participants through the Fenimore grounds, along the shores of Otsego Lake and will loop around back to the starting point. Bring binoculars and dress for the weather conditions. This program is free and open to the public. Birdwatchers of all levels—novice to expert—are welcome to attend!

Location:

Fenimore Art Museum
5798 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

10:00 - 11:45 AM: As The Tide Comes In

As the Tide Comes In follows a handful of the 27 remaining residents of Mandø, an eight-square-kilometer island off the southern coast of Denmark. The island is cut off from the mainland at high-tide and has a history of violent storms which have brought periods of destruction over the years. Unpredictable weather and other climate-related changes have made calling this place home an increasingly difficult task. The film's co-director, visual anthropologist Sofie Husum Johannesen, spent time with the island’s community before any filming began. This unique approach shows in the intimacy, naturalness, and generosity with which the subjects are depicted. We meet a birdwatcher concerned with dwindling species, a centenarian with self-diagnosed “full moon sickness,” and an eighth-generation farmer aspiring to participate in a reality TV dating series. Director Juan Palacios employs stunning cinematography and immersive sound design to present a breathtaking portrait of a locale that might be hard to get to but seems even harder to leave.

In Danish with English subtitles

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

10:15 AM - 12:00 PM: Speedy

By the time Harold Lloyd made Speedy in 1928, he had already appeared in nearly 200 short comic hits. But he had never used Manhattan as a location—surprising, since the city is such a rich source of iconic neighborhoods, and millions of free extras. But it proved impractical to do all the shooting in real New York places so in the end a few sundry shots are LA doubling for NYC and cast and crew shuttled back and forth cross-country by train. For those who know the history of both cities, it’s fun to spot the different details—like streetlights. Lloyd himself, of course, is at his clownish best. He’s helped by figures like Babe Ruth (a great cab ride sequence) and a cameo from Lou Gehrig. Best of all, we have a chance to welcome back musicians Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton with their wonderful live musical score.

With live musical score performed by Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin

Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin specialize in silent film music for voice, percussion and keyboard. Film Days audiences enjoyed their 2023 performance accompanying the screening of Safety Last!, another Harold Lloyd film. Their scores for dozens of classic silents often include songs of the early 20th century and their own originals. They have appeared at Lincoln Center and MoMA, at festivals in Telluride, San Francisco, Seattle, Berlin, Moscow, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Jecheon (South Korea) and at dozens of venues across the U.S. A native New Yorker, Joanna began her career as a child model and Ivory Soap Baby. Called a "silvery soprano" by the New York Times, she has appeared in more than 80 shows, in New York and across the country, often playing leading roles in musicals. She founded and was artistic director for the Major's Inn Elizabethan Dinner Theatre in Gilbertsville, New York. Joanna holds a Theatre Arts degree from Cornell University. Donald grew up in Rye, New York and Munich, and has been composing and performing for 50 years. He has had commissions from MoMA, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Odessa International Film Festival, and, with Joanna, the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Their film music can be heard on more than 60 DVDs on various labels and frequently on TCM. They live in rural Connecticut and have two children. Website: oldmoviemusic.com  

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:30 - 2:30 PM: Gaucho Gaucho

Gaucho Gaucho
New York State Premiere

Acclaimed filmmakers Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck return with a striking follow-up to their acclaimed The Truffle Hunters (GFD ‘21). Their focus is now on the vast mountains of Argentina, expressed in stunning black-and-white photography and with a soaring soundtrack.  

Gaucho Gaucho takes us into a community of Gauchos, cowboys and cowgirls in Northern Argentina living beyond the boundaries of the modern world. The mythology of the Gaucho culture is emblematic of the wild spirit that fills much of the vast rural land throughout Argentina. Early in their research, Dweck and Kershaw heard the phrase “Gaucho Gaucho,” and they learned that it meant someone who was a Gaucho through and through - someone who lived by the traditions and upheld the code of honor that was forged through the layers of history the Gaucho identity is built upon. As older generations dispense their wisdom, the film keeps its eye toward a new generation who continue to fight for their families’ legacy in a modern world.

Gaucho Gaucho merges the authenticity and immediacy of observational verité filmmaking with a deliberate and artful filmmaking technique. The film celebrates the beauty and passion of extraordinary humans on a grand cinematic scale and shares a unique vision of what a fully realized human life can be.

In Spanish with English subtitles

Generously sponsored by the Blue Mingo Grill

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

12:30 - 2:00 PM: Flow

Latvia’s entry for Best International Feature Film for upcoming 97th Academy Awards, this dialogue-less animated feature is a bold and emotionally captivating story with a deceptively simple narrative. Called “the most groundbreaking animated film about nature since Bambi” (IndieWire), Flow follows a cat after his home is devastated by a great flood in a world devoid of humans. He soon finds refuge on a boat populated by various species of animals and will have to team up with them despite their differences.

Complimentary popcorn, apple cider, and hot cocoa

Generously sponsored by Springbrook

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:15 - 3:15 PM: OCCA Kids Walk: Village Hall

Nature lovers, join OCCA for an exciting urban expedition in Cooperstown after the kids' movie Flow! We'll uncover hidden wonders in unexpected places around town.

This family-friendly nature walk is perfect for all ages. Spend an hour discovering the local ecosystem and bond with your little ones.

Meet at the Village Hall steps at 2:15. Bring your curiosity and sense of adventure. Nature's ready to play hide and seek, even in the heart of Cooperstown. See you soon, fellow nature detectives!

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:45 - 4:45 PM: A Boston (R)evolution

When Kim Janey, a black woman who was bused as a child to hostile neighborhoods, is catapulted to Acting Mayor, she breaks a 200-year history of white men in the city's top seat. Boston's traditional old school politics are further challenged when the top candidates in the historic 2021 mayoral race are four non-white women.

A Boston (R)evolution amplifies an underheard community in a city stuck in a tug of war between deeply progressive policies and entrenched segregation, the best and worst schools, and a jaw-dropping wage gap. The film traces Mel King’s 1983 mayoral run and Boston’s busing crisis of the 1970s, setting the stage for candidates who never envisioned themselves in decision-making positions; elections that will be increasingly decided by Americans inspired to vote for the first time; and resistance from those uncomfortable with anything that threatens the status quo. A Boston (R)evolution is a tight and fast-paced documentary that asks if America's bedrock city can finally confront its racist past.

Post-screening Q&A discussion with filmmaker Daphne McWilliams

Daphne McWilliams is an independent filmmaker, who began her career producing music videos for such artists as Queen Latifah, Blues Traveler, and Notorious B.I.G. In 1995, at Spike Lee’s request, she produced the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning 4 Little Girls, about the murder of four Black girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963. Working on the movie changed her life and her career path: Documentary filmmaking became her passion. Daphne has since produced, among many other works, a pair of episodes for The Blues (Martin Scorsese, 2003), The Curious Case of Curt Flood (Spike Lee, 2011), Slavery by Another Name (Samuel D. Pollard, 2012), Maynard (Pollard, 2017), and Black Art: In the Absence of Light (Pollard, 2021). Her directorial debut, In a Perfect World, garnered several festival awards and premiered on Showtime in 2016.

Location:
The Farmers' Museum
5775 State Hwy 80,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

2:45 - 4:15 PM: Good One

Seventeen-year-old high school senior Sam has agreed to join her father Chris and his longtime buddy Matt on a camping trip in the Catskills. Sam at first seems to enjoy the intergenerational bonding experience with the two divorced dads, yet the men’s own festering, middle-aged resentments begin to change the emotional tone of the trip—until something happens that alters Sam’s perception of these two men and her place in their orbit. Amidst the lush beauty of the forest, Good One asks questions about the dynamics of family, friendship, and what it means to engage in or avoid conflict.

Generously sponsored by Alison and Tim Lord

Location:
Village Hall Ballroom
22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

5:30 - 7:00 PM: We Start With the Things We Find

The familiar corrugated-steel shipping container has become an inadvertent symbol of our postmodern age. Everything from dishwashers to computers to guitars—almost any item that makes our lives more functional and tolerable—is delivered inside one of these big dark windowless spaces. So it is high time to salute LOT-EK, a visionary design studio, founded in Naples, Italy and now based in New York City, which specializes in upcycling. LOT-EK has made it their mission to repurpose old and discarded shipping containers, transforming them into innovative architecture of all kinds, from homes to schools, libraries, stores, churches, or any type of building. With millions of obsolete containers now scattered around the world, this is a green and necessary wave of the future, one that tries to fix the mistakes of the past.  

Post-screening discussion with director Thomas Piper, as well as Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla, principals of LOT-EK

Thomas Piper is an award-winning filmmaker specialized in documenting contemporary artists and designers. He has directed, photographed and/or edited more than 25 films on painters, sculptors, photographers, architects, and writers. Film Days audiences will remember his film, Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf, which was featured here in 2018. Five Seasons won the 2018 Polly Krakora Award for Artistry in Film from the DC Environmental Film Festival and was in global theatrical release through the pandemic. His film, Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments, won Best Film for Television at the 2008 International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal. His feature length documentary, Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the Highline, was broadcast on PBS affiliates around the country, and accepted for over 25 festivals around the world.  

Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla have Master’s Degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universita’ di Napoli, Italy. After graduating they completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University as Visiting Scholars. They founded LOT-EK in Naples, Italy in 1993 and opened up LOT-EK's New York studio in 1995. LOT-EK is an award-winning architectural design studio renowned in the architecture/design/art world for its sustainable, innovative approach to construction, materials, and space through the upcycling of existing industrial objects and systems. Their work has been exhibited in major museums, including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Guggenheim, and the MAXXI. Besides heading their professional practice, they also teach at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Planning.

Location:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Grandstand Theater
25 Main Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326,

7:15 - 8:45 PM: A Taste of Argentina

To mark Glimmerglass Film Days' first New York premiere of a film -- Gaucho Gaucho -- our popular festival dinner buffet will feature the flavors of Argentina with catering provided by Mel's at 22. Get your tickets early as this event always sells out!

Cash bar

Location:
Templeton Hall
63 Pioneer Street,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

7:30 - 8:45 PM: Film Days Trivia

Raise a glass to our newest venue, Cooperstown Coworks, gather your best trivia minds and test your skills as local trivia buff Jeff Katz hosts Film Days trivia. Winning team walks away with Film Days merch!

Cash bar, Selection of crudites, crackers, dips and spreads, by donation.

Location:
Cooperstown Coworks
6 Doubleday Court,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

9:00 - 10:30 PM: Secret Mall Apartment

Providence Place Mall opened in 1999 to much fanfare. The project was an attempt to reverse years of economic decline in the Rhode Island capital’s downtown and led to a wave of corporate development projects looking to cash in on so-called “underutilized spaces.” Areas that had once offered a home to the community’s lower-income residents and creative class were rapidly transformed.

Faced with a feeling of powerlessness, a group of eight young Rhode Island artists set themselves to a subversive challenge: see who could live in the new mall the longest. Between dinner parties in the food court and movie marathons at the multiplex, the crew soon came across a forgotten “nowhere space” hidden deep within the mall. The group remakes this ultimate underutilized space, filming everything along the way. They sneak in furniture, tap into the mall’s electricity, and even construct a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for its inhabitants. It was a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a clubhouse in which large-scale charitable art projects were planned, and, finally, a 750 square-foot "F you" to The Man.

Secret Mall Apartment is more than just a bonkers true story. Director Jeremy Workman brings us along for the wild, surprising, and moving adventure as he delivers a poignant exploration of a group of artists who discovered their purpose within the most commercial and improbable places.

Complimentary popcorn, cash bar

Location:
Cooperstown Coworks
6 Doubleday Court,
Cooperstown, NY 13326

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