The fiercely independent 19th Annual Woodstock Film Festival will showcase more than 100 films and open with a live performance by the Karl Berger Band following the screening of the feature documentary Karl Berger – Music Mind, which offers “an inside look into the creative process and unique approach toward music that makes Karl Berger”. Matthew Heineman’s feature narrative debut A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci will close the film festival on the evening of Sunday, October 14th.

There will be a panel discussion after the film screening of Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, featuring the filmmakers, as well as panelists from the documentary Newtown. In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that took the lives of twenty first-graders and their teachers, local clergyman Father Bob Weiss receives a letter from a fellow priest in Dunblane, Scotland, whose community suffered an eerily similar fate in 1996. From across the Atlantic, the two priests forge a poignant bond through the shared experience of trauma and healing. Never before seen film clips of the filmmakers’ upcoming documentary about the mass shooting in Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, will be shown during the panel.

Roger Ross Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award with his short film Music By Prudence. Williams has directed a wide variety of acclaimed films including God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and Life, Animated, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2017. Williams is on the Board of Governors for the Academy of motion pictures, Arts and Sciences, representing the Documentary branch, as well as being on the Diversity Committee for the Academy. This year Williams is our Special Guest Programmer whose selection spotlights some of his favorite contemporary works by filmmakers of color. Williams said, “I am thrilled to be a guest programmer at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival. The three films I have chosen demonstrate the scope, depth and creativity that is possible when we, as black filmmakers, tell our own stories.” These films include Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Shakedown, and Mr. SOUL!.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

Across The Universe, directed by Julie Taymor

Almost Home, directed by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

Ask For Jane, directed by Rachel Carey

Beyond the Night, directed by Jason Noto

Cold Brook, directed by William Fichtner

Dorst (Craving), directed by Saskia Diesing

Dreams by the Sea, directed by Sakaris Stórá

Fort Maria, directed by Thomas Southerland and S. Cagney Gentry

Ghost Light, directed by John Stimpson

Here and Now, directed by Roman Shumun

Julia Blue, directed by Roxy Toporowych

Keely and Du, directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert

Lez Bomb, directed by Jenna Laurenzo

Little Woods, directed by Nia DaCosta

Love Revisited, directed by Nicole van Kilsdonk

Only A Switch, directed by Michael Vincent

Paris Song, directed by Jeff Vespa

A Private War, directed by Matthew Heineman

ReRUN, directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett

Socrates, directed by Alex Moratto

Spell, directed by Brendan Walter

Swimming With Men, directed by Oliver Parker

Then Came You, directed by Peter Hutchings

Unlovable, directed by Suzi Yoonessi

We Only Know So Much, directed by Donal Lardner Ward

What They Had, directed by Elizabeth Chomko

Wheels, directed by Paul Starkman

Wildlife, directed by Paul Dano

Younger Days, directed by Paula van der Oest

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

2030, directed by Johnny Boston

The Advocates, directed by Rémi Kessler

Carmine Street Guitars, directed by Ron Mann

Dreaming of a Vetter World, directed by Bonnie Hawthorne

The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Assia Boundaoui

For The Birds, directed by Richard Miron

Ghost Fleet, directed by Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron

Give Us This Day, directed by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist

Hale County This Morning, This Evening, directed by RaMell Ross

In Our Bones, directed by Alex Kimura

The Interpreters, directed by Andres Caballero and Sofian Khan

Karl Berger – Music Mind, directed by Julian Benedikt

Michelin Stars – Tales from the Kitchen, directed by Rasmus Dinesen

Mr. SOUL!, directed by Melissa Haizlip and Samuel Pollard

A Murder In Mansfield, directed by Barbara Kopple

Netizens, directed by Cynthia Lowen

Personal Statement, directed by Julianne Dressner

Shakedown, directed by Leilah Weinraub

Somaliland, directed by Harry Lee and Ben Powell

Stay Human, directed by Michael Franti

Suicide: The Ripple Effect, directed by Greg Dicharry and Kevin Hines

Up to Snuff, directed by Mark Maxey

What Is Democracy?, directed by Astra Taylor

The World Before Your Feet, directed by Jeremy Workman

WRESTLE, directed by Lauren Belfer and Suzannah Herbert

SHORTS