In The Thick of It
Original online article by Paul Smart
appeared here in the Woodstock Times
on September 24, 2009.
Mickey Breitenstein says he's been trying to play it cool, what with his first narrative film, "Stooge", set to play the Woodstock Film Festival next week. But the Woodstock native and Onteora graduate quickly adds that he can't help but say what's obvious as soon as you start talking to him: He's feeling really good. Excited even.
"I grew up in an artist's colony but not in a family of artists," he said, after noting how he'd followed his 1988 graduation from OCS with several years at Ulster County Community College and the State University of New York at New Paltz before heading off into life. "It feels good to be premiering this work here. After all, it was shot near where I grew up, in a barn on Elwyn Lane."
Breitenstein, who ended up in Los Angeles for almost a decade after taking a western road trip to see a friend and do some camping, got into film after answering a producer friend's call for some stunt help. "I knew some karate," he said. "It was really easy."
From there he moved on to stunt coordination, and then the writing and directing of commercials and music videos. Eventually he joined up with the Beverly Hills Playhouse to train himself in acting and directing. Picked up some gigs in indie films, which in turn took him to the Sundance Festival three times.
Two and a half years ago, Breitenstein and his fiancee and producer Anmy Leuthold, also from Woodstock, moved back east...to a home in their hometown and a studio in Brooklyn, from which they've been struggling to restart their film careers in a new scene. One and a half years ago, he adds, he broke his heel playing basketball and got laid up for a number of months.
"A friend said I should use this time and write," Breitenstein says. "He asked me to write him a short and I ended up writing two, one of which he said was too long." That became the current film, which the Woodstocker ended up shooting with two friends from L.A. and a local actor, Aren Stirbl. He hired a cinematographer, Will Lytle, out of the local INDIE program. And before you could say "cut," Breitenstein had a finished film on his hand.
His experience, it turns out, is akin to many Hudson valley filmmakers who will be unspooling new flicks at the Woodstock Film festival over the coming week, along with works by outside filmmakers shooting in the Hudson Valley...and helping set dreams, and careers like Breitenstein's, into action with increasing regularity.
So what's playing, during this 10th outing of the Woodstock Film Festival, that's from, of, and or involving the Hudson Valley?
Most prominently, there's Peter Callahan's Against the Current, the fictional true story account of a man, haunted by a tragic loss in his past, who is determined to swim the length of the Hudson River from Troy to New York City. Showcasing a tour-de-force performance by Joseph Fiennes as the swimmer (talk about a theme this season...), the film's use of in-water and on-river locations builds up a unique portrait of the Hudson River and its surroundings.
Then there's Woodstock producer Joe White's latest, The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll featuring Lukas Haas, Peter Fonda and Ruby Dee in a story about a young musician eager to avoid being a one hit wonder, returning home to unite with a former collaborator and childhood friend. Talk about something truly of this town...
The funny geo-caching comedy Splinterheads (see box) was partly shot in New Paltz and High Falls. And 2B writer/director Richard Kroehling, now based in Cold Spring, spent several summers in Phoenicia and maintains a mountain getaway outside Andes, from whence he says he still draws his greatest inspiration.
The true power of the local, though, may currently be in the realm of the festival's many shorts, screening throughout its schedule.
Miranda Rhyne's The 4th of July Parade is a touching mother and daughter story shot all around the Hudson Valley in Woodstock, Saugerties, Kingston, and Catskill. A Horse is Not a Metaphor is by longtime Woodstock resident Barbara Hammer, a stalwart of the local arts scene for years. The Bell, based on an Emerson poem, stars local children and was filmed on location at the Woodstock Day School. Knife Point, directed by Delaware County native Carlo Mirabella-Davis, was filmed farther up the Route 28 corridor near Delhi. Finally, Music We Are, a documentary by Woodstock resident Mirav Ozeri, provides a rare look into the creative process of legendary jazz drummer Jack Dejohnette of Silver Hollow.
And did we not mention Michael Lang, producer of the latest on his franchise, Woodstock Then and Now? Or the various Onteora students getting lined up for the festival's Teen section? You get the idea...
So how do local filmmakers and industry insiders prepare for a festival like their hometown's?
Breitenstein said he's been to such events, but never with so much at stake. And not. He said that he hasn't really worried about what's coming, yet he's been inundated with the tasks of getting publicity and other materials together. And he hasn't looked to see what else he might want to see in the lineup of films playing alongside his.
So, has he thought about what he's going to wear?
Mickey Breitenstein laughs, noting that it's his fiancee, Anmy, who's "the fashionista."
"But I do think I looked cool last night at Libation," he added of the 10th Annual Woodstock Film festival's launch party in Manhattan Tuesday night, September 22. "I kept my country roots but showed off my city savvy, too."
So will he have projects to push, following his premiere?
"It turns out I wrote a feature that same time I wrote Stooge," he said.
Guess, at least in Woodstock, it can end up paying, at least creatively, to be laid up for a spell.
For more on the screening times and details of all the 10th Annual Woodstock Film festival's Hudson valley films, features, documentaries and shorts, as well as the full schedule of events lined up for Wednesday, September 30 through Sunday, October 4, check out the fest's website for further information and a full catalogue at www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.
Director Mickey Breitenstein Interviewed on WAMC
Original online interview
appeared here on WAMC Northeast Public Radio
on October 2, 2009.
FILM FEST: "Stooge" offers frank look at infidelity
Original online article by Kyle Wind
appeared here in the Daily Freeman News
on October 4, 2009.
Director Mickey Breitenstein believes there's been a shift in how people look at monogamy in that "people are being more honest and less self-righteous about it when their partners are just being human, making errors in judgment".
Breitenstein, the 39-year-old Woodstock resident who wrote and directed the nine-minute short film "Stooge", during which a group of friends discusses fidelity, said people are becoming more forgiving.
The film initially came about when Breitenstein, who is engaged to the film's producer, Anmy Leuthold, tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball at the Zena Elementary School, and a friend in the film industry suggested he use the recovery period during to do some writing.
That's when Breitenstein began writing 'Stooge", which brought together ideas from a number of conversations his male friends had been having about relationships and infidelity. In the film, he tries to capture how people "are conversing about it in a new way".
When the actor from California he initially had in mind for a part couldn't oblige, Breitenstein ended up casting his massage therapist and tenant Aren Stirbl, 28, to play the lead, or, as the filmmaker put it, the "stooge" who is punched by his significant other at the start of the film.
Stirbl, an Onteora High School graduate who was involved with youth theater on and off between the ages of 6 and 17, said he was excited by the opportunity to act again and found the subject matter compelling. Stirbl described the short film as exploring the problem of "sometimes honesty hurts people, but on the other hand, do you want to live a lie'?
Stirbl said he believes honesty always is the best policy, in part because he considers lying to a partner to preserve a relationship also lying to oneself. "If a relationship really is worth something", he asked, "then why would someone cheat"? Stirbl said he believes a couple should share values and expectations and that a non-monogamous relationship can work if both parties agree to it. Stirbl studied at the Ithaca Massage School and the Northeast Herbal School of Botanical Medicine and is a licensed massage therapist in Woodstock. But he said he will keep his eyes open for future acting opportunities.
Breitenstein also is an Onteora graduate and attended Ulster County Community College before eventually pursuing film at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. He said he remembers seeing Stirbl as a child but did not know him until returning to the area recently after working in the film industry in Los Angeles for 14 years.
Breitenstein has directed music videos, commercial spots and theater productions and said he is working on a longer feature film based on "The Death of Don Juan".
The director of photography for "Stooge", Will Lytle, is yet another Onteora grad, and is a teacher in the school's Indie program.?
Breitenstein said Lytle determined "the look and feel of the film" that was shot, in part, in a barn that was built in 1864 as part of the Elwyn Farm in Woodstock.
"Stooge" premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday as part of the "Love Is" short movie program and will be shown again at 6 this evening in the Woodstock Town Hall.
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