FilmColumbia: No Red Carpets, Just Good Films

An Interview With Co-founder Laurence Kardish

FilmColumbia — aka the Columbia County film festival — was started 20 years ago by Peter Biskind and Laurence Kardish, who continue as co-artistic directors. Kardish, who goes by Larry, is senior curator emeritus for film and media at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. I spoke to him last week by phone.

Compass: How did the festival get started?

LK: FilmColumbia is an outgrowth of two things: the Columbia County Council on the Arts, which years ago did an annual showing of local films, and the Chatham Film Club, started by Carole Roseman; it showed foreign-language films once a month at the Crandell Theatre in Chatham. When the Council on the Arts ceased to exist, we were able to join forces with the club to establish the film festival at the Crandell. Thanks to the generosity of a number of people in the community, including [famous painter] Ellsworth Kelly, we were able to purchase the theater, which we now own as a nonprofit.

Compass: What does turning 20 mean to you?

LK: There are a lot of people in the community and region who have an interest in the cinema as an art, which is what the festival celebrates. We also have a lot of members of the motion picture academy in our area, whom we admit free. This is the season they begin to consider films for the Oscars. Last year we showed all five Oscar nominees in the foreign language film category.

We’re encouraged that many distributors are happy to work with us and give us films, because we have a very good reputation. It’s a small regional festival; we don’t have red carpets, we just have good films from around the world.

Compass: What are you especially excited about in this year’s lineup?

LK: Some of our films, of course, will arrive with hype, such as “Parasite” [this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, by Korean director Bong Joon-ho] and “Marriage Story” [100% on Rotten Tomatoes, by Noah Baumbach and starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver]. I’d like to give a little push for a film from Peru called “Song Without a Name,” an astonishing debut film by Melina León, who studied at Columbia University. It is shot in and around Lima and tells a story about events that happened there in the ’80s; I don’t want to give too much away. It’s very accomplished and very moving.

Another one on the festival circuit that will be spoken of highly is “Waves,” by the young filmmaker Trey Shults, who made a striking debut film [“Krisha”] a few years ago. He’s come back with an extra, mature and distinctive film, also remarkable for its style. The subject is a middle-class black family in Florida and how it adapts to certain unfortunate changes. It has a spectacular cast [including Emmy Award-winning actor Sterling K. Brown from “This Is Us”].

Also, in honor of our 20th anniversary, we’re showing two noteworthy films that were screened the first year, in digitally restored versions: “Dinner Rush” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

FilmColumbia 2019 takes place Oct. 18-Oct. 27 at the Crandell Theatre, 48 Main St., Chatham, NY 12037. For tickets and information, call 518-392-3331 or go to crandelltheatre.org/filmcolumbia.