Webutuck graduate now enjoys film festival circuit

Penny Loeb moved to Smithfield Valley in Amenia in 1953 and graduated Webutuck High School in 1965.There, Loeb was exposed to an English department and curriculum she said was the groundwork for her future in journalism and, eventually, the movie business.This April, Loeb’s feature film “Moving Mountains” premiered at Bare Bones International Film Festival in Muskogee, Okla., and is now in the midst of a continuing festival run. In June, the film showed at Hoboken International Film Festival in Middletown, Orange County — not far from Loeb’s roots in Dutchess.The screening in Middletown was Loeb’s first time watching the movie in a large audience setting.“It was great, it was a lot of fun,” she said. “I was worried because I hadn’t seen it on the big screen, but it looked great and sounded really good.”The screenwriter and producer said the film was well received by many guests and that the production cast and crew enjoyed photo-opportunities in front of a custom festival wall before and after the screening.“Moving Mountains” is adapted from Loeb’s 2007 book, “Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal.”The story is a true one of a West Virginian woman, according to www.movingmountainsthemovie.com.“In 1994, Trish Bragg was a coal miner’s wife, struggling to get by. Then a vast deep mine destroyed her neighbors’ water wells. Guided by her strong-faith, she and her friends stood up to a billion-dollar coal company and government bureaucracy,” according to the website.The screenplay went through many iterations before going into production in 2012.Loeb said adapting the book into a feature film proved challenging.“One of the most difficult things for me, because I’m a nonfiction journalist,” she said, “was we had to invent some scenes and move the chronology around to make it a better understandable story. It was difficult fictionalizing true stories.”“Moving Mountains” was since screened at the New Hope Film Festival in New Hope, Pa., earlier this month.Loeb spoke fondly of her origins in the area, including the start to her career at the former Register Herald in Pine Plains.“I loved living up there and working up there at the paper,” she said. “It was a great place to grow up. Webutuck was a really good high school.”For more information on “Moving Mountains” and its screenings, go to www.movingmountainsthemovie.com.