Beacon Arts Community Association

Written by Sommer Hixson for the Poughkeepsie Journal

If you go

What: Screening of “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One”
When: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22
Tickets: $20
Where: Beahive, 291 Main St., Beacon
Information: Call 845-418-3731. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the nonprofit Beacon Independent Film Festival and the Beacon Arts and Education Foundation.
Editor’s note: Backstage is a regular feature in Enjoy! that offers a glimpse behind the scenes of those who work in theater, the arts and music. If you are involved in the arts and would like to contribute to this feature, email bfarrell@poughkeepsiejournal.com.

In GiuseppeTornatore’s 1988 film “Cinema Paradiso,” a successful but lonely film director finds comfort in childhood memories of his hometown movie theater. Beacon may not be a 12th-century Italian village, but it does boast its own waterfront charms. And some in the city that “appeared” in the 1994 film “Nobody’s Fool,” which starred Paul Newman, are turning their attention toward independent film as a means of building on an arts scene that continues to grow.Terry Nelson, the newest at-large appointee to BeaconArts, recently announced plans for the first-ever Beacon Independent Film Festival, Sept. 13-15, 2013.

“The idea was partially inspired by the Hudson Valley scenery,” Nelson said. “I thought, like Sundance in Park City (Utah), Beacon would be an ideal backdrop.”

The barn at Beacon’s University Settlement Camp is booked as the venue for the festival. Nelson is launching a quarterly screening series at Beahive in Beacon this month in tandem with the Beacon Arts and Education Foundation. The first film of the series, screening Sept. 22, is William Greaves’ experimental documentary from 1968, “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.” Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the non-profit Beacon Independent Film Festival and the Beacon Arts and Education Foundation.

David Majzlin an Emmy-nominated composer whose résumé includes several HBO Films documentaries, was “excited to find an eclectic and sophisticated audience seeking out not only new art, but cutting-edge forms of entertainment and storytelling,” after moving to Beacon with his wife, opera singer Audrey Babcock.

Majzlin showed the film “Herb and Dorothy,” a critically acclaimed documentary he scored about art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel, in Beacon in 2010.

“What is special about Beacon is the synergy of unknown and emerging artists here,” he said. “Ultimately, more screenings of these great lesser-known independent films might inspire more filmmakers to create here.”

All three of documentary filmmaker and Beacon resident Robert Greene’s films, “Owning the Weather,” “Kati with an I” and “Fake It So Real,” have been theatrically released after premiering at major film festivals.

“When you make documentaries, you don’t expect huge audiences,” Greene said. “But when you’re lucky enough to have your films play elsewhere, you’re always hopeful that you’ll get a chance to show your work in your own town. Beacon obviously has the potential to be a place for smaller films, but who knows if we’ll get there.”

Beacon has not had an operational movie theater since the 1980s, when Family Cinema closed. In the 1920s, silent films were shown in the auditorium at the American Legion Hall. The Beacon and The Roosevelt on Main Street operated from the 1930s to the ’60s. The Beacon is now the home of 4th Wall Productions, a theater company that hosts occasional film screenings, including a three-day “Freeze Frame” film festival held in February.

Sommer Hixson is a Beacon resident whose day job is media relations director for a film and TV distribution company in New York City.