Fade to black (ink)
A film festival might seem a strange engine for economic activity, but the Woodstock Film Festival proves that films can provide real life business gains.
And if the organizers are successful in plans to buy a building they are considering in Woodstock, they say they will create an even happier business success story going forward.
“The spinoff impact of what we do is enormous,” said Ilene Marder, communications director for the festival, which has an annual budget of about $250,000.
“The effects range all the way from curious sightseers coming to Woodstock and the area to kind of stargaze on the street and spend their money, all the way to filmmaker and film industry people buying houses around here,” Marder said.
The week around the festival is a boon to area lodging facilities. “Any accommodation that isn”™t booked six months in advance, we take for people coming for the festival,” she said. Visitors stay as far away from Woodstock as the Emerson Resort, the Dutchess Inn and various hotels and bed and breakfasts in Ulster and Dutchess counties. Film screenings and related events are held in Wooodstock, Rosendale and Rhinebeck, further spreading the benefits.
Marder said some studies show a $1 to $7 ratio between the original dollar spent on an art-related matter and the economic spinoff effect in the community. She said the film festival has no studies of its own, but said anecdotally she believes it is heavily beneficial.
“The merchants love us and love when the festival comes around,” she said.
As an example she said the Danish Embassy is hosting a reception in the Woodstock area this weekend after the screening of a festival film called “Inuk” that was shot in Greenland and whose residents are officially citizens of Denmark. While notable, she said, such events are not uncommon in connection with the festival. “We can”™t give absolute dollars, but we know the impact is enormous.”
The success of the film festival led directly to the creation of the Hudson Valley Film Commission, which Marder said has led to tens of millions of dollars in activity in the region, attracting filming by such high budget features as Steven Spielberg”™s “War of the Worlds” and an upcoming film starring Jane Fonda.
And the festival organizers hope to bump up their clout by buying a building in the heart of Woodstock.
“We spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and a ton of money scrambling to find and renovate space each year to fulfill our needs, so the new film center offers us the opportunity to consolidate and grow to continue providing extraordinary programming and economic benefit to the region,” said Meira Blaustein, executive director of the film festival, in announcing the start of a capital campaign to buy the building, a portion of which now serves as its rented headquarters.
The goal of the capital campaign is $600,000 to help pay down the mortgage and to begin renovations to the former Heckeroth Plumbing & Heating facility. All donations are tax deductible. For more information about the festival or the capital campaign, go to http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/cart/capitalcampaign.php