LAKE PLACID — Jonathan Demme, Academy Award-winning director of "The Silence of the Lambs," will be guest of honor at this year's Lake Placid Film Forum, which will open June 12.
Mr. Demme will present his latest documentary, "New Home Movies From the Lower Ninth Ward," at 8:30 p.m. June 13 at the Palace Theater. The documentary consists of a series of inspirational portraits of New Orleans residents as they struggle to rebuild their lives and their neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina.
Following the screening, Mr. Demme will be interviewed on stage by the co-founder of the forum, noted author Russell Banks.
Two well-known novelists, Richard Russo and William Kennedy, are scheduled to attend the Film Forum.
Mr. Russo, renowned for his depiction of blue-collar life in the abandoned mill towns in upstate New York, was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel "Empire Falls."
Mr. Kennedy, a native of Albany, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel "Ironweed."
The duo will teach a master class on screenwriting that will be held at the Whiteface Lodge. They also will participate in a book-signing along with Mr. Banks, whose latest novel, "The Reserve," is set in the Adirondacks.
The book-signing, presented by The Bookstore Plus, will take place at noon Saturday, June 14, at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.
Plattsburgh and the surrounding area are the setting for "Frozen River," a film that won the 2008 Grand Jury Prize for best feature at the Sundance Film Festival. The film will be shown the night of June 13 at the Palace Theater.
Melissa Leo plays a struggling trailer mom who resorts to smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada to the United States to improve her situation. The film was written and directed by Courtney Hunt.
This year's program will also include a silent comedy, "Modern Times," featuring Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. Using the original score as his inspiration, Jeff Barker will provide the music on the Palace Theater's organ for this special screening the evening of Thursday, June 12.
"Before the Rains," which also will be shown June 12 at the Palace Theater, is set in 1937 in a picturesque hill station in the south of India.
Director Santosh Sivan, who also did the cinematography, creates an increasingly tense atmosphere as his leading character, an English plantation owner played by Linus Roache, begins an affair with an Indian housemaid.
"Little Girl Blue," an award-winning Czech comedy, will be presented by Owen Shapiro, artistic director of the Syracuse International Film Festival, June 14 at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.
"Spirit of the Marathon," which was filmed on four continents and features a cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries, will be shown at 4:30 p.m. June 14 at the LPCA as a salute to the Lake Placid Marathon.
Director Jon Dunham will be on hand to answer questions about his award-winning documentary.
The closing selection, on June 14 at the LPCA, will be Nina Davenport's documentary "Operation Filmmaker," which begins when actor Liev Schreiber invites an Iraqi film student to serve as an intern on his film.
What was supposed to be simply an upbeat story about an American who improves the life of an Iraqi becomes a thought-provoking metaphor for the war.
More detailed information about the screenings, the student filmmaking competition, an additional master class on directing by Allan Nicholls and the complete program for this year's Lake Placid Film Forum can be found online at www.lakeplacidfilmforum.com.
