Film Days Events Continue Today, Culminate with a Wrap Party at The Smithy
By LOGAN BREENSUNY Institute for Local NewsCOOPERSTOWN
For an extended weekend every fall, the Village of Cooperstown is transformed into a Mecca for independent cinema, attracting filmmakers and audiences from around the region and even across the country. Now in its 13th year, the annual Glimmerglass Film Days returns this week, running from November 13-17. The film festival brought more than 700 attendees to Cooperstown in 2024 and it is expected to surpass that number this year, according to Otsego 2000 Program and Communications Manager Peg Odell.
Monday, November 17, the final day of the festival, will feature "Keeper" at noon, "Rule of Stone" at 1:15 p.m. and a shorts program at 3:15 p.m., all at Fenimore Farm and Country Village. "Cover-Up," a political thriller tracing the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter SEymour Hersh will be shown at 5:30 p.m. at the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Grandstand Theater, and the "That's a Wrap! Party" will be held from 7:30-9 p.m. at The Smithy.
Events like Glimmerglass Film Days are a hopeful reminder that the arts, including narrative and documentary films, still serve as a powerful way to bring together people and communities.
“Our audiences are dedicated to the theatrical experience—that is, watching a film in a public space with other people,” said Peggy Parsons, founder and artistic director of Glimmerglass Film Days. “The boxed-in experience of streaming has great limitations,” Parsons added, “and smarter audiences like ours understand that. Independent filmmaking, on a global level, is not dying out and neither are theaters.”
Finding and building community is at the heart of the Glimmerglass Film Days experience. And the community of Cooperstown itself is an integral part of the film festival’s success. Parsons explained that over the years the festival has built up a loyal local following, and “the level of the discussions between filmmakers and audiences has become more intimate and intense.” She continued: “Every one—filmmaker, student, retiree, artist, and whatever—is on the same level. There’s a sense of connectedness here that the big festivals, like Berlin or New York, cannot attain. One-on-one connection is very important here.”
Cooperstown is a unique spot to host a film festival, as it does not have a multiplex or a traditional movie theater. The evening screenings are put on in the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 189-seat Grandstand Theater, which was completely renovated back in 2018. Xander Moffat, Glimmerglass Film Days’ technical director and programmer, explained that the Hall of Fame’s theater “is state of the art and filmmakers have been thrilled with the picture and sound on offer there. Not to mention how comfortable the seats are!”
