The Woodstock Film Festival kicked off Thursday and runs through Sunday. One of the films with ties to the Hudson Valley is a documentary about an animal neglect case in Ulster County. It’s called “For the Birds” and follows the case before, during and after. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne spoke with the film’s producers.
Richard Miron was volunteering at the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary when news about Wawarsing resident Kathy Murphy and her birds came to the fore. What began as Miron’s senior thesis film at Yale University grew into more than six-and-a-half years of filmmaking. In 2013, Murphy was found guilty of neglecting 95 birds.
They say it was happenstance that they were able to include an optimistic ending due to all the twists and turns that occurred after the court case concluded. Had they stayed in the editing room at that point, they would have missed what they call the third phase of the film. “For the Birds” is being screened this evening at 5:45 at the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock and Saturday, in Rosendale, at 12:30.
