2025 FESTIVAL PROGRAM

Friday, October 31, 4 PM
Doors open at 3:15
At The COMMON GOOD
119 Canal Street, Ellenville

A seriously intimate and casual chat with Emmy winner Judy Gold, the outrageous comedian and actor, about her extensive career and how her Jewish identity and the Borscht Belt shaped it. After a Q&A, Gold will sign her book about freedom of speech, Yes I Can Say That.  

OPENING NIGHT FILM
Friday, October 31, 7:30 PM
At Shadowland Stages

During a Catskills summer in 1963, teenager Frances "Baby" Houseman begins spreading her wings to the distress of her overprotective parents, and falls for a charismatic dance teacher at her resort.

LOREM with film screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein and New York Times journalist Joyce Wadler.

PLACEHOLDER thank you to the sponsors of this screening:
Lorem
Ipsum
Dolar

Saturday, November 1, 10:30 AM
Documentary / 2006 / 79 min
Director: Alexandra Shiva

Aspiring actors and singers prepare for stardom at a unique summer camp: Stagedoor Manor. This documentary follows five campers as they grow their skills in music, comedy, and drama -- while also navigating the cringe factor of adolescence.

LOREM with Director Alexandra Shiva

Saturday, November 1, 12:45 PM
Documentary / 2008 / 97 min
Director: Andrew Jacobs

Holocaust survivors, mostly Polish Jews, some in their ninth decade, gather every summer at the Four Seasons Lodge in the Catskills. Here they strive to focus on their current lives and the chosen family who fill the void. 

Talkback with Andrew Jacobs, historian and Borscht Belt Museum board member Peter Alan Chester, and moderator TBD.

Saturday, November 1, 2:45 PM


ALL ABOUT AMY
Documentary / 2015 / 7 min

Directors: Samuel Centore, Gene Fischer

A widowed transgender taxi driver living in Ellenville considers a liberating future while she also navigates financial challenges and a complex dynamic with family members. 

CASA SUSANNA
Documentary / 2022 / 97 min

Director: Sébastien Lifshitz

An unlikely true-life tale of a long-hidden Catskills community. In the 1950s and 1960s, a bungalow colony in the Northern Catskills became a finishing school for a network of male cross-dressers, now recognized as pioneering trans activists.

LOREM with Eve Papp of the New Paltz Pride Coalition and Gene Fischer.

Saturday, November 1, 6:30 PM
Documentary / 2025 / 16 min

Director: Joel Perez

A Saturday night in the 1960s in lower Ulster County, regarded as the Latino Borscht Belt. A father and daughter musical act celebrates their current popularity but still ache for their former life in Puerto Rico.

LOREM with Joel Perez, Latino Borscht Belt historian Ish Martinez, blogger Carla Ramos.

Sunday, November 2, 11:15 AM

Comedy-Drama / XXXX / 1 hr 35 min

Director: Martin Ritt

In the 1940s and 1950s, conservative politicians launched a witch hunt to root out dissent. The resulting blacklist destroyed countless show business careers -- and lives. This comedy-drama recaptures those frightening times.

LOREM with Jewish film historian Eve Sicular, Borscht Belt insider Lita Slutsky Newman Moses and historian Daniel Moses.

Sunday, November 2, 2:00 PM
Documentary / XXXX / 58 min

Director: Dave Davidson

Holocaust survivors, mostly Polish Jews, some in their ninth decade, gather every summer at the Four Seasons Lodge in the Catskills. Here they strive to focus on their current lives and the chosen family who fill the void. 

LOREM with Andrew Jacobs, historian and Borscht Belt Museum board member Peter Alan Chester, and moderator TBD.

Short films all about the Borscht Belt.

Sunday, November 2, 4:00 PM

VILLA ENCANTO
Lorem / 2025 / 16 min

Director: Joel Perez

A Saturday night in the 1960s in lower Ulster County, regarded as the Latino Borscht Belt. A father and daughter musical act celebrates their current popularity but still ache for their former life in Puerto Rico.

ELLENVILLE RISING
Documentary / 2023 / 12 min

Director: Jack Huppert

For generations a popular destination for Borscht Belt vacationers, Ellenville fell on hard times when the resorts closed. But a remarkable resurgence is now underway.

LET'S FALL IN LOVE: A SINGLES WEEKEND AT THE CONCORD HOTEL
Documentary / 1993 / 25 min

Director: Constance Marks

Before on-line dating, thousands of singles would flock to the Concord Hotel’s famed matchmaker weekends. At one such weekend event in the 1990s, unattached people reveal their dreams for happily-ever-after.