Against the Current Screens at MASS MoCA
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Fresh from its well-received premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Against the Current will make its New England premiere at the Williamstown Film Festival (WFF) at MASS MoCA's Hunter Center on Saturday, October 24, at 8 P.M. Writer/director Peter Callahan will attend the screening for Against the Current, his second independent feature, five years after the screenplay was first read at WFF.
In the film, Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes), emotionally adrift after losing his wife and child five years ago, calls on his longtime friend, actor/bartender Jeff (Justin Kirk), and a friendly schoolteacher looking for excitement, Liz (Elizabeth Reaser), to join him as he carries out a dream of swimming a 150-mile stretch of the Hudson River from Troy to the New York harbor. Rain or shine, Paul keeps a tight schedule, swimming while his friends ride alongside in an old motorboat. He's adamant that they reach New York City by August 28. But the journey takes a troubling turn when Paul reveals that there's more to the trip than Jeff and Liz had thought. With each passing day, a gallows humor settles over the three as they find themselves arguing the finer points of jelly doughnuts, sex, and death. An overnight stay with Liz's mother (Mary Tyler Moore) and cousin (Michelle Trachtenberg) only complicates things. As the jokes and one-liners mix with deeper exchanges, the journey becomes a fight not only to save a friend but to discover what they seek inside themselves. Against the Current is an unforgettable saga of human folly and the many tests of friendship.
Writer-director Peter Callahan explains, "I wanted to portray life as it really is - a complex mix of good and bad, happiness and sadness, tragedy and laughter. There are no easy answers in life, nor are there in Against the Current." Callahan grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., where he could see the Hudson from his house. As Against the Current makes clear, the river is as much a character in the film as the three leads - beautiful, yet unpredictable and even frightening. Callahan notes that the shoot was extremely difficult: "The Hudson, with its tricky currents, has a mind of its own and so do boats - you can imagine trying to coordinate those two elements; never mind the actors and equipment on top of that."
Alex Jablonski's short film Blue Boy will be shown before Against the Current.
Celebrating its eleventh season, WFF has gained a strong reputation as, in the words of one alumnus, "an absolute must-stop on the film festival circuit." The festival showcases the best in independent film and honors America's cinematic past in the shape of classics; celebrates the present day through panels, seminars, and Q-and-A's between audiences and the actors, writers, directors and producers of indie film; and explores the new technologies carrying the art of film into the 21st century. Against the Current will be the focus of WFF's annual Benefit dinner at 777 Cold Spring Road which will be attended by Callahan and the film's producer Mary Jane Skalski.
MASS MoCA will also team up with WFF be the site for the screening of the science fiction classic La Nave De Los Monstruos (The Ship of Monsters) with a live original score played by the nation's premier rock-infused, postclassical string quartet, ETHEL, on October 30. The entire WFF schedule is available online at williamstownfilmfest.com.
Tickets for Against the Current are $13 adults/ $7 students. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Wednesday through Monday. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413-662-2111 during Box Office Hours or purchased online at www.massmoca.org.
