The documentary film Woodstock, directed by and edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin
Scorsese, was released in 1970. Artie
Kornfeld (one of the promoters of the festival) came to Fred
Weintraub, an executive at Warner Bros.,
and asked for money to film the festival. Previously, Artie had been turned
down everywhere else, but Fred Weintraub became his hero and, against the
express wishes of other Warner Bros. executives, Weintraub put his job on the
line and gave Kornfeld $100,000 to make the film. Woodstock helped to
save Warner Bros at a time when the company was on the verge of going out of
business. The book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls details the
making of the film.
Wadleigh rounded up a crew of about 100 from the New
York film scene. With no money to pay the crew, he agreed to a
double-or-nothing scheme, in which the crew would receive double pay if the
film succeeded and nothing if it bombed. Wadleigh strove to make the film as
much about the hippies as the music, listening to their feelings about
compelling events contemporaneous with the festival (such as the Vietnam War),
as well as the views of the townspeople.
Woodstock received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The
film has been deemed culturally significant by the United
States Library of Congress. In 1994, Woodstock:
The Director's Cut was released and expanded to include Janis Joplin as
well as additional performances by Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix,
and Canned Heat not
seen in the original version of the film. In 2009, the film was re-released on
DVD. This release marks the film's first availability on Blu-ray disc.
Another film on Woodstock named Taking
Woodstock was produced in 2009 by Taiwanese American filmmaker Ang Lee. [Wiki]
