2026 Woodstock Museum Film Festival Films
Sept. 6 – Sunday
7:30 Mom & Max 7:50 After Ash 7:55 Confetti Star-ion 8:10 The Last Seat in the House
7:30 Mom & Max
After her kids grow up and leave home, a mother fosters an elderly blind dog named Max. Max renews the joy in her life.
After her kids grow up and leave home, a mother fosters an elderly blind dog named Max. Though she is initially hesitant about his disability and old age, Max renews the joy in her life, causing her to reflect on what it means to truly love herself, Max, and her children.
Director Biography – Jade Song
Jade Song is a writer, filmmaker, and artist. Lauded as “visionary and disturbing,” her debut novel Chlorine was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, translated into multiple languages, and awarded the American Library Association Alex Award and the Writer’s Center First Novel Prize. Her adapted screenplay of Chlorine was selected for the 2024 Black List Writers Lab. Song’s second novel, I Love You Don’t Die, about a death-obsessed woman navigating her throuple while working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns, will be published in March 2026, while her speculative short story collection, Ox Ghost Snake Demon, built around the Chinese zodiac animals, is forthcoming in early 2027. Song pole dances and lives with too many books. jadessong.com/
Director Statement
After my brother and I left home, our mother fostered, then adopted, an old blind dog named Max, who kept her company and renewed her joy. My mother’s unconditional love for Max helped me understand the unconditional love she had given me. I made this short film to commemorate their relationship and show her not just as a mother, but as a human being. Operating on zero budget and using an iPhone, it is the first film I ever made—a family affair starring my mother and edited by my brother.
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7:50 After Ash
Seamless immersion, blurring the line between cinematic narrative and visceral gameplay as Scott, a desperate father, tears through the unknown to rescue his missing daughter, Ash.
This film explores how directorial choices can blur the boundary between gameplay and cinematic storytelling. Scott ventures into a forbidden zone to rescue his missing daughter, Ash, only to encounter unexpected truths along the way…
Director Biography – Shaun Seong-young Kim
Current: Creative Director @Kong Studios, External Director @Pinkfong Company 2012-2023: Director of Photography @Pixar Animation Studios
Director Statement
Shaun Seong-young Kim is a creative director and writer at Kong Studios, Inc., a leading game development company in Los Angeles. With over 11 years of experience in the animation industry, Shaun has worked on multiple award-winning and critically acclaimed films at Pixar Animation Studios, such as Inside Out 2, Soul, Coco, and Incredibles 2. He has also founded and managed his own media production company, Skim On West LLC, where he created short form content for various clients and platforms.
Shaun holds an MFA degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he developed his skills in directing narrative, art direction, layout, and animation. He is passionate about storytelling and visual expression, and he strives to create immersive and engaging experiences for his audiences. Shaun is fluent in English and Korean, and he enjoys photography and video editing in his spare time.
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7:55 Confetti Star-ion: The NASA COSI & Cosmic Rapsody Initiative
In a multidisciplinary cinematic mission, NASA’s COSI team and world-class musicians transform the search for supernova isotopes into a symphonic anthem for Earth’es atmospheric healing
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Multidisciplinary cinematic experience where the precision of orbital science meets the power of the performing arts.
LOGLINE In a multidisciplinary cinematic mission, NASA’s COSI team and world-class musicians transform the search for supernova isotopes into a symphonic anthem for Earth’s atmospheric healing.
SYNOPSIS Confetti Star-ion is a multidisciplinary cinematic event that chronicles the “Stellar Ignition” of a unique global collaboration. Born from a serendipitous meeting between creators Susan Lim and Christina Teenz Tan of the Cosmic Rhapsody Project and John Tomsick, lead of NASA’s COSI mission, the film bridges the gap between complex gamma-ray science and visceral human emotion. Featuring “Lead Voyager” Tom Ball and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the project transforms the study of stellar isotopes into the “Lavender Catalyst”—a narrative metaphor for environmental renewal where cosmic dust descends to neutralize CO2. Recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studio 1, the film weaves real-world mission parameters into an immersive, planetarium-style experience. Confetti Star-ion shows that while science explains how we exist, art defines why it matters, turning the search for heavy elements into a rhythmic, cinematic experience for a new generation of explorers.
Director Biography – Susan Mey Lee Lim
Surgeon, scientist, playwright, lyricist, and creative director of a project centred on the future companionship between humans and AI-enabled inanimates, to address the burgeoning issue of loneliness, the environmental challenges that face us, and our place in the cosmos.
Director Statement
Confetti Star-ion represents a vital evolution in the SciArt movement, manifesting as a multidisciplinary cinematic experience where the precision of orbital science meets the power of the performing arts. Our objective was to move beyond the abstraction of astrophysical data and give NASA’s COSI mission a human heartbeat. By transforming the detection of supernova isotopes into the ‘Lavender Catalyst’—a metaphor for atmospheric renewal—we aim to pivot the global narrative from environmental despair toward cosmic hope.
This film is designed as a sensory ‘launch sequence,’ placing the audience at the center of Mission Control to witness the moment scientific discovery becomes a tangible tool for planetary healing. We believe that if science explains the mechanics of our existence, then art must articulate the urgency of its preservation.
This documentary serves as the narrative foundation for the Lim Cosmic Rhapsody world premiere at the Hollywood Bowl in Summer 2027, and the official launch of the NASA COSI mission.
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8:10 The Last Seat in the House
Explores the life and legacy of Bill Hanley, the pioneering sound engineer known as the “Father of Festival Sound.” Best remembered for creating the sound of Woodstock in 1969.
“The Last Seat in the House” is a feature documentary that explores the life and legacy of Bill Hanley, the pioneering sound engineer known as the “Father of Festival Sound.” Best remembered for creating the sound of Woodstock in 1969, Hanley revolutionized live music by introducing clarity and scale to concerts at a time when large audiences were thought impossible to manage.
Through extensive research and firsthand accounts from artists and industry insiders, the film traces Hanley’s innovations, his role in founding the sound reinforcement industry, and the personal and professional costs of building an industry that ultimately moved beyond him. By focusing on sound as the often-overlooked carrier wave of contemporary music, The Last Seat in the House reveals how one man’s vision permanently changed the way the world listens.
Director Biography – John Kane
John Kane is an author, filmmaker, college professor, and visual artist whose work explores the icultural, technological, and human forces behind modern music. He is the writer and director of the feature documentary The Last Seat in the House, which examines the life and legacy of legendary sound engineer Bill Hanley, widely known as the “Father of Festival Sound.”
Kane brings decades of research and storytelling to the film. His book, The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound, published by the University Press of Mississippi, is regarded as one of the most comprehensive studies of concert sound reinforcement during the formative years of the live music industry. That work grew out of more than 100 interviews with music legends from both the production and performance sides of the industry and laid the foundation for the documentary.
As a filmmaker, Kane is drawn to overlooked contributors whose innovations quietly reshape culture. The Last Seat in the House traces how Hanley’s technical breakthroughs made large-scale festivals like Woodstock possible, helped define modern concert sound, and influenced generations of engineers—while also examining the personal and professional costs of building an industry that eventually moved on without its founder.
Kane has written for national newspapers and music industry trade publications, including The Washington Post, NH Union Leader, and Front of House Magazine. He is also the author of the award winning book Pilgrims of Woodstock (2019) Kane holds degrees in fine art, education, and leadership studies, with a focus on innovation and disruptive technology, and teaches at the college level.
A native of Somerville, Massachusetts, Kane now lives near the seacoast of New Hampshire. The Last Seat in the House marks his debut feature documentary and reflects his ongoing interest in music, memory, and the invisible architecture that shapes how we listen. You can learn more about his work at www.thelastseatinthehouse.com & www.johnkanestudios.com
Director Statement
The Last Seat in the House grew out of a long fascination with the people who make music possible but rarely receive public recognition. Bill Hanley is best known for creating the sound of Woodstock, yet that single moment only hints at a much larger story. Long before 1969, Bill Hanley, a soft-spoken innovator from Medford, Massachusetts, was quietly reshaping how live music could be heard, bringing clarity, scale, and intelligibility to performances that once bordered on chaos. His work changed not only what audiences heard, but how engineers thought about sound itself.
In this film, I wanted to treat sound engineering as a central character rather than a supporting detail. Sound is the invisible carrier wave of contemporary music, essential to the experience yet largely overlooked in cultural history. Hanley’s innovations effectively founded the sound reinforcement industry, but his story also reveals how quickly pioneers can be eclipsed once an industry matures and shifts. After the collapse of the post-Woodstock festival era and the rise of new sound companies, Hanley lost his hold on a business he helped create, a narrative as human as it is technological.
My goal was not to create a hagiography, but an honest portrait. By examining both Hanley’s groundbreaking festival work and his independent business ventures, the film explores brilliance, risk, loss, and legacy. It asks how progress is made, who benefits from it, and what happens to those who build the foundations when the spotlight moves on.
This documentary is the culmination of years of research, including more than 100 interviews with artists, engineers, and industry figures who witnessed Hanley’s work firsthand at historic events and venues, from the Beatles’ final tour and the Newport Festivals to Madison Square Garden and Lyndon B. Johnson’s second inauguration. Having first told this story in my book, The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound, the film allowed me to bring voices, memory, and sound itself into the foreground.
Ultimately, The Last Seat in the House is about listening, more closely, more carefully, and reconsidering who we credit for the experiences that define our musical lives.
Thank you,
John Kane
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