Film festival announces Trailblazer honoree
Shep Gordon — a movie producer who also has managed popular musicians and represented celebrity chefs — will be the recipient of the Trailblazer Award at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival, the festival’s organizers announced Wednesday.
Gordon, according to the festival, launched the independent film company Alice Pictures/ Island Alive; managed musicians Alice Cooper, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross and Kenny Loggins, as well as comedian Groucho Max; represented chefs Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck and Daniel Boulud (Lagasse has been quoted as saying Gordon “single-handedly created celebrity chefs”); and was the subject of the 2013 documentary “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon,” based on Gordon’s autobiography and directed by Mike Myers.
Gordon, 71, has 23 films to his credit as producer or executive producer, including “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Prince of Darkness” and “Shocker.” And his Island Alive distributed such films as “Stop Making Sense,” “Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Whales of August” and “The Duelist.”
Meira Blaustein, the Woodstock Film Festival’s co-founder and executive director, said Gordon’s “visionary approach to music, film, artistic and culinary endeavors ... is truly admirable, making him the epitome of a trailblazer.”
This year’s Woodstock Film Festival runs from Oct. 11 to 15 at venues in Woodstock and nearby communities. Gordon will be honored during the festival awards ceremony Oct. 14 at Backstage Studio Productions on Wall Street in Uptown Kingston.
Previous winners of the festival’s Trailblazer Award include Bob Berney, head of marketing and distribution for Amazon Studios; Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects and IFC Films; and James Schamus, former President of Focus Features.