Great independent films. Great conversations with the filmmakers.

Beacon Film Society presents…

WE CAN BE HEROES

Thursday February 26, 2026
7p (6:30 doors)

Howland Cultural Center 

477 Main Street  Beacon NY  12508

Q&A with film participant, collaborator and cast member Judson Packard to follow the screening.

Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic.  Deep in the forest, where fur-lined armor is handmade and lightsaber combat is a daily ritual, a group of teens embark on a quest of legendary proportions. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the accepting environment gives neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed “nerdy” teens the space for true self-discovery. As the campers immerse themselves in an imaginative world, they discover inner strength and emerge as heroes.

“We Can Be Heroes is a documentary
that makes your heart swell”

-D. Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter)

“In a time where we are constantly overwhelmed by news of turbulence and uncertainty, we hope the film will inspire you to look around with fresh eyes and find all that we can still be — and need to be — hopeful for.”

– film director Carina Mia Wong

Judson Easton Packard graduated from Kansas State with a Bachelor’s degree in English and from Rutgers with an MFA in Creative Writing. They have been involved with the Wayfinder Experience since 2003 when they first came as a camper. They were on the Rules and Regulations board from 2013-2018. Before that they served the community by serving on the Hiring Board, and working every event they were given the opportunity to. They believe in hill trolls and LARP because the costumes bring out their eyes. In 2023 Judson became an owner as well.  

 Judson was a key influence, participant and collaborator of the this documentary, which premiered at SXSW. 

Beacon Film Society presents…

RIVER OF GRASS

Thursday March 19, 2026
7:30p (7p doors)

Howland Cultural Center 

477 Main Street  Beacon NY  12508

Q&A with film director Sasha Wortzel to follow the screening.

RIVER OF GRASS is a present-day reimagining of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman
Douglas’s celebrated book, “The Everglades: River of Grass,” (1947), which forever changed the public’s understanding of the area from worthless swamps to an essential source of freshwater, enabling the ecosystem to endure, just barely, today.

In the wake of a hurricane, Douglas visits filmmaker Sasha Wortzel in a dream, catalyzing a prismatic journey across the Everglades with Miccosukee educator and activist Betty Osceola. We meet a mother taking on the polluting sugar industry; a two-spirit Miccosukee environmentalist and poet; a mother-daughter team removing snakes wreaking havoc on the ecosystem; and a family who have fished in the Everglades for six generations. Interweaving Douglas’s writing, personal narration, present-day verité, and archival footage,

RIVER OF GRASS reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together.

“Winking and wondrous… bewitching”

-Robert Daniels / RogerEbert.com

“A vivid love letter to the land and a call for its protection”

-Pat Mulen / POV Magazine

Sasha Wortzel (Director, Producer, Editor) is an award-winning filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. Raised in Southwest Florida and based in New York City, Wortzel specifically attends to sites and stories systematically erased or ignored from these regions’ histories. Wortzel is a recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship in Film-Video. Her films have screened world-wide at venues including MoMA DocFortnight, CPH:DOX, True/False, San Francisco International, Hot Docs, Dokufest, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her expanded cinematic work has been exhibited at the New Museum, The International Center for Photography, and The Kitchen, among others. Wortzel is a 2023 MacDowell Fellowship, 2020 Oolite Arts Ellies Award, and 2017 NYFA Fellowship. RIVER OF GRASS is her first feature documentary. The film has received institutional support from Sundance, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, Doc Society, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and Sandbox Films. Her short films include HOW TO CARRY WATER (2023), an IDA Awards nominee for best short documentary and currently streaming on Criterion Channel; THIS IS AN ADDRESS (2020) distributed by Field of Vision; and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARSHA! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) which won special mention at Outfest. Her artwork is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum of Harlem, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places. She has been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, and Art in America.