Imagine yourself flying in a small open-cockpit plane, nothing between you and the blue sky while you soar over the Hudson River, the fabric of the craft’s skin flapping around you. Viewers will experience that, vicariously, when the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society presents Aerodrome, an award-winning documentary film, on Monday, March 2, 7 p.m., at the Vineyard Commons theater in Highland. The film took best short documentary at the 2014 Newport Beach Film Festival.
Co-producer Francesco Cordaro took that flight. “Terrifying,” is the one word he uses to describe it, but goes on to say “beautiful and exhilarating,” while adding that “I would never have done it without a camera in my hands.” Cordaro will be present Monday evening to describe making the movie.
He and two other young film makers, co-directors Devin Pickering and James Foster, based their project at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, home to the oldest airplane in the world and several other pioneering aircraft. Their movie stresses the sheer exuberance of flying so intimately connected to both the craft itself and the heavens.” It’s as close as you can get to how we fly in our dreams,” Cordaro says. In contrast, he describes modern flying as: “You get into the jetliner and you are in a room, given a beverage and watch a movie or sleep. You are completely removed from the experience of flight.”
The film expands on this contrast by creating an intimate portrait of a group of pilots today who fly the old planes at the aerodrome. “They feel they have a relationship with early fliers,” he says.
Vineyard Commons is located at 300 Vineyard Avenue in Highland. For more information, call (845) 255-7742, visit tolhps.org or look for Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society on Facebook.
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