Hudson Valley residents are interested anytime our region is picked as a primary location for shooting a feature film, as is happening more and more frequently since the changes in New York State’s tax incentives map for film production. But how many of those movies are actually about our neck of the woods, its peculiar sense of place, its amazing residents? This weekend presents a rare opportunity to experience onscreen not one, but two brand-new fictionalized explorations of the long battle to sustain a local cultural institution: Time & Space Limited in Hudson.
The title of the two-part movie about to premiere is a heavy clue to what inspired it: A Bread Factory. The industrial building that Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce have reclaimed and reshaped to house TSL’s programs was originally – you guessed it – a bread factory. The movies were shot in and around Hudson, and you’ll be able to watch the world-premiere screenings on Labor Day while sitting in the seats of the very theater where some of the scenes take place. Part One: For the Sake of Gold will screen at 1 p.m. and Part Two: Walk with Me a While at 3:30 p.m. A talkback with writer/director Patrick Wang (In the Family, The Grief of Others) will follow.
An economist as well as a filmmaker, Wang said in a Variety interview last year: “A small town turns out to be a great setting for thinking about many big themes: art and commerce, globalization, gentrification, changing social institutions and new technology.” Of his sources of inspiration, he adds, “Remembering my early days in theater and the women who were my teachers and directors, provided warmth and humor while staring these colder contemporary changes in the eye.”
Among those inspiring women, apparently, were TSL founders Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce. Their fictional counterparts are called Dorothea (Tyne Daly) and Greta (Elisabeth Henry), and the changing town we know as Hudson is renamed Checkford. Other stars of A Bread Factory include Janeane Garofalo, James Marsters, Jessica Pimentel, Nana Visitor and a raft of Hudsonians.
Both parts of A Bread Factory will be screened on Monday afternoon, September 3, starting at 1 o’clock. Tickets cost $18 general admission, $14 for TSL members and students. Time & Space Ltd. is located at 434 Columbia Street in Hudson. For more info, call (518) 822-8100 or visit https://timeandspace.org/calendar/a-bread-factory.
Join the family! 
