“For three days in August
1969, nearly a half-million young people descended upon Max Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York for the Rock ‘n’ Roll event
that defined a generation. Mythologized for 50 years, the filmmakers set the
record straight with CREATING WOODSTOCK, the most
comprehensive examination of how the festival came to be using original
interviews with key figures, rare archival footage and unearthed photographs.”
SPAZ: CREATING WOODSTOCK is being released on the 50th Anniversary of
the Woodstock Festival. What initially inspired you to put this film together?
MICK: The genesis of the film comes from a simple question, ‘what
was Woodstock about?’ In 1992 my son, Ian, came home from high school and
asked, ‘Dad, you were at Woodstock, what was it about?’ One of Ian’s teachers, Mike Wood, who appears briefly in the
beginning of the film, was at the festival for all four days and spoke about it
often in class. He spoke of the bands, sharing his food and the weather. But he
knew nothing of the production element of the festival. Nor did I. Like most, I
could only speak to my own, quite uneventful experience. So, I decided to do a
little research and began with John
Roberts and Joel Rosenman’s book
YOUNG
MEN WITH UNLIMITED CAPITAL, written shortly after the festival. The
more I read the more the story intrigued me. But I thought there had to be
more. And there was. A whole lot more.
Read More