Taking Woodstock

Inspired by a true story, this film introduces Elliot Tiber, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish - plus a new recording of <i>Freedom</i> from Richie Havens, the film is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

Working as an interior designer in Greenwich Village, Elliot feels empowered by the gay rights movement. But he is also still staked to the family business - a dumpy Catskills motel called the El Monaco that is being run into the ground by his overbearing parents, Jake and Sonia Teichberg (Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton). In the summer of 1969, Elliot has to move back upstate to the El Monaco in order to help save the motel from being taken over by the bank. Upon hearing that a planned music and arts festival has lost its permit from the neighbouring town of Wallkill, NY, Elliot calls producer Michael Lang at Woodstock Ventures to offer his family’s motel to the promoters and generate some much-needed business. Elliot also introduces Lang to his neighbour Max, who operates a 600-acre dairy farm down the road.

Soon, the Woodstock staff is moving into the El Monaco - and half a million people are on their way to Max’s farm for “three days of peace and music in White Lake.” With a little help from his friends, including theatre troupe leader Devon, recently returned Vietnam veteran Billy and cross-dressing ex-Marine Vilma - and with a little opposition from townspeople, including Billy’s brother - Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life - and popular culture - forever.