
Keith Boynton, left, with Aitor Mendilibar, right, the cinematographer who shot “The Haunted Forest” as well as “The Scottish Play” and “The Winter House.” In the background of is Vinny Castellini, first assistant director.
Submitted
Keith Boynton, left, with Aitor Mendilibar, right, the cinematographer who shot “The Haunted Forest” as well as “The Scottish Play” and “The Winter House.” In the background of is Vinny Castellini, first assistant director.
Keith Boynton is a filmmaker who grew up in Salisbury, Connecticut. He attended Salisbury Central School, Town Hill School, and Hotchkiss. He has made numerous feature films including Seven Lovers, The Scottish Play, The Winter House, and is just wrapping up a new film, The Haunted Forest, which is a horror/slasher movie. Boynton has made numerous music videos for the band Darlingside, and for Alison Krauss. He is a poet, a playwright, and comic book art collector.
JA: This series of stories The Creators focuses on artists, their inspiration, and their creative process. Keith, what was the seed that got you started?
KB: I think the earliest stage of everything is just daydreaming. I’ve been a daydreamer my whole life, probably most kids are. Those daydreams are just daydreams - they don’t come to anything - but occasionally something happens in your imagination that you can’t let go of. Something you want to make real, whether that’s a goal in your life, or a project that you want to pursue, or something you want to create, it just sticks in your mind, and can change your whole life.
JA: Was there a favorite book that you loved growing up?
KB: My favorite book in childhood was The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris van Allsburg. Some books just fired me up a like Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli, an amazing book that was probably the most exciting thing I’d ever read up to that point. I remember finishing it and just sprinting up and down the driveway. I loved all the William Steig books, especially Dominic. Some art forms lend themselves to the imagination. One of the things I love about cartooning (I’m a huge comic book fan, and I collect comic book artwork) I love the way it can be anything. It is the unfettered exercise of the imagination, whereas making a live action film is a very fettered exercise of the imagination. You are bound by the technology and the reality of what you’re shooting, and the limitations of what you have available, so it’s still a creative act, but it’s not the kind of thing you can just daydream on the paper. You must contend with a lot of reality on the way to making that dream something real.
JA: Why do you love language?
KB: I mean, words are magic. They can create whole worlds. I‘ve always been fascinated by them. There’s nothing more human than the urge to communicate, but words do more than communicate; they conjure. It’s a hell of a thing.
JA: You cannot escape the business side of filmmaking. How do you handle all that, financing, promotion, deal making, streaming, film festivals?
KB: It is a job in itself. The mindset of promoting a film is the opposite of making one. It’s rare to find one person who’s good at both. I want the film to be successful, yet don’t see myself as a marketer. When I am forced into that role it’s an awkward fit. I love the response of an audience. I love watching a movie with an audience, or even better being in front of an audience, that immediate kind of connection. The relationship that you have with anyone in the business of curation of a Film Festival, or a studio executive, lacks immediacy. Yet you must not become an artist who thinks they’re entitled to an audience, or entitled to a platform, or entitled to be regarded as special. Audience members who grant you their time are giving you a gift, which is often unearned.
JA: Do you control the editing process?
KB: I edit my own films, I direct them, and I write them. I’m steering the ship to a certain degree at every stage which is gratifying.
JA: How do you cast your films?
KB: For some films I have used a casting director. For The Haunted Forest, the slasher film that we shot in the fall in Maryland, that is just wrapping up, I was the casting director myself. My first time working without a casting director in probably a decade. It was far more work than I realized. There were 38 speaking roles and I had to piece them together for my people to submit it on the Internet, to attract people who lived in the area. Some were actors, some were not, some from New York, some local. It was an incredible hodgepodge of people some of whom had never acted before, and some phenomenally accomplished actors.
JA: Tell us about The Haunted Forest:
KB: Cousins on my dad’s side, the Markoffs, live in Montgomery County, Maryland. They’ve been operating this haunted forest for about 30 years on their property, creating scary tours in October where you walk through, and people jump out and frighten you. It is like a homemade, horror film Disneyland. I was blown away by the scope of it, the scale of it plus the attention to detail and just the passion that they put into this place. My brother Devin McEwan [slalom canoeist, gold medalist 2015 Pan American Games, medalist 2016 Olympics] had the idea to set a film there. He conceived of the story idea. We developed the screenplay together. Great shout out to my brother without whom this movie would never have been dreamed of, much less brought into being. It’s a story about a young man passionate about horror and Halloween. He gets a job at the Haunted Forest, loves his job, meets a girl, then people at the Forest start dying for real and no one knows why. It is a murder mystery, slasher thriller which is not my wheelhouse as a filmmaker, or even necessarily as an audience member, but I had so much fun making this. The film still has a certain romanticism, maybe more than previous films. The genre is larger than life. There’s darkness and terror, but also the opportunity for heroism and overcoming. I think some of the most cinematic stuff that I’ve ever captured is in this movie. We are close to locking the picture edit, and then after that we sign color, music, visual effects and it’ll be ready to premiere at the actual Haunted Forest this fall. Anyone in the DC area, come watch this movie on site and get scared out of your minds.
JA: Were the special effects challenging for you and for the actors?
KB: I had a steep learning curve. We brought in a special effects expert. Some actors were covered in blood, and it was cold at night, yet the vibe on set was amazingly good, people had so much fun. While most of my films are realistic there’s a certain attraction to melodrama. I want to be fantastical, operatic, yet feel grounded and human and real. If you can pull that off, that’s magic.
JA: How can people watch your films?
KB: Three of my movies, Seven Lovers, The Scottish Play, and The Winter House – are available on Amazon and Apple TV. The best way to keep up with me is facebook.com/TheKeithBoynton, and crazylakepictures.com
JA: Your favorite films and directors?
KB: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sting, Back to the Future, Point Break. Frank Capra, Christopher Nolan, Martin Campbell, Steven Soderbergh.
JA: Relationships feature in your films, and music videos. Does that come from your own well of experience?
KB: I did grow up in an incredibly warm family, incredibly welcoming, supportive, creative, funny, eccentric. I had a pretty idyllic childhood. [Keith’s father Jamie McEwan was an author and medal-winning Olympic slalom canoeist. Keith’s mother Sandra Boynton is an illustrator known for her iconic, delightful creatures and designs] That does stay with you forever. Optimism is one of the gifts the arts can give us when we need something to hang on.
JA: Tell us about your friendship with the band Darlingside.
KB: I’ve known Don Mitchell since he was little. We grew up together. We used to play the Legend of Zelda in his mom’s basement. Later, after hearing their brilliant music, I offered to make some music videos. I have used their music in my films. They are the loveliest people, so sweet, so committed to what they’re doing. They are really four of my favorite human beings in the world.
JA: Your film The Scottish Play, was just shown on Channel 13 as their Valentine’s Day romantic offering. How did you write so many lines of iambic pentameter?
KB: I have always been interested in Shakespeare’s time. I did some Shakespearean acting as a child. The language is extraordinary, alien yet familiar. It does create a different world, a heightened world, a romantic world, something you can indulge in, escape into, so for a long time I wanted to find some way to play in that sandbox of Shakespearean language. I conceived of the idea of having Shakespeare appear as a ghost because then it can be a contemporary story and Shakespeare can be anything that I imagine. He doesn’t have to be tied to his own biography or anyone else’s version of Shakespeare. I can just write him any way I choose. That movie came out of my desire to synthesize the real and the fantastical.
JA: Do you prefer making independent films?
KB: One of the reasons I toil away in the indie world is because I relish the control. My work can be ignored but it can’t be stopped, or changed, influenced by anyone, which is why I direct my own scripts instead of trying to sell the scripts. Screenwriters have no control over what happens to their screenplay. I was a writer first and foremost. [Boynton has an MFA in playwrighting from Columbia]. I had to learn to direct movies because that’s the only way to protect and make sure the story gets out in a way that you feel comfortable with.
JA: You are a romantic at heart, true?
KB: Romance is a recurring theme in my work, although not so much in my life, and maybe those two things are related. It has been a preoccupation of mine since childhood. My very romantic view is a great engine for stories. I do have a small pipeline with my own poetry on Facebook where I can reach a small number of people very quickly. I wish I could scale up a film pipeline, and I knew just how to reach that audience with that same level of immediacy. It would be an extraordinary feeling, so liberating creatively. Sometimes it is so hard to get up the energy and enthusiasm to begin a new project, when so many things that I’m proud of have been orphaned, forgotten, or fallen on deaf ears.
JA: How do you gauge the success of a film?
KB: There are three categories of response: people that I know which can be gratifying, I sometimes hear from professional critics, and then sometimes a random stranger stumbles upon the movie and loves it. Sadly, the scale of money, time, and energy that goes into a film does not always correspond to the to the scale of the impact.
JA: Do you love filmmaking enough to be satisfied despite a lack of response?
KB: I love being on the set. It is only two weeks out of every two to three years, but I love that feeling of working together.
JA: What’s next?
KB: I’m gearing up to another movie in September and that’ll be shot here in Salisbury, maybe at Mt. Riga. It will be about 10 months between shooting one feature film and another. The film is broadly in the category of horror or psychological thriller. More about mood and character and fabulous actors. I’m going to reuse some of my favorites from people who maybe had a smaller part in my other films.
JA: You describe your work on your website: “it’s humor and a touch of optimism. also, we like coffee.”
KB: I think coffee is one of the core principles of life. It’s certainly a major theme in my work. I think every play or movie contains at least one reference to coffee and usually a very loving reference. It’s a touchstone, but also maybe it represents warmth and comfort.
JA: What do you love about filmmaking?
KB: The camaraderie, the moments of magic, the sense of capturing something special and unrepeatable, the sublime irrelevance and absurdity of the whole endeavor, the excuse to drink endless cups of coffee, those occasional moments when you whisper to yourself (or to someone else): We’re making a movie. (And you are.)
Troutbeck's sign at the intersection of Leedsville Road and Route 343 in Amenia.
AMENIA — Public hearings continued from the previous meeting concluded at the regular meeting of the Amenia Planning Board on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Having considered public comment, the board approved applications from Troutbeck for an indoor pool and from DaVinci Windows for a sign installation.
No public comment was heard in connection with the Troutbeck proposal to construct an outdoor pool as briefly described by project engineer Rich Rennia of Rennia Engineering of Dover Plains. The application is part of Phase 8 of Troutbeck’s adaptive reuse application, revised recently to reduce the environmental impact.
Plans call for renovation to the existing pool, the bathhouse and the snack bar — all contained within the wellness area — and construction of a new indoor pool inside the Amenity Barn, Rennia said, explaining that the wellness area will not expand in area, only configuration.
Planning Board attorney Paul Van Cott said that the Phase 8 plans remain consistent with previous planning board approvals and are consistent with the site plan. Board engineer John Andrews indicated that the application was in order and ready for planning board decision, clearing the way for the unanimous vote to approve.
Residents’ concerns about traffic safety were repeated during the continued public hearing to approve installation of a two by six sign at the Route 343 location of DaVinci Windows’ showroom. However, following discussion, the planning board voted unanimous approval of the sign permit, providing that a site plan be submitted showing details of the new sign.
Resident George Bistransin echoed neighbors’ concerns that the sign might pose a dangerous distraction for motorists negotiating a nearby highway curve. He also offered his opinion that conversion of a residential property into a commercial enterprise should have been subjected to further review.
Engineer Andrews reported on his visit to the site accompanied by town highway and building officials. Andrews said that the property is located in a mixed-use district and that the project renovates a single-family residence to add a commercial use.
Andrews added his findings that the sight lines would not be impacted by the sign’s location.
Atty. Van Cott advised that Andrews will need to sign off on the sign’s site plan, a plan that will show illumination details.
Board member Nina Peek suggested that approval be delayed until the site plan with sign details is submitted, but board member James Vitiello favored moving ahead with a vote to approve, pending receipt of the site plan.
The Planning Board heard a preliminary review of impending plans for a Cascade Road affordable housing development to be proposed by Hudson River Housing of Poughkeepsie.
Plans were introduced by Senior Planner Peter Sander of Rennia Engineering. The site would use the land for workforce housing, envisioning a potential layout of 28 small lots to hold single-family, 4-bedroom homes with on-site shared water and septic systems. Half of the land would be conserved, Sander said, asking the board to provide any preliminary comments to assist with preparing for the application process.
Engineer John Andrews asked for a detailed analysis of the conservation elements on the property and he said that the precise acreage needs to be determined.
Atty. Van Cott noted that the planning board is not going to be looking at the subdivision plans at the current early stage. Rather, the board will be considering the plot of land as a whole including the conservation value.
“The applicant’s job is to design around these land resources,” Van Cott added, indicating the presence of a stream corridor at the site.
Board member Vitiello asked about impact on any wildlife to which Van Cott responded that the applicant would need to acquire the services of a professional biologist who would define any habitats. An alternative, Van Cott noted, would be for the Planning Board to hire a biologist at the applicant’s expense.
Spotted salamander is present at the site, as noted by board member James Walsh who indicated that he has caught trout when fishing the site.
Water and septic concerns were of interest to board member Kenneth Topolsky, including water quality, wastewater treatment plans, and run-off from storm water and Cascade Creek and how it might affect surrounding properties.
MILLERTON — Calling the ongoing revitalization of Eddie Collins Memorial Park “the largest project the village has taken on,” Mayor Jenn Najdek has disclosed additional funding has come through in support of its upgrade.
This past December, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation awarded the village a matching grant of up to $675,000 in support of the Eddie Collins Memorial Park Swimming Pool Project. With these monies, funding for Phase II of the project, which stems largely from a NY SWIMS capital grant, is now at $7.56 million.
This most recent grant, which Najdek explained was the final one for which the village had applied, will go toward planned improvements for the park which include a new swimming pool and bathhouse, a community room and an on-site septic system. Additionally, all sections of the park will be accessible, making the venue ADA-compliant. The hope is to have complete and final designs of the project submitted over the next month or so. Completion of the project is expected by spring of 2026.
“It’s going to be great when it’s all done,” said Najdek, who acknowledged the need for quality outdoor recreation in Millerton, and who fondly recalled the swimming pool which was previously in place. “I’m excited,” she added.
The revitalization of Eddie Collins Memorial Park has been a work in progress for just under a decade, but strides have been made in recent years with the implementation of a soccer field, the recent installation of donated lights for the baseball field, and the paving of the parking lot as well as other revisions.
This 3 bedroom/2 bath renovated raised ranch at 7760 Main St. in Pine Plains sold for $590,000.
PINE PLAINS — From August through November there were 14 sales in Pine Plains with only one on Lake Road selling for over a million dollars and two homes for over $500,000 — a midcentury modern in town closing for $590,000 and a historic house on 8.5 acres for $660,000.
Since September 2021 the median price for publicly listed properties in Pine Plains has hovered at around $350,000. Properties listed in mid-January include seven residences ranging in price from $150,000 to $8.95 million, six pieces of land and Harvest Homestead Farm on 343 acres with a fully functioning distillery formerly associated with 1930’s mobster Dutch Schultz.
23 Willow St. — 2 bedroom/2 bath house sold for $362,500.
50 Meusel Road — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house sold for $339,200.
7760 Main St. — 3 bedroom /2 bath renovated raised ranch sold for $590,000.
2812 Church St. — a mobile home on .69 acres sold for $107,000.
North Main St. (#414425) — 2.7 acre residential lot sold for $80,000 in a private sale.
4-8 Stissing Mountain Lane — 3 bedroom/1 bath house on 1 acre sold for $475,000 in a private sale.
62 Britton St. — 3 bedroom/1 bath house sold for $235,000 in a private sale.
3 Carla Terrace — 3 bedroom/1 bath house sold for $345,000.
30 Myrtle Ave. — 3 bedroom/2 bath house sold for $202,000.
3831 Route 199 — uninhabitable 2 bedroom/1bath house sold for $50,000 in a private sale.
Bean River Road (3307440) — 2.87 acre lot sold for $112,000.
243 Lake Road — 4 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 1.38 acres sold for $1,525,000.
421 Carpenter Hill Road — 2 bedroom/2 bath house on 1.13 acres sold privately for $214,000.
3327 Route 199 — 4 bedroom/2 bath house built in 1787 on 8.51 acres sold for $660,000.
* Town of Pine Plains real estate sales recorded between August 1, 2024, and November 30, 2024, sourced from Dutchess County Real Property Tax Service Agency. Information on active listings taken from First Key MLS which may understate available properties. Parcel numbers refer to parcel designation by Dutchess County and may be accessed on Dutchess Parcel Access. Only transfers with consideration are included. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in CT and NY
MILLERTON — Donald Francis “Frank” McNally Jr., passed away peacefully at Vassar Brothers Medical Center on Wednesday Jan. 8, 2025, after a short illness. Frank was a resident of Millerton since 1996. He was born on Jan. 27, 1955, in Cold Spring, New York, at Butterfield Hospital and was raised in Garrison, New York, where he enjoyed exploring and camping in the wilderness of the Hudson Valley, participating in the Boy Scouts as a bugler, and competing as captain of his high school wrestling team.
He was a graduate of James I. O’Neill High School in Highland Falls class of ‘74 and SUNY Cobleskill class of ‘76 where he majored in animal husbandry, specializing in equine science. He then proudly volunteered for the United States Peace Corps where he accepted an assignment to his host country of the Philippines, where he met his wife. Frank would then pursue his lifelong passion for horses and horseback riding on several horse farms in Dutchess County. Later he would work for New York state where he would then retire, spending his time caring for animals, reading, fishing and taking photographs. Frank enjoyed a good laugh with family and friends, while also occasionally winning a game of RISK. Frank was an avid reader, often reading several books a week while in the constant company of his cat.
Frank is survived by his wife and best friend, Paz (Alpez) McNally who resides in Millerton, and two sons, Patrick A. McNally and Philipp F. McNally; his daughter in-law, Erin McNally and his beloved grandchildren, Jack and Lila who brought him immeasurable joy in his life. Frank is also survived by his sister, Mary R. (McNally) Gutierrez and her husband Victor and their son Juan, and his brother, Daniel McNally Sr., and his daughter Jacqueline and son Daniel Jr. He was predeceased by his father Donald F. McNally Sr. and his mother Jacqueline (Adams) McNally.
There are no calling hours. At Frank’s request, cremation has taken place at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in Poughkeepsie. A celebration of Frank’s life will take place in the spring. Memorial Contributions may be made to the NorthEast–Millerton Library, P.O. Box 786, Millerton, NY 12546 or to a local animal shelter of your choice. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Avenue, Millerton, NY 12546. To send an online condolence to the family or to plant a tree in Frank’s memory, please visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com