Calico Rebellion

The Walton Theatre is hosting a FREE screening of CALICO REBELLION on Thursday, July 2, 2026, at 7pm. A Q&A with Walton-native and storyteller, Marianne Greenfield, director, Victoria Kupchinetsky, and producer Misha Gutkin will follow the screening.

In the lush woods of New York State’s Catskill Mountains, a mythical memory lives on. Of a time when men — armed with rifles and pitchforks, disguised in eerie masks and gowns — descended from bucolic hills to stage the Anti-Rent War, or the “Second American Revolution” as they called it. That farmers’ uprising 200 years ago changed the course of American history and paved the way to the creation of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party.

Today, although largely forgotten, the historic uprising lives on through direct descendants of those rebellious farmers, through their stories, songs, and the eerie costumes preserved since the 1840s. CALICO REBELLION is a cinematic journey into small town America, its idealism and the violence that percolates just beneath the surface. The film explores themes of land, belonging, and the historical identity of the people who continue to change the political landscape of their country.

On screen, myth is intertwined with reality - unfolding slowly in a fairy-tale, menacing at times, like a dream imbued with the wildness of nature itself. The story is conveyed through the language of mythology and history of place.