Follow the Trail!
We invite you to visit the three destinations in the Finger Lakes Film Trail to discover these important early filmmaking sites that confirm the significance of the Finger Lakes Region in early American moviemaking!
Launched in spring 2018, the Finger Lakes Film Trail (FLFT) is an inter-county collaboration among three important film sites in Central New York: the George Eastman Museum and Dryden Theatre in Rochester, the Wharton Studio Museum in Ithaca, and the Case Research Laboratory and Cayuga Museum of History and Art in Auburn.
The Finger Lakes Film Trail highlights the singular accomplishments of New York's film pioneers:
George Eastman, the Rochester inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who developed a flexible film that became the standard in the motion picture industry and is still widely used today.
Leopold and Theodore Wharton, the prolific filmmakers whose Wharton Studios, located on the shores of Cayuga Lake, produced hundreds of silent films and serials, attracting some of the best-known actors of the day to Ithaca.
Theodore Case and his associates, who revolutionized the industry and the artform with their sound-on-film technology, creating the "talkies" and forever changing cinema history.
Finger Lakes Film Trail Coordinators
Diana Riesman, Project Partner and FLFT Site Coordinator for Ithaca. As Executive Director and Co-Founder of Wharton Studio Museum (WSM), Riesman oversees all WSM events, programming and exhibits, as well as fundraising and community outreach. She led WSM’s partnership in the Tompkins Center for History and Culture that opened in 2019 on the Ithaca Commons and continues to spearhead efforts to develop the historic Wharton Studio building, in partnership with the City of Ithaca and Friends of Stewart Park. A founding member and now Chair of the Board of Friends of Stewart Park, a nonprofit organization committed to the revitalization of Stewart Park, she is an experienced film industry professional who has served as a screenwriter and development executive in Los Angeles, most recently as co-producer of award-winning radio programs To The Point, Which Way, LA?, Good Food, and Hollywood Wrap for NPR affiliate KCRW in Santa Monica, CA. She is a member of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) and Upstate Women in Film & Television (UPWIFT). Notably, Riesman is the founding force behind the Finger Lakes Film Trail.
Eliza Benington Kozlowski, FLFT Site Coordinator for Rochester, is Senior Director of Marketing and Engagement at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, where she has worked since 1990. She oversees the museum’s communications and marketing activities, publications, digital engagement, guest services, education, exhibitions, and programs. Currently a member of the board of the Museum Association of New York (MANY) and St. John’s Foundation, she is a past board member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, Rochester. She is also a past chair and current board member of the Public Relations and Marketing (PRAM) Professional Network of the American Alliance of Museums and an active member of “Visit Rochester” (as well as past president of its active volunteer arm, the “Visitor Industry Council”). A graduate of St. Lawrence University, she is a recipient of the “I Love New York Award for Cultural Tourism Promotion” and was a “Rochester 40 under 40” and an Athena Award nominee
Kirsten Gosch, FLFT Site Coordinator for Auburn and Executive Director of the Cayuga Museum/Case Research Laboratory, previously served as the Museum’s Curator (2013-2018). She holds a B.A. in Art History from Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s in Museum Studies from Syracuse University. Prior to joining the Cayuga Museum, Gosch was a Preventative Conservation and Collections Associate at the Museum of Texas Tech University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Cayuga County Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as the Facilities and Collections Committee of the Seward House Museum and the Fund Distribution Review Panel of the United Way of Cayuga County. She is the 2020 recipient of the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce’s Terri Bridenbecker Young Professional Award.