David Shelburne’s Film and Photographs Offer a Personal Look at Woodstock

David and Ellen Shelburne were college students when they arrived Bethel for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. David was a student film maker and documented his entire experience. His film, “You Can’t Refuse,” featuring the culture shared by attendees rather than the celebrity performances captures the reality shared amongst the crowds during these three days of peace. On Monday and Tuesday in the Bethel Woods Museum, you can view David’s film and his never before seen photographs amongst a week of anniversary events honoring the festival.

David and Ellen captured a piece of history, but while they were walking around the festival grounds in 1969, they didn’t feel that way. David Shelburne was filming for an assignment at Ohio State University.

“ I think he just thought about it as an artistic film project and put his heart into that,” said Ellen. “We were also contemporary with the times and had strong feelings about what was going on and had embraced the hippie lifestyle.”

The couple and their friends were so moved by their experience at the festival that they bough three school buses to paint when they got back home to Ohio. Ellen recalls the festival really being three days of peace and love.

“ I kind of feel like all of us who were there actually witnessed and experienced and were part of what that peace, love, and brotherhood concept really meant,” she said. “We were in a small space and it’s a big world, but I think every person there recognized, well, that was real.”

David Shelburne passed away in 2020, but Ellen believes if he were to see his film screening at Bethel Woods today, he would be grateful.

“ I think he would be extremely touched. He wasn’t the kind of person that was comfortable with having this light being shone on him,” Ellen said. “ I think he would be as amazed and surprised as I am.”

Image Credit: David Shelburne/Museum at Bethel Woods