A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS

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A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS

MON, 12/9, 5:30pm, 84 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen via Zoom for Q&A

Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
Producer: Mari Bakke Riise
Editors: Christoffer Heie, Kristian Tveit
Cinematographers: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, Karine Fosser, Fred Arne Wergeland, Espen Gjermundrød, Line Konstanse Lyngstadaas, Natalja Safronova

On a small farm in Norway surrounded by a fir forest lives a family that has made an unconventional choice – Maria, Nik, and their four children grow their own food, practice homeschooling, and sleep together. They live out their dream of a free and independent life close to each other and nature. When tragedy strikes, the world they know turns upside down. Reluctantly, the family must change their lifestyle and adapt to modern society again.

Silje Evensmo Jacobsen has directed award-winning documentary films and series for the past 15 years. Two of the titles are Team Ingebrigtsen and Faith Can Move Mountains. A New Kind of Wilderness won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

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Sponsored by Phyllis D. Chase & Douglas Denoff

A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

FRI, 12/6, 12:00pm, 87 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director: Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Producers: Rachel Elizabeth Seed, Sigrid Dyekjaer, Beth Levinson, Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Danielle Varga
Editors: Eileen Meyer, Tyler Hubby, Christopher Stoudt
Cinematographers: Joseph Michael Lopez, Rachel Elizabeth Seed

The director Rachel Elizabeth Seed attempts to piece together a portrait of her mother Sheila Turner Seed, an avant-garde journalist and a woman she never knew. Uncovering the vast archive that her mother produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Davidson, Lisette Model, and others, the film explores memory, legacy and stories left untold.

Rachel Elizabeth Seed is a nonfiction storyteller working in film, photography and writing. Formerly a photo editor at New York Magazine, her photography was included at the International Center of Photography’s exhibit on Hurricane Sandy. She was a cameraperson on several award-winning feature documentaries, including Sacred.

AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND

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Sponsored by Perillo Hill LLP

AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND

TUES, 12/10, 1:00pm, 90 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Ilana Trachtman in attendance for Q&A

Director: Ilana Trachtman
Producer: Ilana Trachtman
Editors: Sandra Christie, Ann Collins
Cinematographers: Slawomir Grunberg, Dominic Mann

When five Howard University students sat on a segregated Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history was born. These events forced people to take sides, changed lives, and ignited sparks that affected the Civil Rights Movement for years.

Ilana Trachtman is an Emmy Award-winning documentary director and producer. For over 25 years she has created programs for numerous networks including PBS, HBO Family, Showtime, Lifetime, and the Sundance Channel. Her film, Praying with Lior garnered six Audience Awards for Best Documentary and was a critic’s pick of the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

BEYOND THE GAZE: JULE CAMPBELL’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE

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Sponsored by Hope and David Rothschild

BEYOND THE GAZE: JULE CAMPBELL’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE

FRI, 12/6, 5:00pm, 107 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director Jill Campbell and Cinematographer Gregory Gerhard in attendance for Q&A

Director: Jill Campbell
Producers: Jill Campbell, Rob Lyons, Jonathan Gray, Sharon Cooney Shuttleworth
Editors: Jill Woodward, Jill Campbell
Cinematographers: Nelson Walker, Gregory Gerhard

In the 1960s, Jule Campbell shattered glass ceilings, transforming a struggling magazine into a media empire: the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The documentary chronicles her 32-year reign, where she championed intelligence and empowered supermodels like Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley and Elle Macpherson. Weaving together her journey with feminism's evolution, the film explores the changing gaze on beauty, from objectification to body positivity. Through stunning visuals and intimate interviews with a wise, nonagenarian Campbell, we witness a legacy that continues to inspire.

Jill Campbell, the daughter-in-law of the film’s subject Jule Campbell, is an independent documentary director, producer, and editor. She began her career in the theater before transitioning into documentary production with the 2010 Dancing Across Borders. She has written and directed three feature- length documentaries including Mr. Chibbs and Seat 20D, about the Dark Elegy sculpture garden memorial in Montauk.

BLACK TABLE

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BLACK TABLE

SAT, 12/7, 1:00pm, 93 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director John Antonio James and Producer Katie Taber in attendance for Q&A

Directors: John Antonio James, Bill Mack
Producer: Katie Taber
Editors: Vito DeCandia, Brett Mason
Cinematographer: Derek Wiesehahn

One of the largest classes of black students in Yale University’s history arrived in 1993, just as the country entered a period now known as the Great American Divide: the unofficial beginning of today’s culture wars. This group of students formed a tight-knit community around a shared dining table that became their refuge at the mostly white Ivy League school that was not fully prepared for them.

John Antonio James previously directed Siempre, Luis about an immigrant from Puerto Rico determined to bring the musical Hamilton to his island home. Bill Mack is known for The Obituary of Jasper James and New Guy.

BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY

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BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY

SUN, 12/8, 7:00pm, 99 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director: Sinéad O’Shea
Producers: Claire McCabe, Eleanor Emptage, Sinéad O’Shea
Editor: Gretta Ohle
Cinematographers: Eoin McLoughlin, Richard Kendrick

Emerging from rural Ireland, Edna O’Brien (1930-2024) broke multiple taboos with her sexually provocative 1960 debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, authoring screenplays, over 20 novels, and hosting star-studded parties. She was as prolific in conducting love affairs as she was writing novels. She made a fortune and lost a fortune. The film is an intimate and revealing portrait of the writer, told with extensive archival footage and recent interviews.

Sinéad O’Shea is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her previous films include Pray for Our Sinners and A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot. O’Shea was named as one of the top 10 European filmmakers to watch by the European Film Network and Screen International.

DAUGHTERS

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BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD TO ANGELA PATTON & NATALIE RAE
Co-presented with New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT)

DAUGHTERS

SUN, 12/8, 2:00pm, 108 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Directors Angela Patton and Natalie Rae in attendance for Q&A

Directors: Angela Patton, Natalie Rae
Producers: Justin Benoliel, Sam Bisbee, Laura Choi, James Cunningham, Kathryn Everett, Mindy Goldberg, Victor Kamwendo, Lisa Mazzotta
Editors: Adelina Bichis, Troy Lewiś
Cinematographer: Michael Fernandez

Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail. For most of the daughters, the dance will be the only time they will be able to touch or hug their fathers during their sentences, some of which are as long as 20 years. The film won two awards in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival: Festival Favorite and Audience Choice.

Angela Patton is a female activist for "at risk", or, as she prefers "at-promise," African-American girls. She is the founder of Camp Diva and the CEO of Girls for a Change. In 2016 Patton was nominated and awarded by President Barack Obama as a "Champion of Change for Enrichment for Marginalized Girls.” Natalie Rae got her start in music videos, winning Rock Video of the Year at the MuchMusic Video Awards for her first video, Serena Ryder’s Stompa. She’s since had collaborations with other music artists.

ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND

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ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND

TUES, 12/10, 8:00pm, 105 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Raoul Peck via Zoom for Q&A

Director: Raoul Peck
Producers: Tamara Rosenberg, Raoul Peck
Editor: Alexandra Strauss
Cinematographers: Wolfgang Held, Moses Tau, Raoul Peck

Black South African photographer Ernest Cole exposed to the world the horror of apartheid through his shocking photographs. His book, House of Bondage, which was published in 1967 when he was only 27 years old, was considered a wake- up call to the world, and led him into a life-long exile in New York and Europe. His work was “rediscovered” long after his early death, when more than 60,000 negatives of his lost work were found in 2017 in a Swedish bank vault.

Raoul Peck was born in Haiti. When he was eight years old, his family fled the Duvalier regime. His film I Am Not Your Negro, about the life of James Baldwin, was nominated for an Oscar in 2017. His HBO miniseries, Exterminate All the Brutes, released in 2021, received a Peabody Award. Peck was Haiti’s Minister of Culture from 1996 to 1997.

ETERNAL YOU

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ETERNAL YOU

MON, 12/9, 12:00pm, 87 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Directors: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck
Producers: Christian Beetz, Zora Nessl, Lena Raith, Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Editors: Lisa Zoe Geretschläger, Anne Jünemann
Cinematographers: Tom Bergmann, Mecky Creus, Niclas Reed Middleton, Carolina Steinbrecher, Konrad Waldmann

If you had the chance to talk to a loved one who died, would you take it? Eternal You examines the story of people who live on as digital replicants in the pockets of their loved ones. With the help of artificial intelligence and Big Data, a dream comes true that is as old as mankind itself: eternal life. Tech startups use a wealth of data to develop digital doppelgangers which promise to immortalize people on earth.

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck are German writers and directors. Their debut film The Cleaners about the shadow industry of digital censorship celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. It was nominated for an Emmy and the German Television Award and has received numerous international prizes.

GALA EVENING HONORS MICHAEL MOORE

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HAMPTONS DOC FEST HONORS MICHAEL MOORE
WITH THE 2024 PENNEBAKER CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A serious filmmaker and passionate political activist uses humor and satire

GALA EVENING HONORS MICHAEL MOORE

SATURDAY, DEC 7
BAY STREET THEATER

6:30PM Cocktail/Buffet Reception

8:00PM Pennebaker Award and Interview with Michael Moore
Followed by screening of Roger & Me

Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan and, according to him, was “raised on a dirt street by loving parents, two sisters, and a lot of Green Giant in a can.” In addition to a keen sense of humor, he is also a very serious filmmaker and passionate political activist, casting a critical eye on many of America’s leading politicians, institutions, and corporations.

His activism started early. At age 18 he was elected to the Flint school board, becoming the youngest elected official in the country at the time. At 22, he founded the Flint Voice, a nationally recognized alternative newspaper, which he edited for 10 years. Watching the automotive industry’s decline instilled in him a desire to challenge corporate practices and advocate for social justice.

Moore has made his mark as a filmmaker by entertaining while, at the same time, provoking viewers to rethink their assumptions. He uses irony and sarcasm and doesn’t shy away from controversial narration in his films. He often appears in his documentaries, allowing his audiences to connect and engage with him, bringing a human 12touch to difficult subject matter. While Moore’s films often generate debate among audiences, they also lead to critically important policy discussions.

Moore’s first documentary, Roger & Me, chronicled the economic impact of General Motors’ plant closures in Flint. The film was a hit with critics and at the box office. Roger & Me earned Moore a reputation as a groundbreaking filmmaker for shining a spotlight on the struggles of working-class Americans using his dark sense of humor and keen sense of satire – a revolutionary approach for the documentary genre.

Over the course of his long career, he has directed 13 films (producing and writing most of them); acted in four films; made five video shorts; produced three television series; published eight books and one audiobook. Currently he can be found on The Michael Moore Podcast where he continues to offer his subversive takes on the issues of the day.

After Roger & Me, Moore went on to break the documentary box office record two more times with his 2002 Oscar-winning film, Bowling for Columbine, about gun violence in the U.S., and the Palme d'Or-winning Fahrenheit 9/11, about President George W. Bush’s handling of the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War, which remains the highest- grossing documentary of all time in the U.S. Other notable films include the Oscar-nominated Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story, Where to Invade Next and Fahrenheit 11/9. Moore won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series for his prime-time NBC series TV Nation and is one of America's top-selling nonfiction authors, with such books as Stupid White Men, Dude, Where's My Country? and Here Comes Trouble.

Moore’s live stage performance about the 2016 presidential election was the basis for Michael Moore in Trumpland. In 2017 Moore made his Broadway debut in the one-man show The Terms of My Surrender, which examined the Trump presidency.

In addition to all there is to admire about his career, we, at Hamptons Doc Fest congratulate Michael Moore on the highly respected Traverse City Film Festival which he founded and ran for 20 years. Sadly, this esteemed festival closed its doors in 2023. As Moore so aptly put it at the time, “We can reaffirm to you our belief, as always, that one great movie can change your life, and that powerful films can help change the world.”

Pennebaker award sponsored by

MADE IN ETHIOPIA

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MADE IN ETHIOPIA

MON, 12/9, 3:00pm, 90 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Directors: Xinyan Yu, Max Duncan
Producer: Tamara Dawit
Editors: Biel Andrés, Jeppe Bødskov, Siyi Chen

In the heart of Ethiopia, the arrival of a sprawling industrial park finds a dusty farming town at the new frontier of globalization. Motto, a formidable Chinese businesswoman overseeing her factory’s expansion, finds she needs every bit of mettle and charm she has to push through their ambitious plans, which promise 30,000 new jobs. Some would call her approach ruthless. Meanwhile, Ethiopian farmer Workinesh and factory worker Beti have staked their future on the opportunities the park promises. But as initial hope meets painful realities, they find themselves, like their country, at a pivotal crossroads.

Max Duncan is a filmmaker, director of photography, and journalist. His award-winning documentary and reportage has appeared on the BBC, PBS VICE, The Guardian, The New York Times and Al Jazeera. He lived and worked in China for a decade. Xinyan Yu is an award-winning video journalist and filmmaker based in Washington, DC. She was born and raised in Wuhan, China.

MERCHANT IVORY

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OPENING NIGHT FILM
Sponsored by EPIC

MERCHANT IVORY

THURS, 12/5, 8:00pm, 111 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director Stephen Soucy and James Ivory in attendance for Q&A

Cocktail reception follows the film screening

Director: Stephen Soucy
Producers: Stephen Soucy, Jon Hart
Editors: Humphrey Dixon, Katherine Wenning, John Allen
Cinematographer: Tony Pierce Roberts

The film is the definitive presentation and tribute to the Merchant Ivory partnership, anchored by interviews with James Ivory and forty-one Merchant Ivory close collaborators, detailing and celebrating their experiences of being a part of the “wandering company” helmed by legendary producer Ismail Merchant. With six Academy Award-winners among the notable artists participating, including Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave, the documentary provides new and compelling perspectives on a unique partnership that produced seminal films over four decades.

Stephen Soucy is a film director at Modernist Film. Merchant Ivory is his first feature-length documentary, made in collaboration with Director and Screenwriter, James Ivory. Soucy’s other film work includes the short animated film Rich Atmosphere: The Music of Merchant Ivory Films and the short narrative films A Gifted Amateur and Slant.

MISTRESS DISPELLER

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Co-presented with the Sag Harbor Cinema

MISTRESS DISPELLER

SUN, 12/8, 4:30pm, 95 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director Elizabeth Lo via Zoom for Q&A

Director: Elizabeth Lo
Producers: Emma D. Miller, Elizabeth Lo, Maggie Li
Editor: Charlotte Munch Bengtsen
Cinematographer: Elizabeth Lo

Mistress Dispeller takes place in China, where a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Desperate to save her marriage, Mrs. Li hires a professional to go undercover and break up Mr. Li’s affair with a younger woman. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.

Elizabeth Lo’s debut feature, Stray, won Best International Feature at Hot Docs and was a critic’s pick of The New York Times. Her short films, including Hotel 22, Bisonhead, and Mother’s Day, have been acquired by colleges and libraries worldwide. Lo was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

MÚSICA!

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2024 ART & INSPIRATION AWARD
Sponsored by the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation

MÚSICA!

THURS, 12/5, 5:30pm, 72 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman in attendance for Q&A

Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Producers: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Machu Latorre
Editor: Susan Fanshel
Cinematographers: Roberto Chile, Buddy Squires

Over the course of five years, Música! follows four young Cubans who view music as a way of life. Through music, they hope to find success and fulfillment, some choosing to remain in Cuba, and some seeking to venture out into the world beyond. A touching and personal portrait of four young musicians driven by their commitment and passion for the art. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have been making films together since 1987. Their first film was Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. The film won the Academy Award in 1990 for Best Documentary Feature and a Peabody Award. The pair also won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for The Times of Harvey Milk and a Grammy Award for their documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. The Celluloid Closet was another award-winning documentary from the two filmmakers.

PLASTIC PEOPLE: THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MICROPLASTICS

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ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

PLASTIC PEOPLE: THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MICROPLASTICS

MON, 12/9, 8:00pm, 84 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Ziya Tong via Zoom for Q&A

Directors: Ben Addelman, Ziya Tong
Producers: Vanessa Dylyn, Stephen Paniccia
Editor: Ania Smolenskaia
Cinematographer: Roger Singh

This film is a ground-breaking investigation into our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made breaks down into microplastics. These tiny particles drift in the air, float in all bodies of water, and mix into the soil, becoming a permanent part of the environment. Now, leading scientists are finding these particles in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue, and even the placentas of new mothers. Can anything be done about it?

Ben Addelman is the director of four award-winning feature documentaries (Discordia, Nollywood Babylon, Bombay Calling, Kivalina vs Exxon) and numerous TV series (Becoming You, Payday, Limitless). Science journalist Ziya Tong takes a personal approach by visiting leading scientists around the world and by undergoing testing to find plastic in her home, food, and body.

ROGER & ME

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ROGER & ME

Sat, 12/7, 91 min, follows the Pennebaker Award presentation
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Michael Moore in attendance for discussion

Director: Michael Moore
Producer: Michael Moore
Editors: Jennifer Beman, Wendey Stanzler

Roger & Me, released 35 years ago, has aged well. Its message was prescient, capturing the devastating effects of globalization on the American middle class that have only gotten worse with time. Esquire magazine, in a 2014 article celebrating the film’s 25th anniversary, notes: “It remains the definitive documentary study of post-industrial America, a both chilling and heartwarming portrait of what happens when the economic order underlying society is altered, and the terms by which people live are completely transformed.” A darkly comical, satirical, and prophetic documentary, this was Moore’s directorial debut which he also wrote, produced, and starred in.

Ex-journalist Michael Moore demands answers when General Motors suddenly closes the doors of all its auto plants in Flint, Michigan, the city where he grew up. With over 30,000 people out of work – their jobs moved to Mexico – Flint is economically devastated, and Moore aims to track down General Motors CEO Roger Smith to make him answer for his actions. While on the search, Moore also chronicles the emotional effect the closings have had on his family and friends, while violent crimes begin to skyrocket in Flint.

The film has won numerous awards since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1989, and in 2013, was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

SHORTS & BREAKFAST BITES: PROGRAM 1

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SHORTS & BREAKFAST BITES: PROGRAM 1

SAT, 12/7, 09:30AM, 84 min program
BAY STREET THEATER

Join us for a delicious breakfast to begin your day
then take in a great program of documentary short films.
9:30am Breakfast, 10:00am Films

Sponsored by Sharon Held

TEN TIMES BETTER

31min

Director: Jennifer Lin
Producers: Jon Funabiki, Jennifer Lin, Cory Stieg

Director Jennifer Lin in attendance for Q&A

Driven by his refugee mother to be “ten times better” in white America, George Lee is the quintessential invisible immigrant with an extraordinary past. The 89-year- old blackjack dealer grew up in Shanghai studying ballet and became a teenage sensation when he was handpicked by George Balanchine for the 1954 premiere of The Nutcracker.

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DID YOU FORGET MR. FOGEL?

15min

Director: Max Karpman
Producers: Francesca Hill, Kaylee Smith

Director Max Karpman in attendance for Q&A

When American teacher Marc Fogel is sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison, his family strives to remain united as they launch a campaign to bring him back home.

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THE ART OF METAPHOR

16min

Directors: Kate Taverna
Producers: Alan Adelson, Kate Taverna

Director Kate Taverna in attendance for Q&A

An artist obsessed for decades with creating imaginative and haunting structures to honor lost friends ironically lives with the continual threat of her own eviction.

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JUMPMAN

22min

Directors: Tom Dey
Producers: Tom Dey, Coliena Rentmeester

This is the story of the photographer who created the 1984 LIFE portrait of Michael Jordan that was copied by Nike and turned into one of the world's most famous logos.

SHORTS & BREAKFAST BITES: PROGRAM 2

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SHORTS & BREAKFAST BITES: PROGRAM 2

SAT, 12/8, 09:30AM, 95 min program
BAY STREET THEATER

Join us for a delicious breakfast to begin your day
then take in a great program of documentary short films.
9:30am Breakfast, 10:00am Films

FILMING UNDER FIRE: JOHN FORD’S OSS FIELD PHOTO BRANCH

22min

Director: Dan Gagliasso
Producer: Charles Pinck

World War II was fought on many fronts – one of them was film. This film tells the story of how six-time Academy Award-winning director John Ford, and many of the leading filmmakers of the time, contributed to America’s victory in the war through their work in the OSS Field Photographic Branch.

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FIRST FRAMES

27min

Director: Ilie Mitaru
Producers: Zeynep Bilginsoy, Ilie Mitaru

This short follows photographer and Syrian refugee Serbest Salih and his mobile darkroom to overlooked communities across Turkey, where children contend with access to 26 school, memory, and displacement from devastating earthquakes. The film unfolds almost completely from the child’s perspective.

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FROM PEN TO PAPER

29min

Directors: Paul Sutton, Lori Sutton
Producers: Paul Sutton, Lori Sutton

Twenty-four prisoners – mostly lifers – sat across from a dozen students at a maximum security prison yard in Southern California as part of an innovative 14-week, creative writing program. Through their intimate collaboration, both groups find hope and humanity in a place where they had expected neither.

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BIRDFEEDER

12min

Director: Daniel Feighery
Producers: Natalia Payne, Evan Mascgani, Daniel Feighery

Director Daniel Feighery in attendance for Q&A

Birdfeeder is not just a documentary about birds; it’s a visual and emotional exploration of the human connection to the urban wild, the challenges faced in the time of hardship, and the profound impact of the natural world on the human soul.

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HOMETOWN HEROES

Winning student film premiere

Hamptons Doc Fest is proud to support the next generation of young filmmakers by inviting East End middle and high school students to create an original short documentary that showcases a hometown hero – anyone from nurses, doctors, teachers, artists, athletes or a family member – who has inspired them. HDF is thrilled to premiere the winning film and present the director with an award and monetary scholarship.

SOLDIERS OF SONG

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SOLDIERS OF SONG

FRI, 12/6, 2:30pm, 90 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Ryan Smith in attendance for Q&A

Director: Ryan Smith
Producer: Ryan Smith
Editors: Kadim Tarasov, Julia Bolshinska
Cinematographers: Artem Poznanskyi, Stas Gurenko, Kadim Tarasov, Julia Bolshakova, Bastian Fischer, Vicky Markolefa, Yegor Terletskyi, Mykola Hrinenko, Oleg Giyenko, Lev Kostenko, Olga Gurenko, Illia Kolbasin, Yaroslav Nikolyn, Sergey Malii

Set during the genocidal Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the film delves into the extraordinary journey of Ukraine’s musicians as they strive to unite their nation through the transformative power of music. Some of the country’s most beloved musicians – Slava Vakarchuk, Andriy Khlyvnyuk, and Svitlana Tarabarova – open their hearts and share their experiences of life under the shadow of Russian aggression. The production team persevered through air raid sirens, power outages, and the echoes of missiles to craft a narrative that captures the resilience, culture, and spirit of the Ukrainian people.

Ryan Smith’s previous work, NFL 360: Who If Not Us, followed a group of football players in Ukraine who confronted the turmoil of the Russian invasion by joining the military in defense of their country.

THE BATTLE FOR LAIKIPIA

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The Ford Foundation’s Just Films has supported this film as part of their mission to promote social justice issues.

THE BATTLE FOR LAIKIPIA

WED, 12/11, 5:00pm, 94 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Directors: Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi
Producers: Toni Kamau, Daphne Matziaraki
Editor: Sam Soko
Cinematographers: Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi, Maya Craig

Unresolved historical injustices and climate change raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven. As lack of rainfall wreaks havoc on plant life, the Samburu people struggle to find grazing pasture for their cattle. While past troubles have led the tribe and the landowners to occasionally cooperate, tensions now lead to chaos. Both sides feel the land is theirs.

Daphne Matziaraki is a Greek director, writer and producer. Her thesis film, 4.1 Miles, received a 2017 Peabody Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, Short Subject. Peter Murimi is an award-winning Kenyan documentary director. He won the CNN Africa Journalist of the Year Award in 2004. His feature I Am Samuel was screened at over a dozen film festivals.