HIFF SummerDocs: “Page One”

The 2011 Hamptons International Film Festival SummerDocs program marches on with the July 22 screening of Page One: Inside the New York Times at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton at 8 p.m. Andrew Rossi’s Page One is a documentary showing a whole year behind the scenes at The New York Times. Alec Baldwin is scheduled to take time off from his Miami filming schedule to jet back to East Hampton in order to moderate the post-screening discussion that makes SummerDocs that much more entertaining.

HIFF Executive Director Karen Arikian, Director of Programming David Nugent and board member Alec Baldwin have once again selected a timely film about the print media.

The 2011 SummerDocs season was launched when a sold-out crowd watched the screening of Buck, a Cindy Meehl-directed film about Buck Brannaman, a dynamic man who is a true horse whisperer. James Lipton and Meehl led that post-film discussion. Baldwin will play that role for Page One, and as David Nugent said, he “has nothing less than huge admiration” for the job Baldlwin does “selecting and hosting” SummerDocs. [expand]

As for Page One, director Andrew Rossi and co-writer Kate Novack present the colorful media reporter for the Times, David Carr, in a way that will make you search for his work after the screening. Some believe the villain of the movie could be real estate mogul Sam Zell, who purchased the Tribune Company through his massive leverage. The Tribune Company consisted of the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and other media sources. Maybe it’s bad management, maybe just a sign of the times, but the reality of bankruptcy is showing its ugly face throughout the entire industry.

By the way, the movie references last year’s SummerDocs “Most Dangerous Man,” Daniel Ellsberg, when Times editor Bill Keller admits that “the bottom line, Wikileaks doesn’t need us. Daniel Ellsberg did.” He was referring to the printing of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, as well as the dealings last year of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Wikileaks’ presumed leaker, Private Bradley Manning.

I am a news junkie and just watching the trailer for this film has me counting down the days until I can see it. It is about what journalism has become. The film explains what the media was and why it is heading into the future in a less secure position than many people believe. Quite frankly, this is a must-see and the timing in mid-July will ensure that it is well attended. Kudos to Baldwin for picking this documentary, and once again Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater will have the full attention of a summer Hamptons crowd. Attendees will have the opportunity to absorb through film the essence of what is making our world’s news reporting a changing reality that affects national policy and public opinion. Not to mention the drama of the deadline, known to all in publishing.

Tickets for all SummmerDocs programs can be purchased at either the Guild Hall ticket window or at guildhall.org. [/expand]