HIFF Holds 7th Annual SummerDocs Series
Alec Baldwin returns as presenter for The Hamptons International Film Festival’s 7th annual SummerDocs series, running July 11–August 28.
The screenings will take place at Guild Hall and will feature the documentary films Best of Enemies on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m., Listen to me Marlon on Saturday, August 1, at 8 p.m., and Peace Officer on Friday, August, 28 at 7:30 p.m.. This year the series is presented by TNT. After the showing of Best of Enemies, directors Robert Gordon and Academy Award winner Morgan Neville will be there with Dick Cavett for a conversation led by Kurt Andersen, the novelist and radio host. Baldwin will lead conversations with director Stevan Riley for the screening of Listen to Me Marlon and again with writers-directors Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson for Peace Officer. Baldwin said the HIFF program “brings the best in documentary film to Guild Hall during the summertime, when film fans are craving some serious subjects.”
Best of Enemies is directed by Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alumni Morgan Neville. The film explores the changing of television news in the summer of 1968 when ABC hired public intellectuals to debate against each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions to boost their viewer ratings. The film delves into the conflict between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal who argued over their political ideologies on national T.V. and the impact it had on the shift in public discourse of news channels.
Listen to Me Marlon explores Marlon Brando’s acting career and life in a way that uses Brando’s own storytelling to reveal facts. There are no interviewees, no talking heads, just Brando’s voice leading the audience through his own memories by using previously unheard personal audio tapes to reveal his thoughts.
Peace Officer touches on the increasingly militarized state of the American Police force. Told through the story of William “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Dub uses his own investigative skills, with an obsessed sense of mission, to uncover the truth behind the event and other recent officer involved shootings in his community while searching for answers to larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide. Peace Officer debuted at SXSW and was the recipient of the Grand Jury Prize and Documentary Audience award.
Tickets are available for the screenings at guildhall.org or at the Guild Hall box office.
The film festival has announced that its Student Summer Filmmaking Workshops are currently open for enrollment. The workshops, created by the festival’s Executive Director and independent film producer Anne Chaisson, give students from ages 8 to 15 a chance to make their own short films to be showcased on screen for their families and friends. These workshops will be held at Guild Hall in East Hampton from Monday, July 13 to Friday, July 17 and at the Southampton Arts Center on Monday, July 27 to Friday, July 31.
The Hamptons International Film Festival will be partnering with the Southampton Arts Center for a third year to offer a summer of free screenings of classic movies. Films will be shown on the lawn at 5 Jobs Lane on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. Films include: Caddyshack on June 26, American Graffiti on July 3, Dirty Dancing on July 10, Some Like it Hot on July 17, Field of Dreams on July 24, Psycho on July 31, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on August 7, a film yet to be announced on August 14, Close Encounters of the Third Kind on August 21, Raiders of the Lost Ark on August 28 and Jaws on September 4.
The 23rd Annual Hamptons International Film Festival will be held over Columbus Day Weekend, October 8 through 12, 2015.