The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival Hits Bay Street December 1
The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival returns to Sag Harbor from December 1–4. Billed as “all docs all day,” this exciting event features great films, lively question-and-answer sessions, awards, celebrations, cocktail receptions and more. This year, 25 films will be presented from hundreds submitted. Just a few of the films: Hearing is Believing, Saving Jamaica Bay, Obit, In Search of Israeli Cuisine, Beauty & the Beer. Co-hosting the festival are Andrew Botsford and Bonnie Grice.
The special opening night film is Lana Jokel’s A Moment in Time: Hamptons Artists. In the 1990s, Jokel filmed acclaimed East End artists in their studios and talked to them about their creative process. Artists featured include John Alexander, April Gornik, Sven Lukin, Nathan Joseph, Li-Lan, Eric Fischl, Elizabeth Strong Cuevas, Donald Sultan, Audrey Flack, Howard Kanovitz, John Chamberlain and Robert Dash. Jokel has done documentaries on other artists such as Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Lee Krasner and others. In 2013 Jokel received the Filmmaker’s Choice Award from the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival. Jokel will give a Q&A after the screening.
On Friday, December 2, the Take 2 Documentary Film Festival will feature several films as part of an American Masters tribute, celebrating three decades of the iconic series. Creator Susan Lacy and Executive Producer Michael Kantor will receive awards for their exemplary work. The first film, Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future, screens at 6 p.m. and will feature a Q&A with director Peter Rosen. Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future tells the story of the legendary Finnish-American modernist architect and the visionary buildings he created.
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise will screen at 8:30 p.m. Directed by Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack, And Still I Rise celebrates the life and words of Angelou with rare and intimate archival photographs and videos, as well as interviews with President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson and others. The film will be preceded by a cocktail reception and awards ceremony to honor producers Michael Kantor and Lacy, with a conversation hosted by Susan Margolin. A Q&A with Hercules and Coburn Whack follows the film.
This year’s Career Achievement Award will go to Alex Gibney. On Saturday, December 3, there will be a cocktail reception followed by the award ceremony and screening of Gibney’s film, Zero Days. A documentary thriller about the world of “cyberwar,” Zero Days tells the story of Stuxnet, a piece of self-replicating computer malware that the United States and Israel unleashed to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility.
The closing night film is Unlocking the Cage, directed by Sag Harborites Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker. The film follows animal rights attorney Steven Wise in his attempt to transform a chimpanzee from a “thing” to a “person” with legal rights. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Hegedus and Pennebaker. The two filmmakers were honorees in the 2013 Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival.
For tickets, passes and a complete list of films being screened at the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, visit ht2ff.com. Films will be screened at Bay Street Theater, 1 Bay Street, Sag Harbor.