The first films in the HIFF 2019 lineup were announced today, including four world premieres:
- Treva Wurmfeld’s CONSCIENCE POINT, a ground level documentation of the Shinnecock Nation and their ongoing fight for recognition of their ancestral rights in Southampton (Views from Long Island)
- Anthony Baxter’s FLINT, a riveting documentary about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, that brought a national spotlight to issues of economic depression and water treatment across the country (Air, Land + Sea)
- Ben Steele’s IN MEMORIAM, an intimate and powerful look at the human cost of the country’s mass shooting epidemic (World Documentary Cinema)
- and Mark Landsman’s SCANDALOUS, an expansive and probing look into the true story of The National Enquirer, the most infamous tabloid in U.S. history (World Documentary Cinema)
“Each of these films tell a unique, thrilling story, and we are excited to share them with our passionate audiences out east, with a truly remarkable lineup of some of the year’s most anticipated films, events and world premiere screenings,” said David Nugent, Artistic Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival.
CONSCIENCE POINT
World Premiere
Director: Treva Wurmfeld
Views From Long Island
For decades, the home of the Shinnecock Nation has been the subject of a brutal fight for ownership in the Hamptons, with an increased push for real estate development coming to a head against both the safety margin of Long Island’s environmental equilibrium and ties to ancestral homelands throughout the region. Following longtime Shinnecock activist Becky Hill-Genia and those fighting by her side, CONSCIENCE POINT takes a ground-level approach to documenting the almost two-decade-long battle for preservation that has come to encompass not only questions of land ownership, but the moralities of environmental use and income inequality within one of America’s wealthiest zip code.
FLINT
World Premiere
Director: Anthony Baxter
Air, Land + Sea
More than half a century removed from its status as a leading force in the U.S. manufacturing industry, the city of Flint, Michigan, has now become synonymous with a water crisis forcing a national spotlight on issues of economic depression and water treatment across the country. Narrated by Alec Baldwin and directed by HIFF Alum Anthony Baxter (YOU’VE BEEN TRUMPED, A DANGEROUS GAME), FLINT reveals how the city’s life-threatening water crisis has gradually evolved into a crisis of accountability and trust in authorities, a battle between science and pseudoscience, and an institutionalized failure in local infrastructure. Looking at not only the crisis itself, but the enduring issues of partisan politics and environmental resources on which it continues to shed light, FLINT is an illuminating look at a modern American tragedy.
IN MEMORIAM
World Premiere
Director: Ben Steele
World Cinema Documentary
In the United States, an active shooter incident now occurs every 12 days. IN MEMORIAM looks at the human cost of the country’s mass shooting epidemic through the surviving communities of three of the deadliest in U.S history: the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in Texas, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Moving beyond the debates that often dominate the discourse following mass shootings, filmmaker Ben Steele looks to the survivors, relatives and locals left grieving in the aftermath to examine the painful memories, lingering effects, and necessary questions left in their wake.
SCANDALOUS
World Premiere
Director: Mark Landsman
World Cinema Documentary
For over 60 years, The National Enquirer has been at the center of the American public’s fascination with the rich and famous, as its salacious headlines and coverage of events—ranging from Elvis’s death to the O.J. murder trial—have fueled the darkest curiosities of a hungry audience. With rare archival footage and revelations about the alleged blackmail and payoffs used to get their most defining scoops, SCANDALOUS presents an expansive and probing look into the true story of the most infamous tabloid in U.S. history, charting how it pushed its own particular brand of fake news from the fringe to the mainstream.
The 27th annual Hamptons International Film Festival will take place Columbus Day Weekend: October 10 – 14, 2019. The Festival is pleased to welcome back returning Premiere Sponsor Audi, Lead Sponsors Delta, Altour and Netflix, Signature Sponsors Douglas Elliman and JP Morgan, and Official Media Sponsors WNBC, The East Hampton Star, and Purist Magazine.
