This summer, SummerDocs hosts Alec Baldwin (HIFF Co-Chair) and David Nugent (Artistic Director) will once again lead conversations with filmmakers and guests, presenting new and groundbreaking documentary filmmaking and thought-provoking stories to the East End. Presented in partnership with Guild Hall.
“We are proud of how the SummerDocs series has grown over the last 10 years. Bringing exciting documentaries, featuring powerful stories, to our festival community is now a significant part of our programming,” said HIFF Co-Chairman and SummerDocs series presenter Alec Baldwin.
“With fascinating documentaries that showcase topics including a brave group of female sailors, a wild and intriguing investigation into plane crash from over 50 years ago, and a straight couple’s story of owning a gay porn shop, our audience will once again get a peek at some of the best non fiction work of the year,” said HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent.
Read more about the films below.
MAIDEN
Directed by Alex Holmes
Saturday, June 29 | 7:00PM | Guild Hall
Tickets
Followed by director Alex Holmes in conversation with HIFF Co-Chair Alec Baldwin and Artistic Director David Nugent.
In 1989, the very idea of a competitive all-female sailboat crew was nearly inconceivable to the manly world of open-ocean yacht racing. They’d never make it to the start of the Whitbread Round the World Race, much less survive to the finish. They’d never find funding. They didn’t have the strength or skill. They’d die at sea. Did that many professional female sailors even exist?
Tracy Edwards proved them wrong. 26-year-old skipper Edwards, her second-hand racing yacht Maiden, and her seasoned crew not only became the first-ever all-woman challenge to the Whitbread, they proved able competitors in the famously grueling race, besting male crews in their class. By the time they returned to their starting point at Southampton, England, after 32,000 miles of global racing, they had shocked, inspired, and transfixed the sailing world and the British nation. Tracy Edwards was awarded the 1990 Yachtsman of the Year Award, the first woman ever to receive the accolade, and was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
Sponsored by Woodford Reserve and Scott Seltzer, Managing Director, The Seltzer Group, J.P. Morgan Securities. An additional special thanks to DuJour Media and The Baker House.
COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD
Directed by Mads Brügger
Saturday, July 20 | 7:00PM | Guild Hall
Tickets
In 1961, United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved 50-plus years later, Danish journalist, filmmaker, and provocateur Mads Brügger (The Red Chapel, The Ambassador) leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends, and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they’d initially imagined.
In his signature agitprop style, Brügger becomes both filmmaker and subject, challenging the very nature of truth by “performing” the role of truth seeker. As Brügger uncovers a critical secret that could send shockwaves around the world, we realize that sometimes absurdity and irony are the emboldening ingredients needed to confront what’s truly sinister.
A Magnolia Pictures release.
CIRCUS OF BOOKS
Directed by Rachel Mason
Saturday, August 24 | 7:00PM | Guild Hall
Tickets
For over 35 years, the gay porn shop, Circus of Books, served as the epicenter for LGBT life and culture in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to many in the community it served, the store was cultivated and cared for by its owners, Karen and Barry Mason: a straight couple with three children. CIRCUS OF BOOKS is an intimate portrait of the Masons and their journey to become one of the biggest distributors of hardcore gay porn in the United States. Their story unfolds through the lens of their daughter, filmmaker and artist Rachel Mason.
A Netflix release.
Past SummerDocs selections, including ICARUS (2017), TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM (2013), LAST DAYS OF VIETNAM (2014), THE COVE (2009), SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012) and HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012), have gone on to receive Academy Award® wins and nominations. What will audiences discover this year?
Candescent Films returns to sponsor the Audience Award for the 2019 SummerDocs series. Candescent Films supports documentaries that illuminate social issues. Join the conversation @CandescentFilms.
