There’s nothing quite like the very first public screening of a film… the anticipation of sitting in a darkened theater, being part of the first audience ever to have that particular shared experience. That will happen with seven features at this year’s festival, and we invite you to experience these World Premieres with the filmmakers, the cast/subjects of the film (in some cases), and us!
ALAN PAKULA: GOING FOR TRUTH
World Premiere
Director: Tom Dolby
World Cinema Documentary
The director of such landmark titles as ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and SOPHIE’S CHOICE, and producer of seminal films like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, lauded filmmaker Alan J. Pakula was unflinching in his commitment to bringing some of the most memorable films of the last half of the 20th century to the big screen. Encompassing Pakula’s personal and professional life as both a figure in the public eye and an extremely private man, director Matthew Miele (HARRY BENSON: SHOOT FIRST, HIFF 2015) brings the director to life once more with a wide-ranging group of cast and crew members from throughout his filmography, including Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Steven Soderbergh, Dustin Hoffman, and dozens more.
THE ARTIST’S WIFE
World Premiere
Director: Tom Dolby
Spotlight / Views From Long Island
Once a promising painter herself, Claire (Lena Olin) gave up on her own career to stand by the side of her famed abstract artist husband Richard (Bruce Dern) for over 20 years. When Richard is unexpectedly diagnosed with dementia during preparations for his latest exhibition, Claire is thrown into a crisis—suddenly torn between her husband’s erratic mood swings and the need to shield his illness from both the art community and their family. Struggling to regain control of her life, Claire takes up painting once again, and must decide whether to stay in the shadows or step into the spotlight.
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.
ON BROADWAY
World Premiere
Director: Oren Jacoby
World Cinema Documentary
An all-star cast tells the inside story of Broadway theatre, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion, and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Featuring key players Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen, the film goes behind the scenes of Broadway’s most groundbreaking shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Including performances by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patti Lupone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin, ON BROADWAY is a hurly-burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business. A Storyville Films Production.
• With additional support from Riki Kane Larimer.
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.
