Created by Chief Creative Officer David Nugent and HIFF Co-chair Alec Baldwin, HamptonsFilm’s acclaimed SummerDocs series returns in Summer 2026 for its 18th season with a stellar lineup, in partnership with Guild Hall. Screenings in the Hamptons are followed by engaging conversations with acclaimed filmmakers and guests.
Tickets are now on sale on the Guild Hall website, with a discount for HamptonsFilm members.
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KNIFE: THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF SALMAN RUSHDIE
Directed by Alex Gibney
Saturday, June 27th, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
More than 30 years after Iran issued a fatwa, a religious decree calling for author Salman Rushdie’s death over The Satanic Verses, Rushdie traveled to Chautauqua to speak about the United States as a sanctuary for exiled writers and artists. The event marked the 20th anniversary of a writer-refuge program—a setting meant to celebrate safety and creative freedom. It was there, in an unrelated incident, that a young man rushed the stage, intent on killing him with a knife. Using excerpts from Rushdie’s works, including his powerful memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, Alex Gibney’s documentary is both a striking testament to freedom of expression and a defiant response to the attempt on Rushdie’s life.
The film incorporates never-before-seen footage shot by Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, in the days and weeks following the attack. This material offers a graphic, unflinching, and deeply intimate account of what happened. It also traces Rushdie’s physical and spiritual recovery, including the challenges he continues to face, from losing an eye to the reduced use of one hand.
KNIFE blends reportage with fictionalized dialogues to explore the mindset of the attacker, probing the “why” behind the violence. At its core, the film is a portrait of resilience—of Rushdie’s own extraordinary strength and the love that carried him through—and a call to action against censorship and hatred. It argues that art itself can be a form of resistance.
Gibney has crafted a poetic dreamscape that reflects how Rushdie views his writing as his own “knife,” a tool to fight back, reclaim his story, and respond to violence with imagination and art.
Q&A to follow with Alex Gibney, moderated by HamptonsFilm Co-Chair Alec Baldwin and Chief Creative Officer David Nugent.
Directed by Alden Nusser and Ben Fries
Saturday, August 1st, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
The divorce of the century turned Jocelyne Wildenstein—often referred to in the media as ‘The Catwoman’—into a ’90s tabloid obsession, bringing the private Wildenstein art empire into the spotlight. THE LION QUEEN explores the life of a woman shaped by extraordinary wealth and scrutiny, offering a revealing look at the personal cost of fame and fortune.
Q&A to follow with producer Caroline Baron, moderated by HamptonsFilm Co-Chair Alec Baldwin and Chief Creative Officer David Nugent.
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev
Thursday, August 29th, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
In THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2, Amir Bar-Lev tells a complex, harrowing, and moving story that unpacks the industry of extreme mountain climbing and its changing culture.
Focusing on a 2021 expedition, mountaineers John Snorri Sigurjónsson, an Icelander, and Pakistani father-son team Ali and Sajid Sadpara set out to be the first to summit K2 in the winter, when the mountain’s conditions are the cruelest. The men soon find themselves sharing the treacherous ascent with influencer climbers and their film crews, commercial expedition clients, and Nims, a Nepalese celebrity mountaineer, and his team of Sherpas.
THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2 takes us to the icy heights and unpredictable weather of K2 and reveals a surprising and layered story—one of strategy and determination, class and caste, money and power—all under life and death circumstances. An Apple Original Films release.
Q&A to follow with Amir Bar-Lev, moderated by HamptonsFilm Co-Chair Alec Baldwin and Chief Creative Officer David Nugent.
Many films screened at SummerDocs have achieved global awards success, including SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY, NAVALNY, THE ETERNAL MEMORY, FIRE OF LOVE, SUMMER OF SOUL, SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN, TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM, THE COVE, ICARUS and many more!
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>> Check out the archive of SummerDocs screenings since 2009.
