As you’ve come to expect over the past 15 years, our fan favorite SummerDocs series was back in 2023 with a selection of critically acclaimed films. These indelible portraits screened at the Regal UA East Hampton, followed by conversations with filmmakers and guests.
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Directed by Maite Alberdi
Friday, June 16 | 7:00PM | Regal UA East Hampton
A profound and moving love story that balances vibrant individual and collective remembrance with the longevity of an unbreakable human bond.
Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact. An MTV Documentary Films release.
Followed by film subject Paulina Urrutia in conversation with Artistic Director David Nugent.
Sponsored by:
THE DEEPEST BREATH
Directed by Laura McGann
Saturday, July 8 | 7:00PM | Regal UA East Hampton
Follow a champion freediver and expert safety diver who seemed destined for one another, despite the different paths they took to meet at the pinnacle of the freediving world. A look at the thrilling rewards—and inescapable risks—of chasing dreams through the depths of the ocean.
Champion freediver Alessia Zecchini fell in love with the sport as a child growing up in Italy, astounding coaches with her raw talent and determination in pool swims and open water contests before she was even old enough to legally compete. Irish adventurer-turned-expert safety diver Stephen Keenan, meanwhile, was raised near the sea, but as a young man he set out on a quest to find himself, traveling across Africa before landing in Dahab, Egypt, and establishing a dive school. Despite their very different paths, the two would meet at the pinnacle of the competitive freediving world, discovering a shared passion for pushing their limits and forming a powerful relationship that felt like fate. From director Laura McGann, this thrilling documentary takes a look inside one of the most dangerous sports in the world, using everything from raw underwater dive footage to childhood home movies to chronicle Zecchini and Keenan’s lives and careers. The bond between them propels the film’s emotional journey into the stunning, silent depths of the ocean, a breathtaking place unseen by all but the fortunate few—where exhilarating accomplishments and unavoidable risks await. A Netflix release.
Followed by director Laura McGann in conversation with Artistic Director David Nugent.
JOAN BAEZ I AM A NOISE
Directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, Karen O’Connor
Sunday, August 13 | 7:00PM | Regal UA East Hampton
Facing the end of a 60-year musical career, legendary singer and activist Joan Baez takes an honest look back and a deep look inward as she tries to make sense of her large history-making life and reveals, for the first time, personal struggles she’s kept private, until now.
JOAN BAEZ I AM A NOISE is an unusually intimate psychological portrait of legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez. Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, this immersive documentary shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings. Throughout the film, Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage – from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with MLK and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan. A searingly honest look at a living legend, this film is a compelling and deeply personal exploration of an iconic artist who has never told the full truth of her life, as she experienced it, until now.
Following the film, Joan Baez and Karen O’Connor joined the avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson for an intimate conversation.
Sponsored by
Laurie Anderson is a writer, director, composer, visual artist, musician and vocalist who has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, experimental music, and technology. Her recording career was launched by O Superman in 1981. Anderson has created numerous audio-visual installations as well as films including Heart of a Dog (2015 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals), and has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme, dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley, and scores for theater productions including plays by Robert LePage.
As a performer and musician, she has collaborated with many people including Brian Eno, Jean-Michel Jarre, William S. Burroughs, Peter Gabriel, Robert Wilson, Christian McBride and Philip Glass. Anderson has published ten books and been nominated for five Grammys throughout her recording career. Her visual work is on long term display at MASS MoCA and her three virtual reality works, Chalkroom, Aloft, and To The Moon, collaborations with the artist Hsin-Chien Huang, won several awards including Best VR Experience at the 74th Venice International Film Festival in 2017 and were featured in the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. She has received numerous honorary doctorates, prizes and awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship, Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the Wolf Prize. Her life partner as well as her collaborator was Lou Reed from 1992 onward. They married in 2008 and worked on numerous projects together until his death in 2013. Anderson lives in New York City.
A retrospective of her work, Looking into a Mirror Sideways, is currently on display at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Past SummerDocs selections have gone on to be shortlisted, be nominated and even win an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature Film, including NAVALNY (2023), FIRE OF LOVE (2023), SUMMER OF SOUL (2021), ICARUS (2017), TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM (2013), SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012), and THE COVE (2009).
The series has also featured films from filmmakers including Sara Dosa, Fisher Stevens, Rory Kennedy, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Andrew Rossi, Chiemi Karasawa, Jesse Moss, Morgan Neville, Marina Zenovich, Louie Psihoyos, and Steve James.
