Film

Shortly after receiving the news of a fatal diagnosis in early 2015, world-renowned British neurologist, historian, physician, and author Oliver Sacks sat down with filmmaker Ric Burns for a series of lengthy filmed interviews to discuss the story of his life.

On November, 8, 2018, a wildfire broke out near the town of Paradise, California. Over the course of just a few hours, the Camp Fire, as it was called, razed the town and grew into the country's deadliest wildfire in over a century. A year later, in the film “Fire in Paradise” the PBS series FRONTLINE examined the details of the fire by exploring who was to blame and why it was so catastrophic.

There was once a small, eclectic movie house that gave cinema of all kinds a home. It was a place for dreams, for art, and when it tragically burned to the ground, the community rallied around it, rebuilding it to its former glory. If this story sounds familiar, it should — but it is not recalling the catastrophic Main Street fire that partially destroyed the Sag Harbor Cinema in 2016, explained screenwriter Bill Collage.

In the weeks leading up to its reopening, Sag Harbor Cinema (SHC) is presenting “Here Comes the Cinema!” a feast of films celebrating movie houses of all kinds and a tribute to the magic of cinema as a shared experience.

In 2016, USA Gymnastics was rocked by the shocking revelation that national team doctor Larry Nassar had been abusing young athletes for decades. “At The Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal” is a documentary that reveals a dangerous system that prioritized winning over everything else, including protecting young female athletes.

As the creator and executive producer of the American Masters series on PBS, filmmaker Susan Lacy has profiled a diverse range of cultural and artistic icons in her career. But throughout her 30-plus year career in biographical filmmaking, one type of personality Lacy had never before tackled was someone who worked in the fashion industry — until now.

On August 3, filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker died at age 94 at home in Sag Harbor, leaving behind a legacy that includes dozens of cinéma vérité documentaries, notably “Dont Look Back,” “Monterey Pop” and, of course, “The War Room,” which will screen on Saturday, December 7, at the Southampton Arts Center, as part of the 12th annual Hamptons Doc Fest.

For Alex Gibney, an Oscar-winning documentarian perpetually drawn to stories about power, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was practically irresistible. Once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, in 2017, the reformed oligarch — who rocketed to wealth and prominence in the 1990s, only to serve a decade in prison in Russia and become an unlikely leader of the anti-Putin movement — was finally ready to explain exactly how he got there. And an eager Gibney was ready to listen, cameras rolling.

This year’s festival — the 16th — runs November 15 through 17, with three films offered at venues on both the North and South Forks. The lineup includes dark comedies from Cuba and Colombia, and an animated family film from Argentina and France.

When Julie Andrews set out to write her latest memoir, she knew that she wanted to collaborate with someone she trusted and with whom she could share the most personal and private details of her life ... That someone was her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton.

Founded by Sag Harbor resident Joann Ferrara, Dancing Dreams gives students with a physical disability the opportunity to dance. With the help of volunteers, they tap, sashay and twirl their way across the floor — and in "Perfectly Normal for Me" Hampton Bays director Catherine Tambini has documented it all on film.

Though he lives in Los Angeles these days, film director and writer Todd Robinson has deep roots on the East End. While the subject of his latest film, Vietnam-era pararescueman William Pitsenbarger, hailed from Ohio, not New York, in some ways Robinson’s film about the was locally inspired.

Filmmaker Treva Wurmfeld is drawn to feisty female characters. And in 2014, Becky Hill-Genia commanded her full attention. It was the way she spoke — honestly and openly, with a “no-time-to-lose” energy steeped in empowering philosophies and political ideas, Wurmfeld recalled.

For Pablo Picasso, there was Dora Maar. For Auguste Rodin, Camille Claudel. Behind Jackson Pollock was Lee Krasner, and for Willem de Kooning, there was Elaine. They were the women keeping the engines running, inspiring and supporting their famous partners by, in some cases, dimming their own artistic lights. Filmmaker Tom Dolby is ready to shift that narrative — reimagining the expected path with his first solo directing effort, “The Artist’s Wife.”

Since 2012, Anne Chaisson has served as the executive director of the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF). Recently Chaisson talked about this year’s festival, how the event has evolved since its inaugural year in 1992, and the creation of HamptonsFILM, a new parent company for the organization.