DEADLINE: Hamptons Doc Fest To Honor Michael Moore, ‘Zurawski V Texas’ And ‘Daughters,’ Showcase ‘Merchant Ivory,’ ‘The Bones’ & More
By Matthew Carey
EXCLUSIVE: Hamptons Doc Fest announced the full slate of films today for the upcoming 17th edition of the event in Sag Habor, New York, and revealed a group of honorees that includes documentary titan Michael Moore.
The Oscar-winning director of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 will receive the elite festival’s Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, an honor named for late pioneer of direct cinema D.A. Pennebaker, who was a longtime Sag Harbor resident. In conjunction with the award, Hamptons Doc Fest will screen Moore’s 1989 film Roger & Me, the documentary that launched his career. Among the previous recipients of the Pennebaker Career Achievement Aware are Sheila Nevins, Richard Leacock, Susan Lacy, Barbara Kopple, Stanley Nelson Jr., Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Frederick Wiseman, and Pennebaker himself, as well as filmmaker Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s widow.
Hamptons Doc Fest, set to unspool at the Sag Harbor Cinema and Bay Street Theater from December 5-11, will kick off with Merchant Ivory, Stephen Soucy’s documentary about the cinematic and romantic partnership of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant. Ivory, now 96, participates in the film, which premiered at DOC NYC. Doc Fest will close Dec. 11 with a screening of The Bones, directed by Jeremy Xido, a film that examines the trade in dinosaur fossils, an increasingly high-stakes competition that is pitting scientists and museums against private collectors – some of them billionaires.
Oscar contenders Daughters, Zurawski v Texas, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, A New Kind of Wilderness, Union, and the acclaimed Mistress Dispeller and A Photographic Memory are among the other films on the Doc Fest slate. Scroll for the full lineup.
“Join us for a week of looking back and moving forward with a dynamic line-up of documentary films,” said Jacqui Lofaro, founder and executive director of Hamptons Doc Fest. “We are thrilled not only to showcase the extraordinary work of a diverse group of talented documentary filmmakers but also to recognize the people and organizations that make it all possible. Please come along for the ride – we think you’ll love the journey.”
In addition to honoring Michael Moore, the festival will also recognize select films with special awards:
The Art & Inspiration Award to Música! directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
The Environmental Award to Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics directed by Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong
The Human Rights Award to Zurawski v Texas directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault.
In partnership with New York Women in Film and Television, the festival will honor Angela Patton and Natalie Rae with its Breakthrough Director Award for their first feature, Daughters.
Hamptons Doc Fest’s Impact Award will go to the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, recognizing “the organization’s on-going and committed funding of films on social justice, including two that are in this year’s festival: Union by Brett Story and Stephen Maing and The Battle for Laikipia by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi.”
As part of its annual education initiative, Hamptons Doc Fest will present Young Voices, a program dedicated to local community youth in middle and high schools. The program is co-presented with LTV Studios and will include a film screening, hands-on workshop, and studio tour.