Hamptons Doc Fest 2023 Offers Expanded Program & Vaunted Guests

The ultimate celebration of documentary film on the East End, Hamptons Doc Fest is back for 2023 for its 16th annual festival, now with an extended seven-day program from Thursday, November 30 to Wednesday, December 6. Films will screen at both Sag Harbor Cinema and Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.

“Our 2023 documentary program promises you the power and experience of quality storytelling that surprises us, makes us think and feel, and connects us with wider ideas and concepts,” Hamptons Doc Fest founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro says. “Plus the festival provides us as always with a festive, celebratory opening to the holiday season.”

Featuring 30 documentary films covering a wide swath of subjects, this year’s festival brings back favorite portions of the program from years past, along with some new additions to the festival lineup. And, as always, Hamptons Doc Fest has chosen only the very best and most important films for our local viewing pleasure.

“We had a lot of films (submitted),” explains Lofaro, pointing out that the festival gets many submissions, but they also seek out excellent docs from a variety of other festivals each year. “It’s very difficult to get into our festival because we only have a certain number of slots, and we don’t like to program against ourselves,” she continues, adding, “People like that, and I can understand it. I like it myself.”

Among the 30 films screening this year, the festival opens November 30 at Sag Harbor Cinema on with In the Company of Rose directed by James Lapine, about widow Rose Styron’s life with novelist William Styron. Styron will Zoom in from her home in Martha’s Vineyard for a conversation moderated by Susan Lacey about the film with Lapine, who will be in attendance.

“We have a large percentage of the filmmakers coming to the festival to do a live Q&A,” Lofaro says. “It should be a very wonderful conversation.”

Earlier on November 30, the actual first screening of the festival will be its  Art & Inspiration Award winner Call Me Dancer, a joyful film about the power of dance, co-directed by Leslie Shampaine and Pip Gilmour. In it, Manish Chauhan, a young street dancer in Mumbai, India, yearns to become a professional dancer. He goes against his parents’ wishes and secretly attends an inner-city dance school in Mumbai. Shampaine, who is a professional ballet dancer, will be on hand for the live Q&A.

Lofaro also points to Orca — Black & White Gold, screening Friday, December 1, as “docu-thriller exposing the illegal trade in endangered wild orcas.” Sarah Nörenberg, who makes her directorial debut with this film, will attend a live Q&A.

The festival’s Impact Award goes to Regina K. Scully, founder of Artemis Rising Foundation for Obsessed with Light, a film by directed by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum about the life of Loïe Fuller, a wildly original dancer, who combined dance, light and fabric, and was also an inventor who over a century ago pioneered and patented the creative use of electric lighting for the stage, used by rock stars today. It screens December 1 at 7:30 p.m. followed by a live Q&A with New York Women in Film & Television executive director Cynthia Lopez and the two directors, with a cocktail reception after that.

“She is a major player in the world of documentary film, either by funding or producing,” Lofaro says of Scully.

New this year, Lofaro says she’s very excited about the festival’s two-day Shorts & Breakfast Bites program featuring breakfast and several documentary shorts (films traditionally 40 minutes or less) on Saturday and Sunday mornings at Bay Street.

On Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m., a gala will be held in honor of Matthew Heineman receiving the Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, starting with a cocktail/buffet reception, followed by an 8 p.m. awards presentation to Heineman with a screening of his latest film American Symphony about composer and instrumentalist Jon Batiste, the former bandleader and musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who is also an 11-time Grammy-nominated and Album-of-the-Year winner in 2022 for his album We Are.

Hamptons Doc Fest’s first Legacy Award will be presented posthumously to Nancy Buirski by Buirski’s friends and HDF Advisory Board members Susan Margolin and Chris Hegedus to her sister Judith Cohen. Scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, the tribute will also include a screening of Buirski’s film The Loving Story, which recounts the story of Mildred and Richard Loving’s quest as an interracial couple to marry in the state of Virginia, leading to a historic Supreme Court decision outlawing anti-miscegenation laws.

The complete packed schedule of films, which is available at hamptonsdocfest.com, concludes at Bay Street Theater on Wednesday, December 6 with a 7 p.m. screening of director Frank Marshall’s Rather about newscaster Dan Rather. Following the film, there will be a Zoom Q&A with Rather’s grandson Martin Rather, a participant in the film. Marshall and his wife Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg are creators of the production company Amblin Entertainment. He is one of the few creatives to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT).

“Who doesn’t remember Dan Rather? He was a big part of our culture,” Lofaro explains, again pointing out that the festival has quite a diverse range of films.

“We do try to balance important films with films that are inspiring and uplifting. You get the total festival experience with us,” she says.

Get tickets and plan your Hamptons Doc Fest week at the festival’s website, hamptonsdocfest.com.