Editor

Panels, Readings, & Special Events with Industry Insiders at The 13th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival: October 19-23, 2005

The Hamptons International Film Festival (October 19-23)offers a number of interactive events including Festival Panels at the Southampton Inn, Bookhampton Talks sponsored by Time Warner Books, the Cinematography Master Class with Declan Quinn, a Daily Town Hall at the Festival Lounge, the Industry Mentor Forum and Conversations with our Rising Star mentors Alec Baldwin & Miranda Richardson and honored guests, Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon at Guild Hall.

Video Activism: Storytelling As Teaching
Thursday, October 20th at 11:30am
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

Film and television have arguably usurped the role of family and community storyteller in the lives of many young people today. Recognizing the important role that stories and film play in the development of a child’s life, SHADOWHOOD, was created to serve as a “video mentor.” Developed in collaboration with young people and grounded in their actual experiences, this movie traces the stories of teenagers in an at-risk community as they struggle to find their way to adulthood.

Panelists: filmmaker Mark Richardson (SHADOWHOOD); an actor from the film; a representative from the Phoenix House; a student from the Southampton Youth Leaders Group
Moderator: Christopher Marx, Director of Youth Programs for the Dutchess County Workforce Investment Board.

Fashion in Film from Cleopatra to 2046
Thursday, October 20th at 4pm
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

Shortly after the much-heralded Joseph L. Mankiewicz film Cleopatra (1963) was released, the costume spectacle disappeared from American screens for a time. Yet extras who dressed in winged handmaiden costumes during the filming in Rome of this lavish epic were soon to see their styles imitated in fashion and make-up trends on the street. More recently Wang Karwai's film 2046 arguably displayed some of the most glamorous fashion in film, yet the direct effect on street fashion if any, is less obvious.

Where once fashion trends seemed to follow directly from films, now they may lead them or follow from The Academy Awards ceremony, which is anticipated as much for its red carpet parade of styles as for its recognition of cinematic achievements. Where once film style was about glamour now, the actress most likely to win an Oscar is usually the one most willing to take risks like Charlize Theron did in MONSTER and Hillary Swank in BOYS DON'T CRY.

Panelists: fashion designer Zac Posen; his sister and business partner Alexandra Posen; Judith Thurman, the New Yorker's fashion critic, has been writing for the magazine since 1985. Her essays and profiles also cover literature and the arts. She is the author of Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, which won the 1983 National Book Award for Non-Fiction, and was the basis for Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa (on which Thurman served as Associate Producer); and of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, winner of the Salon and Los Angeles Times Book Awards for Biography, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.); Theresa Duncan’s first entertainment title was the video game Chop Suey, created in 1995 with humorist David Sedaris for Fox Interactive. Ms. Duncan's first film The History of Glamour was featured at the Rotterdam Film Festival, The Lincoln Center Festival and South By Southwest. It was selected for inclusion in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, and was distributed in Japan by Uplink. She also writes film and cultural criticism for Artforum, Slate, and other magazines.

Moderator: celebrated television host of “Full Frontal Fashion,” Judy Licht

Screenplay Reading: MAPPING SWAK! by Bill Rebeck
Thursday, October 20th at 5pm
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

The Hamptons Film Festival’s Rising Stars and other celebrated actors will read and discuss Bill Rebeck’s MAPPING SWAK! Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebeck will produce this event.

Bill Rebeck is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Georgetown University; his lab studies genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, investigating their molecular mechanisms. Theresa Rebeck, his sister, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose credits include CATWOMAN, HARRIET THE SPY and NYPD BLUE, among others. Theresa will direct Bill’s script MAPPING SWAK!, a hilarious comedy about finding a gene—and finding love—in the lab.

Cinematography Master Class
Friday, October 21st at 10:30 am
Location: United Artists Theatre, Main Street, East Hampton

Please join David Schwartz, Chief Curator of The Museum of the Moving Image, in conversation with cinematographer Declan Quinn. In 1986, Mr. Quinn photographed his first feature film, Clash of the Ash in Ireland with director Fergus Tighe, going on to photograph The Kill-Off, Vanya on 42 Street, The Ballad of Little Joe, Leaving Las Vegas and Kama Sutra. Mr. Quinn returned to Ireland to complete a special family project called This is My Father, which he co-produced with two of his brothers, Aidan Quinn and Paul Quinn.

Hollywood’s Hidden Agendas: How Business Shapes our Film Culture
Friday, October 21st at 11am
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

Are you looking for a new and exciting product to change your life…when you go to the movies? Whether we want to “buy, buy, buy” or not, the movies are going to sell, sell, sell us on whatever products the dominant advertising agencies want placed in them. What exactly are American movies selling you in this Age of Spin? Why are they doing such a devilishly good job of it? Does the public have a fighting chance against the onslaught of product placement in movies, trailers and even commercials now in movie theaters before the show?

Panelists: Jarrod Moses CEO & President, Alliance Marketing Agency; a representative from the New York State Department of Health; Steven C. Beer, legal representative, producers’ rep, executive producer, producer (THE HEBREW HAMMER, BLUE VINYL, L.I.E.); Meredith Finn, Vice President of Production and Acquisitions, New Line Cinema, and New Line point person for Picturehouse; producer and president of Antidote Films Jeffrey Levy-Hinte (THE HAWK IS DYING, MYSTERIOUS SKIN, THIRTEEN, HIGH ART).

Moderator: Anthony Kaufman writes about film and the film industry for The Village Voice, Variety, Indiewire and numerous other publications.


The Number One Topic in the Film Business: How to Finance and Produce Movies that Matter
Friday, October 21st at 2pm
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

Producers arguably create all value in the film business. On the creative side they discover, develop and manage stories, writers, directors, actors and crew; sustaining them through the moviemaking process. On the business side they navigate and motivate the financiers, multinational conglomerates, studio executives, territorial distributors, international sales agents, the international film festival circuit, and its corresponding film markets—each one hungrily awaiting the producer’s next move and new film.

It is no small surprise then that few producers are able to create significant movies that shun the box-office blockbuster mentality, deal with American and international realities and dare to make a difference in the world. Please join us for a discussion with five of the top independent film producers working today: Ted Hope, Jeff Sharp, John Sloss, Christine Vachon and Dany Wolf. They may not have flashy suits and diamond rings but their track records have earned them something much more important: the industry and the world’s respect.

Panelists: Multiple award-winning film producers Ted Hope (THUMBSUCKER, 21 GRAMS, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, IN THE BEDROOM, THE ICE STORM); John Sloss (BEFORE SUNSET, PIECES OF APRIL, FAR FROM HEAVEN, TADPOLE, and LONE STAR); Dany Wolf (LAST DAYS, JUNEBUG, ELEPHANT, GERRY, FINDING FORRESTER); Jeff Sharp (PROOF, P.S., NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, BOYS DON'T CRY) and Christine Vachon (THE BALLAD OF BETTIE PAGE, FAR FROM HEAVEN, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, BOYS DON’T CRY, KIDS).

Moderator: Peter Belsito, Executive Vice President, Film Finders and consultant on the international, independent film business.

Time Warner Book Event: JEWTOPIA
Friday, October 21st at 2pm
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

From the creators of the off-Broadway smash hit comes a hilarious, fully illustrated revisionist history of the Jewish people, from birth to death. After opening in New York in September, 2004, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson's "Jewtopia" was an instant success, earning back its costs in a record 23 weeks, faster than "The Vagina Monologues" and "The Fantastiks."

Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson started "Jewtopia" by maxing out their credit cards and renting a theater in Los Angeles, where it sold out 300 straight performances. They both reside in New York City, and speak to their mothers an average of 12.6 times per day. Please join Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson at Bookhampton for a lively show-and-tell about their new book-in-progress and their off-Broadway play.

Conversations with Miranda Richardson & Alec Baldwin
Friday, October 21st at 4pm
Location:Guild Hall, East Hampton

This year we are honored to have Alec Baldwin and Miranda Richardson serve as mentors to our Rising Stars. The Hamptons International Film Festival takes distinct pleasure in honoring Mr. Baldwin and Ms. Richardson with the Golden Starfish Award for Career Achievement in Acting.

Icons in the Making: The Process of Creating and Maintaining a Superstar Status
Friday, October 21st at 4pm
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

The number one way to prolong your career as a celebrity may actually be to die. Marilyn Monroe and James Dean will never be forgotten. Those celebrities for whom a violent or sordid death is not an option however, must turn to other methods of attracting attention. A celebrity on celebrity affair or scandal may be the second most treacherous path to fame because inevitably such celebrity couples end up overexposed (which is when the audience actually wishes you were dead). Is death by overexposure the price society demands of its celebrities for taking the risk of breaking down social barriers and taboos? Why are some stars able to last through reincarnation time and again? How are stars “discovered” or “made”? Why do we care so much about celebrities in the first place?

Panelists: Norman Jewison, the acclaimed director of such big hits as THE HURRICANE, MOONSTRUCK, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, who has been making great movies for over 40 years, earned 45 Academy Award nominations and 12 Academy Awards, and been given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars in 1999; a partner from the Gersh Agency; actress Dyan Cannon (BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE, HEAVEN CAN WAIT) who was "discovered" while having lunch on the Sunset Strip.

Moderator: Steven Gaines is a co-founder of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He is also the bestselling author of “Philistines at the Hedgerow, Passion and Property in the Hamptons” and “The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan.” A contributing editor at New York magazine, Mr. Gaines is the host of two popular weekly radio interview shows, “Sunday Brunch Live from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor” and the award winning “Steven Gaines’ East End,” both on WLIU FM, the NPR affiliate in Southampton, New York.

Antidote for the New “Ugly American”
Friday, October 21st at 5pm
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

Made famous by a 1963 film starring Marlon Brando, the phrase "the Ugly American" originated with a best-selling 1958 book exposing American arrogance, incompetence and corruption in Asia after World War II. It has come to refer to Americans abroad who are overbearing, culturally insensitive and politically unsophisticated. Today, the phrase also aptly describes the Hollywood tradition of exporting B grade stories via satellite and major motion pictures that give a distorted view of America, while the rest of the world remains invisible to us. Aside from figuring out how to help foreign filmmakers get the U.S. and international distribution their stories deserve, we need to hear and support more filmmakers like the ones on this panel who dare to understand the world through the eyes of people in other countries. These filmmakers do the world a great service by making those formerly "invisible" people and places in the world, visible to us.

Panelists: Jesse Atlas (AT THE GREEN LINE); Ellen Perry (THE FALL OF FUJIMORI); Academy award winning producer Geralyn Dreyfous (BORN INTO BROTHELS);

Moderator: Anthony Kaufman writes about film and the film industry for The Village Voice, Variety, Indiewire and numerous other publications.


Rising Stars Roundtable with Alan Cumming
Saturday, October 22nd at 11am
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton
The Rising Stars program at the Hamptons was the first major U.S. film festival program to focus on the generous and creative expression that emerging actors bring to the production of independent films. In its fourth year at The Hamptons, Rising Stars introduces festival audiences and the film industry to up-and-coming actors whose stellar performances have contributed so critically to the films selected for viewing at the festival.

Please join our international group of Rising Stars in an informal and intimate discussion about the craft of acting, how the process compares in different countries, and what their experiences were with each of their films in our festival.

Panelists: Kip Pardue (LAURA SMILES), Eugene Byrd (CONFESS), Emily Blunt (GIDEON’S DAUGHTER), Florian Lukas (ONE DAY IN EUROPE), Elizabeth Reaser (SWEET LAND), Jake Muxworthy (PIGGY BANKS)

Moderators: Lina Todd, casting director and Rising Stars Program director, The Hamptons International Film Festival and actor Alan Cumming


WHY WE FIGHT?
Saturday, October 22nd at 1pm
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

A noted journalist will engage filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) in a conversation about his riveting, new award-winning documentary WHY WE FIGHT? which features interviews with John McCain, Gore Vidal, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, and Richard Perle.

Deploying General Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address as his strategic ground zero, Eugene Jarecki launches a full-frontal autopsy of how the will of a people has become an accessory to the Pentagon. Surveying the scorched landscape of a half-century's military misadventures and misguided missions, Jarecki asks how--and tells why--a nation ostensibly of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.

After the shock and tragedy of New Orleans there is no better time than the present for a discussion about why the U.S. was so unprepared at home and stretched so thin militarily abroad and what the movies can do to raise awareness and make a difference.

KARDIA
Saturday, October 22nd at 2pm
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

For the 6th consecutive year, the Hamptons International Film Festival will present the $25,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film Prize in Science and Technology for a feature-length film that explores science and technology themes in fresh, innovative ways and depicts scientists and engineers in a realistic and compelling fashion.
This year’s recipient of the Sloan Feature Film Prize is KARDIA, the feature film debut by Su Rynard. KARDIA weaves fable, fiction, science and metaphor to tell the story of Hope, a pathologist who embarks on an unusual journey of reconciliation. Hope discovers that the experimental heart operation she underwent as a child has mysteriously linked her life with another. To unlock the secret of her past, Hope revisits the curious tale of her childhood and explores the landscape of love, loss ands the human heart.

Join director Su Rynard, Dr. Darcy Kelley and moderator Bob Balaban for a viewing of clips from our Sloan award winning film KARDIA, a discussion about the scientific underpinnings of the film and the trajectory of Su Rynard’s career involving science.

Panelists: director Su Rynard (KARDIA); Darcy Kelley, HHMI Professor of Biological Sciences and Co-Director of the Program in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University in New York City. Darcy Kelley serves as scientific consultant for the Ensemble Studio Theater/Sloan project on science and theater.

Moderator: actor-writer-producer-director, Bob Balaban (CAPOTE, A MIGHTY WIND, GOSFORD PARK, GHOST WORLD)

Conversation with Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick
Saturday, October 22nd at 4pm
Location:Guild Hall, East Hampton

The famed husband and wife team will discuss LOVERBOY, a sensitive and insightful new film by actor/director Kevin Bacon and starring Kyra Sedgwick based on the novel by Victoria Redel about the bonds between mother and son, and the challenges that await them.

Tribute to Spalding Gray: a series of readings from his last work LIFE INTERRUPTED: THE UNFINISHED MONOLOGUE
Saturday, October 22nd at 5pm
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

Join us for a series of readings from LIFE INTERRUPTED: THE UNFINISHED MONOLOGUE written by the late Spalding Gray. Roy Scheider, Joe Pintauro, Steven Gaines and Bob Balaban will read excerpts from his last book. Gray, a Sag Harbor resident, was a regular participant at the festival and this reading will pay tribute (along with the Gray Matter films at the Hamptons Film Festival) to a community member tremendously missed.

The reading will be followed by a reception and discussion with the readers led by Gray's widow, Kathleen Russo. Russo will also be producing a new film by Steven Soderbergh exploring this never-performed monologue by Spalding Gray.


The Wrong Animals! A Panel for Kids
Sunday, October 23rd at 10am
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

Richard Ellis, the country’s foremost writer and illustrator on marine natural history, will lead a discussion with young cinephiles about animals in the movies.

Hollywood often ignores the realities of natural history in making movies. This criticism does not apply to movies that feature animatronic models or oversize creatures, like "Jaws," "Anaconda," or "King Kong," but only to those films that purport to show real animals in real situations. While it is often difficult to include the correct species in movies that purport to depict wild animals, Hollywood sometimes "substitutes" one animal for another, often because the substitute is more amenable to training, or because it is more easily available. Among those well-known movies that get the animals wrong -- and thus send a message of ignorance or incompetence -- are "Outbreak," "Tarzan of the Apes," "African Queen," Bringing up Baby," "The Freshman," and "The Deer Hunter."

Richard Ellis is the designer of the Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is the designer of the life-size blue whale that hangs in the hall. Now considered the country's foremost writer and illustrator on marine natural history, he has dived with whales and sharks, shipped out on a Japanese whaler, and traveled on a Russian icebreaker to the North Pole. He has written books on whales, dolphins, sharks, giant squid, and marine conservation. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, and he has appeared in numerous television specials. He has recently been appointed Curator of Dragons at the AMNH, for a show scheduled to open in 2007. Richard Ellis loves movies -- even when they get the animals wrong.

Screenplay Reading: BABYFACE by S. Casper Wong
Date: Sunday, October 23rd at 11am
Location: BookHampton, 20 Main Street, East Hampton

The Hamptons Film Festival’s Rising Stars and other celebrated actors will read and discuss S. Casper Wong’s BABYFACE. Dirty Rice Films’ award-winning producer Anne Chaisson (RODGER DODGER, P.S., DIGGERS) will produce this event.

S. Casper Wong is a New York based writer, director and producer. Her short film, SHIRTS & SKINS is licensed to the Independent Film Channel. In a previous life, she served as Senior Counsel at IBM and led graduate research in biomedical engineering. BABYFACE is a suspenseful drama that explores themes of love, loss and healing through the story of a dying surgeon who races against time to unlock the secret her old lover has kept for twelve years that may save her life.

THIS TERRIBLE BUSINESS HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME

Sunday, October 23rd at 11:30am
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

A noted journalist will engage Academy award winning director Norman Jewison about his life, his career in film and his new book THIS TERRIBLE BUSINESS HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME.

The acclaimed director of such big hits as THE HURRICANE, MOONSTRUCK, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, Mr. Jewison has been making great movies for over 40 years. His films have earned 45 Academy Award nominations and 12 Academy Awards, and he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars in 1999.


Putting Together Your First Short Film on the Road to your First Feature
Sunday, October 23rd at 2pm
Location: Southampton Inn, 91 Hill Street, Southampton

A panel of award-winning student filmmakers will share how they overcame the challenges of creating their first short film, and their plans for their first feature. Topics of discussion will include hiring a crew; building professional relationships; raising cash; scoring free film stock and services, and the process of writing and creating the film.

Moderators: Sheril Antonio, Associate Dean of Film, Television and New Media, Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University; and the Administrator of Student Awards, Jeremiah Newton.

The Filmmaker & Industry Lounge will be located at Mary Jane Restaurant - 126 N. Main St, East Hampton.

The Hamptons International Film Festival Executive Director, Denise Kasell and Director of Programming, Rajendra Roy is proud to be joined by the Director of Panels, Vanessa Guest.