PLUM ISLAND – A RECKONING WITH PUBLIC LAND
TUES, 12/8, 1:30pm, 88 min
BAY STREET THEATER
Director Thomas Halaczinsky in attendance for Q&A
Director: Thomas Halaczinsky
Producer: Thomas Halaczinsky
Editor: Michael Craft
Cinematographer: Thomas Halaczinsky
The 840-acre Plum Island was home for decades to a high-security lab tasked with protecting America’s livestock from devastating epidemics. Its secrecy bred fear and fueled conspiracy theories. With the site’s research activities having ended in 2025 and the full closure of the lab on-going through 2026, the island has become the focus of competing visions. At the center of this struggle are two women who are leading the eight-year fight to protect the island’s fragile ecosystems and the cultural heritage of the Montaukett people.
Thomas Halaczinsky is a German documentary director based in Greenport, Long Island. He directed a three-part documentary series, Archipelago New York, focused on how nature negotiates and sustains its existence in the New York metropolis. The first film in the series was awarded Best Science Film at the International Blue Water Film Festival. He also directed three documentaries that followed Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander as she revisited her life story.