THE A-WORD: THE FUTURE OF AGING

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Film sponsored by Siben & Siben LLP

THE A-WORD: THE FUTURE OF AGING

THURS, 12/10, 7:00pm, 83 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director: Greg Kohs
Producer: Gary Krieg
Editor: Steven Sander
Cinematographer: Grayson Kohs

The film follows two parallel journeys. In San Francisco, Celine Halioua, the founder and CEO of the biotech startup Loyal, attempts to do what has never been done: earn FDA approval for a drug that extends healthy lifespan, choosing dogs as her first patients. Three thousand miles away, in the quiet winters of Maine, 87-year-old George Betke lives the reality Celine is trying to change. In the wake of his wife's passing, George finds new purpose in his devotion to Monica, a senior rescue dog.

Greg Kohs is a 10-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker known for his character-driven, emotionally grounded storytelling. His filmography includes Song Sung Blue, The Great Alone, AlphaGo, and The Thinking Game.

THE AMERICAN DREAM AND OTHER FAIRY TALES

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PENNEBAKER CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD to Abigail E. Disney
Pennebaker Award sponsored by Artemis Rising, Regina K. Scully

THE AMERICAN DREAM AND OTHER FAIRY TALES

SAT, 12/5, 87 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Screening follows the Pennebaker Award presentation

Directors: Abigail E. Disney, Kathleen Hughes
Producers: Abigail E. Disney, Kathleen Hughes, Aideen Kane
Editor: David Cohen
Cinematographers: Jeff Hutchens, James Mills

In this personal essay, documentary filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail E. Disney grapples with America’s profound inequality crisis. In 2018, after Abigail encounters workers at the company that bears her last name struggling to put food on the table, she questions whether she can use her famous name to pressure the company and other American corporations to treat low-wage workers more humanely.

Filmed over a two-year period, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales weaves together Abigail’s family story along with the history of modern American capitalism from the middle of the last century, when wealth was shared more equitably, to today, when CEOs earn upwards of 800 times more than their average employees. Fairy tales occur in the movies, but in reality they are harder to come by. As the film points out, even Cinderella might be sleeping in her car.

THE RIGHTEOUS ROAD TRIP & OUTPOSTS: NOTHING HERE IS YOURS

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THE RIGHTEOUS ROAD TRIP & OUTPOSTS: NOTHING HERE IS YOURS

MON, 12/7, 4:00pm, 79 min program
BAY STREET THEATER

The courage to stand up for what you believe is morally right is always being tested. Two films–The Righteous Road Trip and OUTPOSTS: Nothing Here is Yours–turn to Eastern Europe in the past and to Israel in the present to show how people courageously protect others around them, even at the risk of their own lives.

THE RIGHTEOUS ROAD TRIP

40min

Director: Vanessa Roth
Producers: Vanessa Roth, Jonny Daniels, Justin Cohen, Stephen Smith
Editor: Michele Loschiavo
Cinematographer: Joachim Blomme

Director Vanessa Roth in attendance for Q&A

A heartwarming and poignant holiday journey across Eastern Europe with Jewish humanitarian Jonny Daniels and his dog, Tyson. Traveling through Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary in a van filled with Christmas trees and gifts, Jonny sets out to visit some of the last living Righteous Among the Nations–the extraordinary individuals who risked their lives to secretly save Jews during the Holocaust–fewer than 65 of whom are still alive today.

Vanessa Roth is an Academy Award– and Emmy-winning filmmaker with 25 years of experience writing, directing, and producing documentary films and series that center social justice, marginalized voices, and overlooked histories. Her work has earned more than 60 major honors, including the Oscar, the Television Academy Emmy Award for Social Impact, the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award, and the Leonard Maltin Humanitarian Award, among others.

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OUTPOSTS: NOTHING HERE IS YOURS

39min

Director: Hilla Medalia
Producers: Hilla Medalia, Sheila Nevins, Yael Melamede
Editor: Erez Laufer
Cinematographer: Avner Shahaf

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian communities face escalating settler violence and ongoing attempts to displace them. Israeli activists, armed only with their cellphones, stand in solidarity with them, documenting attacks, trying to fend off intruding settlers (with no help from the Israeli military), and standing beside Palestinian farmers as they struggle to remain on their land.

Hilla Medalia is an Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning documentary director and producer whose work is recognized worldwide for its emotional depth, cultural insight, and narrative boldness. She has received six Emmy nominations for her films.

THE SIEGE OF PARADISE

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THE SIEGE OF PARADISE

FRI, 12/11, 11:00am, 86 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director: Gar O’Rourke
Producers: Andrew Freedman, Ken Wardrop, Jessie Hayden
Editor: John Murphy
Cinematographer: Lukas Gut

In Cinque Terre on Italy’s northern Riviera, fewer than 3,000 locals endure over 4 million tourists each summer. Across one chaotic season, six very different lives play out in parallel, revealing a sharply funny and tender story of paradise under pressure in the age of social media-driven tourism. The conflict between influencers and locals unfolds against the tourist economy that sustains many of the residents. Any resemblance to the economy of the East End of Long Island is unintended and purely coincidental.

Gar O'Rourke is an award-winning director based between Portugal and Ireland. His work spans feature films, branded work, commercials, and art films. His debut feature documentary, Sanatorium, was selected as Ireland's official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Academy Awards.

TIME WARP

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TIME WARP

SUN, 12/6, 7:30pm, 112 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Producer Susan Margolin in attendance for Q&A

Director: Allison Berg
Producers: Allison Berg, Susan Margolin, Jen Chaiken
Editor: Frank Keraudren

Fifty years after The Rocky Horror Picture Show electrified audiences, a local theater company in the once-booming mining town of Rock Springs, Wyoming, stages a shadow cast of the cult classic. Led by the charismatic 25-year-old drag performer Kenny Starling, the determined troupe spotlights the ongoing fight for queer visibility and acceptance in their community. For misfits, dreamers, and the delightfully weird, Rocky Horror became their sanctuary. Now Starling has done something audacious in this small politically conservative western town. The film follows the iconic production from exhausting rehearsals to thrift-store costume hunts and immerses us in the lives of its vibrant cast.

Allison Berg is a New York filmmaker whose films span stories as varied as witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana in Witches in Exile; the story of NYC’s most infamous bank robber in The Dog; and the pursuit of sainthood in American Saint.

UNION TOWN

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HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD
Co-presentation with Sag Harbor Cinema

UNION TOWN

SUN, 12/6, 4:30pm, 106 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director Barbara Kopple in attendance for Q&A

Director: Barbara Kopple
Producers: Hannes Hosp, Barbara Kopple, Peter Palandjian
Editors: Francisco Bello, Hannes Hosp, Deborah Peretz
Cinematographers: Timothy Grucza, Hannes Hosp, Rachel Beth Anderson

Filmed over the course of three years, delivery industry workers struggle to get a fairer deal from UPS, Amazon, and the food delivery app companies they rely on to get jobs. Among the harrowing financial realities of late capitalism are the injustices faced by countless workers who deliver everything we have come to rely on, from food orders to Amazon purchases. The workers’ stories go beyond the film’s New York City location, exploring the impact of the gig economy on workers who toil under difficult conditions but barely survive, so that others can benefit from the convenience of online orders and easy delivery.

Union Town completes Barbara Kopple’s trilogy on labor rights following her Oscar-winning films Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) and American Dream (1990). She is the first woman to win two Oscars in the Best Documentary category. She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson. Kopple is credited with pioneering a renaissance of cinéma vérité and bringing the style to American audiences. She received the festival’s Pennebaker Career Achievement Award in 2014.

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS

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IMPACT AWARD to HBO Documentary Films
Program sponsored by Silvercrest Asset Management Group

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS

FRI, 12/4, 7:30pm, 117 min
SAG HARBOR CINEMA

Director Dawn Porter in attendance for Q&A
Cocktail reception

Director: Dawn Porter
Producers: Dawn Porter, Jennifer Oko, Miriam Weintraub
Editor: Jessica Congdon
Cinematographer: Bryan Gentry

In 1983, noted author Ta-Nehisi Coates learned that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in the corridor of Harlem Park Junior High School. Revisiting the case as an adult, he learns the truth about the three innocent teenagers who were convicted and sentenced to life. The story tracks their journey from wrongful conviction to vindication. Each of the three young men spent 36 years behind bars–a total of 108 years–the longest combined wrongful conviction term in U.S. history.

Dawn Porter has made many award-winning films, including documentaries about Robert F. Kennedy, Vernon Jordan, Nelson Mandela, and John Lewis. Her film Trapped won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, in addition to a Peabody. Her 2013 Gideon’s Army was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy. In 2021, she received Hamptons Doc Fest’s Pennebaker Career Achievement Award for her penetrating focus on truth and justice.

At this screening, HBO Documentary Films will be honored with the IMPACT Award. HBO Documentary Films has been unwavering in its commitment to visionary storytelling and unparalleled in its dedication to nurturing independent filmmakers.

WILD INSIDE

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Nancy Nagle Kelley ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
Sponsored by the Family of Nancy Nagle Kelley & Twomey Latham Shea Kelley Dubin & Quartararo

WILD INSIDE

THURS, 12/3, 5:00pm, 95 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Penny Lane in attendance for Q&A

Director: Penny Lane
Producers: Gabriel Sedgwick, Nickolas Hasse
Editor: Hannah Buck
Cinematographer: Naiti Gámez

Flaco, a captive-raised Eurasian eagle-owl, the largest owl species worldwide, escaped from NYC's Central Park Zoo in 2023 when his stainless steel mesh cage was vandalized. He had lived at the zoo for 13 years, since being a fledgling, before gaining fame through his wild adventures. The film captures his remarkable transformation from a captive bird with no survival skills into a capable hunter navigating the urban landscape of Manhattan. What happens to a bird who has been caged his whole life when he is able to roam the streets and skies of NYC is both beautiful and magical, but also controversial.

Penny Lane is an American filmmaker known for her humor and unconventional approach to making documentary films. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Lane was a college professor, teaching film, video, and new media art at various colleges. Her filmography includes Hail Satan?, Listening to Kenny G, and Confessions of a Good Samaritan, a deeply personal film exploring her own decision to donate a kidney to a stranger.

ZENÓN AND THE REBEL BOATS

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ZENÓN AND THE REBEL BOATS

WED, 12/9, 1:00pm, 93 min
BAY STREET THEATER

Director Juan C. Dávila Santiago via Zoom for Q&A

Director: Juan C. Dávila Santiago
Producers: Juan C. Dávila Santiago, Camila M. Rodríguez Estrada
Editors: Juan C. Dávila Santiago, Camila M. Rodríguez Estrada
Cinematographers: Juan C. Dávila Santiago, Valery Pérez, Laura Bustillos Jáquez

The island of Vieques faced an ecological disaster after the U.S. Navy closed its bombing range there in 2003. After being displaced from his home by the Navy when the base was built, Carlos “Taso” Zenón pledged his life to fight against colonialism and the military occupation of the island. Zenón organized countless efforts to halt U.S. war games in the Caribbean Sea, inspiring one of the most influential environmental and anti-war movements in the Caribbean.

Juan Carlos Dávila Santiago was raised in western Puerto Rico. While in college, he got involved in environmental activism and documentary film. Eventually he moved to California and worked as a director, producer, and journalist. He has directed and produced more than 10 documentaries and has a Ph.D in Latin American and Latino Studies.