Fall 2016 Season
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LIFE, ANIMATED
Monday, September 12
7:00pm Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A
Historic Stony Brook Village
Guest Speaker: Carolyn Hepburn, Co-Producer
LIFE, ANIMATED is a story of sidekicks, heroes, and autism. Owen Suskind inexplicably stopped speaking at the age of three and was unable to connect with the people or the world around him. Remarkably, through repeated viewings of Disney classics like THE LION KING and THE LITTLE MERMAID, Owen developed his own language skills, helping him to reconnect with his family and the world. Through characters like Ariel and Simba, Owen was able to understand his feelings and learn complex social cues. LIFE, ANIMATED, combines scenes from Disney movies and Owen’s life, while showing us the power a story can have in altering our lives. Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Director Award- Us Documentary; Full Frame Festival, Audience Award; San Francisco Intl. Film Festival, Audience Award.
Time: 92 minutes
This film is sponsored by NORTH ISLAND PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM
BETTING ON ZERO
Monday September 19
7:00pm Theatre Three, Main Street,
Historic Port Jefferson Village
Guest Speaker: Ted Braun, Director
Allegations of corporate criminality and high-stakes Wall Street vendettas swirl throughout this riveting, financial docu-thriller from DARFUR NOW writer-director, Ted Braun. Controversial hedge-fund titan Bill Ackman is on a crusade to expose global nutritional giant Herbalife as the largest pyramid scheme in history, while Herbalife execs claim Ackman is a market manipulator out to bankrupt them and make a killing off his billion dollar short. Caught in the crossfire are middle-class Americans forging their financial future, working-class Latino’s seeking justice, and a business model affecting the lives of millions around the world. BETTING ON ZERO weaves uncertainty, deception, hubris, intrigue and greed into a surprising, deeply emotional dive into the world of money, fraud and the American Dream.
Time: 99 minutes
MAGNUS
Monday, September 26
7:00pm Theatre Three, Main Street,
Historic Port Jefferson Village
Guest Speaker: Benjamin Ree, Director, BY SKYPE
Magnus Carlsen is widely known as the ‘Mozart of Chess’ because, unlike many chess grandmasters, he not only possesses an innate ability and a remarkable memory, but he blends those attributes with unrivaled creativity and intuition. While many players seek out an intensely rigid environment to hone their skills, Magnus’ brilliance shines brightest when surrounded by his loving and supportive family. Through an extensive amount of archival footage and home movies, Director Benjamin Ree, reveals this young man’s unusual and rapid trajectory to the pinnacle of the chess world. This film allows the audience to not only peek inside this isolated chess community, but also witness the maturation of a modern genius.
Time: 75 minutes
This film is sponsored by The Long Island Chess Club
STRIKE A POSE
Monday, October 10
7:00pm Theatre Three, Main Street,
Historic Port Jefferson Village
Guest Speaker: Salim Gauwloos, one of the seven dancers
In 1990, seven young male dancers, six gay and one straight, joined Madonna on her most controversial and iconic Blond Ambition Tour. Their journey was captured in the rockumentary, TRUTH OR DARE, where they showed the world how to “express yourself.” To the fans, the dancers were unforgettably sleek, talented and beautiful men that helped support the career of one of the world’s most beloved and controversial music artists. But behind the scenes, they were Kevin, Oliver, Luis, Carlton, Jose, Gabriel and Salim, a diverse, impressionable group of young dancers whose lives were forever changed by Madonna when she used the film to make a stand on gay rights. The dancers became famous symbols of gay pride. Once the touring was over, however, and no longer swept up in the thrill of Madonna’s inarguable power and influence, some found life away from her emotionally devastating and near impossible to navigate. Now 25 years later, STRIKE A POSE checks back in with the six surviving performers, weighing both the iconic value the original film imbued them with as representatives of the gay community and their individual struggles afterwards.
Time: 85 minutes
AFTER SPRING
Monday, October 17
7:00pm Theatre Three, Main Street,
Historic Port Jefferson Village
Guest Speakers: Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez, Directors
Jon Stewart, acclaimed TV personality, is the producer of AFTER SPRING, a feature documentary about the Syrian refugee crisis. Millions of Syrians have already been displaced since the conflict erupted six years ago. The audience will experience living in Zaatari Jordan, the second largest refugee camp in the world, by following two refugee families and the aid workers dedicated to keeping the camp running. All aspects of camp life are explored, including the delivery of medical care, the self- sustaining economy of its urban center, and the rhythms of the camp, including pizza making. With no end in sight, all try to rebuild their lives in a place which was never imagined to be permanent. This is a fascinating journey through the camp’s physical and human landscapes.
Time: 101 minutes
GOD KNOWS WHERE I AM
Monday, October 24
7:00pm Theatre Three, Main Street,
Historic Port Jefferson Village
Guest Speakers: Todd Wider and Jedd Wider, Directors
The winner of the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs, GOD KNOWS WHERE I AM, has been called by critics “a film for the ages, great cinema and certainly a contender for one of the best documentaries of the millennium that features some of the most beautiful cinematography ever to be seen in a documentary.” Pushing the boundaries of traditional documentary filmmaking, GOD KNOWS WHERE I AM, masterfully employs an unfolding mystery to tell the story of Linda Bishop, a well-educated New Hampshire mother, who was determined to stay free of the mental health system. She documents her experience in a diary that is poignant, funny, spiritual and deeply disturbing. In the past fifteen years, Academy Award, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Setauket-raised Jedd and Todd Wider have produced numerous critically successful documentary features. They will join us for a question-and-answer session after the screening of this film, their directorial debut.
Time: 97 minutes
TOWER
Monday, November 7
7:00pm Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A
Historic Stony Brook Village
Guest Speaker: Craig Staggs, Co-Producer and Animation Director
On August 1, 1966, a sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes. When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included sixteen dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with live-action animation in a dynamic, neverbefore- seen way, TOWER reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others. TOWER was the Grand Prize Winner and Audience Award Winner at the SXSW Film Festival.
Time: 96 minutes