Fall 2023 Season
The Port Jefferson Documentary Series is sponsored by:
Maggio Environmental and Wellness, Covati and Janhsen, CPAS PC
Port Jeff Storage
see information below…
Please visit the TICKET PAGE to purchase tickets for individual films
1. RATHER
Monday, September 18, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, New York, 11777
Guest Speakers: Co-Producer, Taylor Wildenhaus and Director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at SBU, Sarah Baxter Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Directed by Frank Marshall
Frank Marshall’s incisive documentary is a long-overdue tribute to an icon of journalism, a late-in-life Twitter superstar, a father, husband, and a voice of reason, compassion, and brilliance: Dan Rather. To older generations, his name may be synonymous with quality journalism and stalwart diplomacy, but to younger audience members unfamiliar with his career, Rather provides the opportunity to travel back in time through his remarkable experiences and sharp-witted commentary.
From his days embedded in the Vietnam War to his on-the-ground coverage of JFK’s assassination to his presence at the foot of the Berlin Wall as it fell, Dan Rather has reported on an astonishing number of iconic moments in history. Now, as a 92-year-old reflecting on seven decades of service and looking to the future of democracy, we meet a man freed from the auspices of any overarching network or deadline — a big-hearted human fueled by a tireless work ethic and dedication to the truth. Sprinkled with deadpan humor and often with a tear in his eye, Rather narrates the stories that define both him as a person and our nation’s alternately shameful and celebratory recent past. Running Time: 95 Minutes
Co-sponsored by the Stony Brook University School of Communication & Journalism and the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at Stony Brook University.
***SPECIAL EVENT***
2. WE DARE TO DREAM and *Pre-Screening Piano Concert
Monday, October 2, 2023 – 6:30 Concert – 7:30 Film
CONCERT: 6:30PM @ First United Methodist Church, 603 Main St., Port Jefferson, directly across from Theatre Three
FILM: 7:30 PM @ Theatre Three, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson
$15 for combo ticket to concert and film and $10 for film only ticket.
Guest Speaker: Director Waad Al-Kateab via Pre-Recorded Zoom
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
*CONCERT: Jacqueline Schwab, An intimate piano performance, with selections from her new album, I LIFT MY LAMP.
Pianist and composer Jacqueline Schwab spins musical stories, building bridges that connect listeners to different cultures and times. Known for her evocative playing and personal interpretation of vintage American music, Jacqueline has also composed and recorded the soundtracks of many of Ken Burns’ films, including his Grammy-winning Civil War, Baseball, Lewis and Clark, Mark Twain, The War and The National Parks. Jacqueline will share pieces from her brand-new album, I Lift My Lamp, which celebrates the rich musical contributions of American immigrants.
FILM: WE DARE TO DREAM
Directed by Waad-Al-Kateab
With her new documentary, Waad Al-Kateab (director of the Oscar nominated FOR SAMA) shows us the dramatic challenges faced by refugee athletes who competed for a place in the 2020 Olympic Games. Narrated in the first person and often asking herself difficult questions, Al-Kateab listens to the athletes who have seen their dreams vanish and accompanies them through their suffering. A powerful essay on freedom, a topic Al-Kateab gravitates to, the film exposes the audience to the harsh world of high-performance athletes and the opportunities they may lack due to living in war zones or places where their rights have been violated. The film also appeals to humanity and raises questions about athletic development in harsh settings or extreme stress. How does one become the best version of oneself when deprived of freedom? Running Time: 98 minutes
This event is graciously sponsored by Danfords Hotel & Marina and The Waterview at Port Jeff Country Club, in Port Jefferson, NY. https://www.danfords.com/
3. TIME BOMB Y2K
Monday, October 9, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, New York, 11777
Guest Speakers: Co-directors Brian Becker and/or Marley McDonald
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald
As the year 2000 approached, rumblings started to spread outside of the world of computer engineers and into the mainstream consciousness about a ubiquitous error in computer code that would cause computers to reset during the transition from “1999” to “2000,” causing the world’s computerized systems to grind to a halt. This fully archival feature documents the countdown to Y2K against the backdrop of the mass hysteria that infiltrated everything from politics to pop culture. Doomsday preparedness communities started to proliferate and businesses popped up with products, books, and any way to make a quick buck off the looming disaster. TIME BOMB Y2K is a wild ride through the final days of the ’90s and a compelling portrait of a turning point in the digital revolution. By examining this turning point between millennia, the film interrogates our ever-changing relationship to technology and each other.
Running Time: 80 minutes
4. BETWEEN THE RAINS
Monday, October 16, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jeff. Sta., New York, 11776
Guest Speakers: Andrew Harrison Brown via Zoom and Dr. Dino Martins, CEO of the Turkana Basin Institute In-Person
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Directed by Andrew Harrison Brown
Documenting the Turkana-Ngaremara community as they contend with prolonged drought, this visually stunning coming-of-age story follows a young, orphaned man’s journey to adapt to radically changing climate conditions in Northern Kenya. Kolei, the film’s primary subject, must grapple with personal tragedies alongside complex tribal conflicts brought on by environmental catastrophes in his pastoral region. With these mounting communal tensions and rapidly shifting culture, the threat of climate change is not just a looming notion but a present reality.
By threading interpersonal scenes with sweeping landscape cinematography, this documentary provides an intimate look at a vulnerable population fighting to bridge tradition with new circumstances. The visceral, near-consuming anxieties of the sensitive Kolei contextualize how global crisis affects individuals. Through this lens, the film lays a framework for a collective reckoning on how to strive with the ecological perils shaping the world and eventually facing us all. Running Time: 83 minutes
Co-sponsored by the Turkana Basin Institute of Kenya, (founded by anthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey) and it’s affiliate, Stony Brook University.
5. ISRAEL SWINGS FOR GOLD
Monday, October 23, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jefferson Station, New York, 11776
Guest Speaker: Jeremy Newberger, Co-Director
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.Guest
Co-Directed by Jeremy Newberger, Daniel A. Miller and Seth Kramer
In 2021, Israel’s baseball team competed in the Olympics for the first time. With no media allowed in Tokyo’s Olympic Village, the players recorded their own experiences. Mostly newly minted Israelis, they log unexpected battles against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Victory for Israel comes on the playing field, even if not on the podium. ISRAEL SWINGS FOR GOLD follows the 2018 hit HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL, about Israel’s Cinderella run at the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Running Time: 83 minutes
Co-sponsored by the North Shore Jewish Center in Port Jefferson Station and Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook.
EXTRA-ORDINARY Event Added!!! – A unique opportunity to meet
former NBA star and former Senator Bill Bradley and see his new documentary!
(Not included with 2023 Fall Passes.)
ROLLING ALONG
Monday, October 30, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jefferson Station, New York, 11776
Special Guest Speaker: Subject of Film, Former NBA Star and Senator Bill Bradley
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Written and performed by lifelong story teller, NBA star, and US Senator, Bill Bradley, ROLLING ALONG is a film about triumph, failure and forgiveness. A story about all of us.
Bill Bradley has experienced many lives and has worn many hats throughout his lifetime. Born in Crystal City, Missouri, he defied the odds by going from that small town to Princeton University, becoming a Rhodes Scholar, and then being drafted in the NBA by the New York Knicks. Bradley would become a star, a Hall of Fame player, who led the Knicks to two NBA championships, before turning around and running for the Democratic United States Senator seat from New Jersey. After years as a senator, that need to serve led him to seek the Democratic nomination for President in 2000, challenging front runner, Al Gore.
This might seem like an unexpected career change, but to Bradley it was the next logical step. The same can be said for how he worked on an oral history of his life and career for three years, excruciatingly committing it to memory before its premier on the stage in New York City in December 2021. ROLLING ALONG is the live theatrical recording of this monumental performance. Interspersing archival footage with Bradley’s performance, the film honors a uniquely American life, paying tribute to the act of storytelling in a way that hasn’t been done in a very long time. In our times of division and uncertainty, perhaps we can all learn something from Bradley’s stories about perseverance, acceptance, and unity.
6. MAESTRA
Monday, November 6, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jeff. Sta., New York, 11776
Guest Speakers: Maggie Contreras, Director via Zoom & Mélisse Brunet, Conductor & Subject in the Film In-Person
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Directed by Maggie Contreras
Maggie Contreras’ documentary MAESTRA follows several women from around the world as they compete in the only all-women competition for conductors. This ultra-competitive field is riddled with long-standing issues of sexism, and each participant is approaching the contest with fierce tenacity. Through her efforts in profiling these women, Contreras reveals how childhood abuse, maternity discrimination, and gendered expectations have molded them as individuals. These disparate experiences paradoxically unite them in a common cause while distinguishing their priorities. One woman wonders whether she should start having children, while another wants to prove herself after being fired for being pregnant. In contrast to the wild gesticulations required of the competitors, MAESTRA is relatively laid back in its approach, taking time to familiarize us with each woman before the competition starts. Yet a palpable tension starts to build as the competitors are eliminated one by one, despite everyone being a champion. Running Time: 88 minutes
This screening is graciously sponsored by Danfords Hotel & Marina and The Waterview at Port Jeff Country Club, in Port Jefferson, NY. https://www.danfords.com/
7. A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS
Monday, November 13, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, New York, 11777
Guest Speaker: Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder, Co-Directors
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Co-directed by Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder
Co-directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder’s (WHEN GOD SLEEPS, 2017) film, A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS, tells the story of one of Iran’s most revolutionary artists, Nickzad Nodjoumi (more commonly known as Nicky Nodjoumi and also Sara’s father). Born in Iran but living in New York City, Mr. Nodjoumi traveled back to Iran to join the Islamic Revolution, making paintings and posters criticizing the Shah’s regime. In 1980, the painter fled Iran following the protest of his solo exhibition, “Report on the Revolution,” and its subsequent shutdown at the hands of Islamic radicals at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Decades later, the renowned artist and his daughter attempt to track down the missing paintings in hopes of reclaiming them. During the search, Sara, drawing on disarmingly frank conversations with both her father and mother, celebrated artist Nahid Hagigat, and grappling with complex feelings and mysteries tied to her upbringing, traces a timeline of events to understand the circumstances that led to her family’s personal history echoing the treacherous path of many immigrant families caught in the crossfire of politics and life.
Equal parts introspective and investigative, filmmakers Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder expertly weave together the personal and political to create a moving narrative about the power of art, sacrifice, and family bonds.
Running Time: 95 minutes
This screening is graciously sponsored by Danfords Hotel & Marina and The Waterview at Port Jeff Country Club, in Port Jefferson, NY. https://www.danfords.com/
Please visit the TICKET PAGE to purchase a Season Pass or tickets for individual films
Thank you to our sponsors:
Maggio Environmental
88 Old Dock Rd., Yaphank, NY 11980
https://www.maggioenvironmental.com
Covati & Janhsen CPAS PC
12 Walnut Street
Port Jefferson, NY 11777
631-928-6300
