Spring 2024 Season
The Port Jefferson Documentary Series is sponsored by:
Maggio Environmental and Wellness and Covati and Janhsen, CPAS PC
Port Jeff Storage, Saranto Calamas, CPA
Please visit the TICKET PAGE to purchase a Season Pass or tickets for individual films
1. UKRAINE, THE OTHER FRONTLINE
Monday, March 4, 2024 @7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Guest Speaker:
Sarah Baxter, Director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at SBU
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Viktor, Oleana, Christina, Jana and Oleg are journalists, reporters and presenters for the Ukrainian television channel ICTV. On 24 February 2022, the first day of the Russian full scale invasion, they chose to stay at work, to do their job, to report the news, to contribute to the war effort. Their lives were turned upside down overnight: installed in secret basements, they no longer knew the boundary between their professional and private lives. They became a family, dedicated 24 hours a day to providing information in wartime. “How is wartime news produced in Ukraine? A gripping and fascinating insight into the upheavals of everyday life in television newsrooms.” (Télérama, 15 February 2023).
2023 / France / Ukrainian with English Subtitles
Director: Laurent Jaoui, Distributor: Veilleur de Nuit
Running time: 75 minutes
Film Info: Ukraine, the Other Frontline – Veilleur de Nuit
2. STORY AND PICTURES BY
Monday, March 25, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at JFK Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jefferson Station
Guest Speaker: Joanna Rudnick, filmmaker, speaker
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
STORY and PICTURES BY is the first feature documentary to take audiences behind the scenes to meet the boundary pushers who create children’s picture books. The film follows Christian Robinson, Yuyi Morales, and Mac Barnett-the stars of the new “golden age” of kids lit- as they create experimental work that reflects the mysteries of childhood, champions the marginalized, and provides children with windows and mirrors, even when the creators’ own lives are not fairy tales. Through rare archival, untapped insights, and stop-motion paper animation, we also come to understand why classics such as “Goodnight Moon,” “Where the Wild Things Are,” “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “The Snowy Day, ” changed the art form and stand the test of time.
2023 / United States / English
Director: Joanna Rudnick
Running time: 84 minutes
Film Info: NONE Story & Pictures By (2023) – IMDb
3. FLIPSIDE
Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Guest speaker: Director Chris Wilcha
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
When filmmaker Chris Wilcha revisits the record store he worked at as a teenager in New Jersey, he finds the once-thriving bastion of music and weirdness from his youth slowly falling apart and out of touch with the times. FLIPSIDE documents his tragicomic attempt to revive the store while revisiting other documentary projects he has abandoned over the years. In the process, Wilcha captures This American Life icon Ira Glass in the midst of a creative rebirth, discovers the origin story of David Bowie’s ode to a local New Jersey cable television hero, and uncovers the unlikely connection between jazz photographer Herman Leonard and TV writer David Milch. This disparate collection of stories coheres into something strange and expansive—a moving meditation on music, work, and the sacrifices and satisfaction of trying to live a creative life.
2023 / United States / English
Director: Chris Wilcha
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Running time: 84 Minutes
Film Info: flipside.oscilloscope.net
4. STEWART UDALL THE POLITICS OF BEAUTY
Monday, April 15, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jeff. Sta., New York, 11776
Guest Speaker John Turner, Local Naturalist and Environmentalist
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
STEWART UDALL: The Politics of Beauty examines the trajectory of Udall’s life from his childhood through his Mormon mission, his World War II service, his student years at the University of Arizona, his time in Congress, and then, most significantly, his years as Secretary of the Interior under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, focusing on his effectiveness as a dedicated, bi-partisan public servant. Udall was also a well-respected author who called on all Americans to move away from our emphasis on economic growth and consumerism toward quality of life, and a new political ethos centered on beauty, simplicity, appreciation of nature and the arts, and a recognition of Earth’s limits – a message that still resonates today!
2023 / United States / English
Director: John De Graaf
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Running time: 78 Minutes
Film Info: Home – Stewart Udall Film & Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty | Bullfrog Films: 1-800-543-3764: Environmental DVDs and Educational DVDs
5. A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE
Monday, May 6, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at JFK MIddle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776
Guest speaker: Director Jeremy Coon
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…In 1978 George Lucas was talked in to cashing in on the STAR WARS craze by producing a holiday variety TV special. What could possibly go wrong? Answer: Everything… From the filmmakers of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, FANBOYS, and RAIDERS! THE STORY OF THE GREATEST FAN FILM EVER MADE comes the documentary about the infamous STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL.
Port Jefferson Village’s Red Shirt Comics will provide free comics – come early before they run out!
2023 / United States / English
Director: Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak
Running time: 90 minutes
Film Info: Home | A Disturbance in the Force
6. WE ARE THE WARRIORS
Monday, May 13, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at John F. Kennedy Middle School
200 Jayne Blvd., Port Jeff. Sta., New York, 11776
Guest Speaker: Helen Sells and Robert Thompson, President & Vice President of the Setalcott Nation Tribe on Long Island
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
For nearly 70 years, students and alumni of Wells High School in Maine have called themselves the “Warriors.” Their yearbook is named for the Abenaki, the Indigenous people the town’s settlers first encountered in the 1600s. The school’s mascot, variations of a stoic Native American head in profile with braids and feathered headband, has drawn both support and criticism in the past. However, during the 2017 fall athletic season, an incident shocks the town and reignites the debate. We Are The Warriors follows the citizenry of Wells, a population that includes Indigenous Peoples, as they convene to speak, hear each other, and seek consensus. And by inviting Wabanaki voices from across the state to join the conversation, including the mother whose experience ignited the debate, the residents of Wells work to better understand the lasting effects of their colonial past and how it relates to the present day impact of their good intentions.
2023 / United States / English
Director: David Camlin and Megan Grumbling
Running time: 72 minutes
Film Info: We Are The Warriors (wearethewarriorsfilm.com)
7. CONFESSIONS OF A GOOD SAMARITAN
Monday, May 20, 2024 @ 7:00 PM
Screening at Theatre Three
412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, New York, 11777
Guest speaker: Penny Lane, filmmaker
Q&A moderated by Tom Needham, Host of The Sounds of Film at WUSB radio.
Director Penny Lane’s decision to become a “good Samaritan” by giving one of her kidneys to a stranger turns into a funny and moving personal quest to understand the nature of altruism. Confessions of a Good Samaritan is a provocative inquiry into the science, history, and ethics of organ transplantation, asking an ancient question in a whole new way: Who is your neighbor, and what do you owe them?
2023 / United States / English
Director: Penny Lane
Distributor: Sandbox Films
Running time: 105 minutes
Film Info: Confessions of a Good Samaritan – Sandbox Films
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
