Farms, Journalists and Miles Davis! Oh My!
Pictured Above: The film poster for “Biggest Little Farm.”
Hamptons Doc Fest inaugurates spring with its annual celebration that this year includes two Sundays of Spring Docs — April 28 at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, and May 5 at 5 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center.
At Bay Street Theatre on April 28, Hamptons Doc Fest will screen “Biggest Little Farm at 1 p.m. and “Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool” at 4 p.m.
“Biggest Little Farm” (2018, 91 min.), directed by Emmy Award-winner John Chester, chronicles the personal journey of two big-city foodies—John Chester and his wife Molly, a culinary writer—as they trade city life to acquire and establish their own farm, Apricot Lane Farms, on 200 acres of depleted and dry soil in Moorpark, California, outside of Los Angeles.
Over an eight-year stretch, they work doggedly to live in harmony with nature, planting 10,000 orchard trees and over 200 crops, raising animals of every kind, including a pig named Emma and a rooster named Greasy, all the while combating obstacles that include coyotes, insects, drought and disease.
On hand for the post-film Q&A will be Scott Chaskey, Amagansett’s longtime Quail Hill Farm director, poet and author, and Layton Guenther, its farm manager. Tickets are $15 at hamptonsdocfest.com or at the Bay Street Theater box office.
“Miles Davis: The Birth of the Cool” (2019, 112 min.) is directed by award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson, Jr., who had unprecedented access to the Miles Davis estate, never-before-seen archival materials, Sony archives and interviews. The doc plays at Bay Street before its global theatrical release planned for the summer of 2019 and its airing on the PBS American Masters series.
For this film on the life and career of the visionary jazz horn player, bandleader and musician who was determined to break boundaries and conventions, Nelson had unprecedented access to the Miles Davis estate, never-before-seen archival materials, Sony archives and interviews. The doc plays at Bay Street before its global theatrical release planned for the summer of 2019 and its airing on the PBS American Masters series.
Tickets are $15 at hamptonsdocfest.com or at the Bay Street Theater box office.
The Doc Fest will also partner with the Press Club of Long Island for a 5 p.m. screening at the Southampton Arts Center on Sunday, May 5 of “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists”an HBO documentary film following the intersecting lives, triumphs and tragedies, and five-decade careers of these two brilliant, gritty and controversial New York City newspaper columnists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill.
The film follows the intersecting lives, triumphs and tragedies, and five-decade careers of these two brilliant, gritty and controversial New York City newspaper columnists—Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill—in the great era of print journalism, writing for the New York Herald Tribune, Daily News, New York Post and Newsday. It draws directly from rare archival footage, family archives, and interviews with both columnists as well as major figures on the New York and national scene.
It also follows them to the Hamptons, as they retreat to rented seashore homes to find the peace and quiet to write their novels.
Present for the Q&A will be the film’s co-director and director of cinematography Steve McCarthy, and Jimmy Breslin’s son Patrick Breslin, in conversation with Brendan O’Reilly, a Board member of the Press Club of Long Island and the Press News Group’s features editor for the Southampton and East Hampton Press.
Tickets are $10 at hamptonsdocfest.com, southamptonartscenter.org, or at the Southampton Arts Center door.
