[caption id="attachment_37029" align="alignnone" width="650"]
Iris Apfel[/caption]
On Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m. the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival will pay tribute to pioneering documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who died at his Manhattan home at the age of 88 in March, with a special screening and discussion at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.
The festival, which is run by director Jacqui Lofaro of Bridgehampton, will screen Mr. Maysles film, “Iris,” which will debut in theaters at the end of this month. “Iris” tells the story of the colorful style maven Iris Apfel, who grew up in middle class Queens during the 1930s Depression and went on to a creative, and successful, life in the world of fashion and interior design.
“We thought it fitting to celebrate both Albert’s life in documentary film and Iris Apfel’s continuing impact on freedom in fashion,” explained Ms. Lofaro. “This pairing of 88-year old legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles with the quick-witted, flamboyant 93-year-old Apfel re-ignites for us all the bright blaze of creative invention.”
Director Albert Maysles and his brother David, who died in 1987, were pioneers in the “direct cinema” or “cinéma vérité” style of documentary filmmaking, in which the hand-held camera follows the subject, without use of scripts, sets or narration. Noted Maysles films included “Salesmen” (1968) about four door-to-door Bible salesmen from Boston; “Gimme Shelter” (1970) about Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones’ American tour; “Grey Gardens” (1976) about the Edie Beale mother and daughter who lived in a decaying mansion in East Hampton, a film which inspired the 2006 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical; “Concert of the Wills: Making the Getty Center” (1997), a 12-year project covering the building of the Los Angeles museum from concept to construction; and five films from the 1970’s through the 2000’s about the work of installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Winning Emmy Awards were Maysles’ films about the pianist “Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic” (1985) and “Soldiers of Music” (1991) about cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2014, Albert Maysles received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.
A panel discussion after the film screening will be hosted by Susan Lacy, the creator/longtime producer of the PBS American Masters series, now at HBO. Panelists will include filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus and Susan Froemke, who worked with Maysles over the years, as well as Laura Coxson and Albert’s daughter, Rebekah Maysles, producers of “Iris.”
The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival Tribute to Albert Maysles will be held at Bay Street Theater, 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor, on Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $15. For more information, visit HT2FF.com or baystreet.org.
27east on Apr 13, 2015