It’s A Wrap On Hamptons Doc Fest

The 12th annual Hamptons Doc Fest ran from December 5 to 9, with screenings at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor and the Southampton Arts Center in Southampton Village.

On December 10, Jacqui Lofaro, founder and executive director of Hamptons Doc Fest, announced that the festival winner of the Long and Mattone Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature was “Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack,” which screened at Bay Street on December 5. It was also the recipient of the festival’s Art & Inspiration Award.

Directed by Deborah Shaffer and Rachel Reichman, the 75-minute film chronicled the life of East End artist Audrey Flack, now 88 years old, who attended the screening and participated in the Q&A afterward with the directors. The film followed her trailblazing life as an Abstract Expressionist in the 1950s to her successful career as the sole female Photorealist in the 1970s, to her monumental sculptures of recent decades.

“When the festival balloting was tallied, with news that ‘Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack’ won the coveted Audience Award, I was not surprised,” said Lofaro. “The film captured the audience from the opening frame to the final applause. The Q&A led by Parrish Museum director Terrie Sultan, with Audrey Flack and directors Deborah Shaffer and Rachel Reichman was just the icing on the cake. Big congratulations to a pair of fine, fine documentary filmmakers. We hope we’ll see them back soon with a new film.”

Shaffer, in learning of the award said, "We are very proud of the film, and grateful that it touches people's lives and hearts in many ways beyond the world of art. There is always some unknowable magic in the process of filmmaking, and somehow I think we tapped into it this time."