Martin Scorsese Will Appear at The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation

Since opening its doors as a nonprofit movie house in 2021, Sag Harbor Cinema and its founding artistic director, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, have made it a mission to present an annual lineup of older films representing the importance of preservation and restoration. These are films, some of them a century old, that are in danger of disappearing altogether due to any number of factors, including deterioration, improper storage or by simply being misplaced.

But thanks to avid archivists and collectors, these films have found new life through modern restoration and preservation techniques.

The East End’s fourth annual edition of “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation,” dedicated to preserving film and its culture, kicks off this Friday, November 8, and features a weekend slate packed with films, events, Q&As and special presentations running through Monday, November 11.

Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, who is known for his films “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver,” “Good Fellas,” “The Irishman” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” among others, is not just one of the most revered directors working in film today, he is also a major champion of film preservation. In 1990, he established The Film Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving film and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. He has also lent his name to The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation every year since its creation.

This year’s festival, however, will be different in a major way. Scorsese himself is scheduled to appear live at Sag Harbor Cinema on Sunday, November 10, at 8:30 p.m. for a screening of one of the films that was restored by The Film Foundation.

“Martin Scorsese, who has been so generous to allow us to use his name to present these films to our community, is coming on Sunday and he has chosen the fantastic ‘Leave Her to Heaven’ to screen,” D’Agnolo Vallan said. “The 1945 film by John M. Stahl is a classic from the noir period, but it’s shot in beautiful Technicolor. Cornel Wilde plays a writer who falls in love with a character played by Jean Tierney, only to find out she is quite something else — the dark lady of noir, representing the women of the post-war period.

“Martin will introduce the film and discuss it afterwards,” D’Agnolo Vallan added, noting that she has sent an invitation for Scorsese to attend the festival every year, but this is the first time he has accepted the offer.

“He surprised us three days ago,” she said.

The preservation festival provides the community with an opportunity to see screenings of truly rare films that aren’t easily found elsewhere. D’Agnolo Vallan notes that the festival has been increasing in attendance since its creation as more residents become interested in what’s being screened and aware of the need to preserve the films that are featured.

“I think the audience is definitely growing. I do see people like the idea of a full immersion festival,” she said. “The first year when we offered a weekend pass, we sold just three of them. Last year, it was a boom of passes and this year, they’re selling well. People are invested in the idea of seeing more films and creating a mini-community for those days.”

When asked how she designs the preservation festival lineup, D’Agnolo explains by saying “I try to imagine programs, not based on new restorations, but my idea of the culture of film and ways we can contribute to it. It’s a mix of films. I keep updated on what’s out there and new restorations. I’ve also cultivated archivists in my work and The Film Foundation is always a source of ideas as they source and collaborate with studios.”

She describes this year’s program as a very personal one that is dedicated to the work of film collectors.

“These are the heroes you go to when you can’t find a print,” she said. “You go to private collectors.”

One of those film collectors is Eric Spilker, who died this past July and was known for his passion for Technicolor. According to D’Agnolo Vallan, Spilker had prints in his collection that even the studios didn’t have, and would often screen movies in his New York apartment for friends. Among his films is a rare 35mm print of “The Gang’s All Here,” Busby Berkeley’s 1943 extravaganza starring Portuguese-born “Brazilian Bombshell” Carmen Miranda, which will be screened at the festival (courtesy of the Harvard Film Archive).

“It has Carmen Miranda doing the famous ‘Tutti Frutti’ musical number,” D’Agnolo Vallan said. “He loved the movie so much, he acquired the rights and distributed it himself in cinemas.”

D’Agnolo Vallan adds that prior to his death, she and her friend Bruce Goldstein, repertory programmer for Film Forum in New York City, were able to convince Spilker to donate his collection to a film archive.

“His collection is at Harvard, so it’s luckily protected,” she said.

“Then we go to something completely different,” D’Agnolo Vallan said, “A 4K restoration of [Alfred Hitchcock’s] ‘North by Northwest’ and [John Ford’s] ‘The Searchers,’ major films which Warner Brothers and The Film Foundation restored. Those are classics.”

Also on the schedule is the 1969 film “The Color of Pomegranates,” (“Sayat-Nova”) which will be screened on Saturday in honor of the centennial of the birth of its director, Sergei Parajanov.

“Sergei Parajanov is a genius of lyrical and folk cinema,” D’Agnolo Vallan explained. “He’s of Georgian origin, grew up in Russia and he mostly worked in Ukraine. His work is the opposite of Soviet realism. I think he was in jail because he’s very poetic and lyrical, and tapped into legends. This film is about a poet and one of Martin Scorsese’s favorites.”

Introducing the film will be director Ramin Bahrani (“The White Tiger,” “99 Homes”). Also taking part in the festival that same day will be director Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers,” “Sideways”) who is on the board of The Film Foundation and will join the audience via Zoom from Greece to discuss John Ford’s “The Searchers.”

In addition to the many films to be screened over the weekend, the festival will also host conversations and panels with guests from the preservation world including: Grover Crisp, executive vice president in charge of the Columbia and TriStar libraries at Sony Pictures; Cineric Laboratories; Kevin Schaeffer, director of restoration and library management at the Walt Disney Company; Scott McGee, TCM’s director of original productions; Dave Kehr, curator in the department of film at MoMA, among others.

Of particular note will be the annual Preservation Panel on Sunday, November 10, at 11 a.m. which will be followed by a brunch on the cinema’s third floor. The panel will include filmmaker and artist Alan Berliner, whose work is exhibited in the cinema’s new third floor art show “Think Like a Filmmaker”; Joe Lauro, CEO of Historic Films Archive, who will discuss his recent discovery of “The Heart of Lincoln” (1922), a lost film by John Ford’s filmmaker brother Francis; Cassandra Moore, vice president, mastering and archive at NBCUniversal, who will expand on the restoration of cartoons by Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker; and David Schwartz, an independent curator and writer who will be representing The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, the oldest and largest distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world.

“We have 13 programs all together, including the panel on Sunday and a special presentation that MoMA is doing on home movies,” said D’Agnolo Vallan. These home movies feature iconic actors like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., surrealist Salvador Dali, composer Aaron Copland, art giant Gertrude Stein and 20th century modern artists Edward Steichen, Constantin Brâncuși and others.

“It’s going to be really something,” said D’Agnolo Vallan. “MoMA has an amazing collection. Through home movies, it’s something to keep memory of cinema alive in a different way.”

The festival will also pay tribute to Dorothy Arzner, one of the only women working as a director in the studios in the 1920s and 1930s.

“In the silent era there were many women directors, then they disappeared,” D’Agnolo Vallan explained. “She was the first women to direct a sound film, ‘The Wild Party,’ which we’ll screen. Clara Bow stars in it. The film is very fun and it was Clara’s first nonsilent role.”

Also joining the lineup will be the original ‘Planet of the Apes,’ Franklin Schaffner’s 1968 film.

“I’m really excited to see that,” D’Agnolo Vallan confessed. “I love horror films. To me, this was one of the most terrifying films as a child.”

Speaking of children, there will be something for them as well at the festival courtesy of Universal which has given the cinema some newly restored classics produced by Walter Lantz

“He created Woody Woodpecker and others from the Universal slate. They are very zany, lyrical, poetic and playful,” D’Agnolo Vallan said.

Following the 11 a.m. screening of Walter Lantz’s classic cartoons on Saturday, November 9, there will be a free stop motion workshop for children ages 5 to 10 on the cinema’s third floor. Preregistration is required as space is limited.

“I am so happy that our audience has embraced the festival in its determination to articulate the idea of preservation through many different cinematic languages,” D’Agnolo Vallan said. “I am also very grateful to the archivists, preservation specialists, organizations and filmmakers that have enriched this special weekend with their presence and their work.

“They are back in force this year.”

Sag Harbor Cinema’s Festival of Preservation runs Friday, November 8, through Monday, November 11. A festival pass — which gives full access to all screenings, special events and The Preservation Party on the night of Saturday, November 9 — is available for $80 ($45 for members). Buy tickets and register for the children’s stop motion workshop at sagharborcinema.org. The full schedule and individual tickets are also available online. Sag Harbor Cinema is located at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor.