‘Marvin Booker
Was Murdered’ added to Doc Fest line-up

During its December 2017 festival, Hamptons Doc Fest screened the film, “Marvin Booker Was Murdered.” Now, the festival is providing viewers the opportunity to watch the film via its website, thanks to the film’s director Wade Gardner, who has provided a free link to his film.

The documentary tells the story of a homeless street preacher who died violently in 2010 while in the custody of five jail guards at the Denver Detention Center. The event was caught on tape and witnessed by more than 20 people. The film follows the Booker family and two dedicated attorneys who worked tirelessly in their fight against a powerful Thin Blue Line and the City of Denver to restore Booker’s civil rights.

“We at Hamptons Doc Fest, like the majority of Americans, stand firmly with Black Lives Matter,” said festival founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro.

Also, the festival is adding two other films to its website this week — the newly released first run art film “Beyond The Visible: Hilma af Klint” and “Dads,” just in time for Father’s Day on June 21.

[caption id="attachment_101555" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Artist Hilma af Klint.[/caption]

“Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint” is a 2020 documentary directed by Halina Dyrschka, about the trailblazing Swedish abstract artist who began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colorful, sensual works without precedent. All but forgotten after she died in 1944, she was re-discovered and became the subject of a 2018-19 retrospective of 167 paintings at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

[caption id="attachment_101556" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bryce Dallas Howard, director of the documentary "Dads," with her own father, Ron Howard.[/caption]

“Dads” is a 2019 light-hearted documentary about the changing face of fatherhood by first-time director Bryce Dallas Howard, who interviews celebrity Dads, like her own father Ron Howard, and Neil Patrick Harris, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and Will Smith, to name just a few.

“We’ve kept our promise to bring you ‘Fest Favorite’ films every Wednesday,” said Lofaro, of the 13 documentaries and festival Q&As with directors that have been put on the website over the past weeks, “but in addition, looking forward, we are keen to bring you just-released, first-run films online, which you can watch for a reduced fee, with 50 percent of the revenue going to Hamptons Doc Fest to help us during these difficult days.”

Still available via the website, most with Q&As from the directors’ appearances at the film festival in previous years, are, “Penny and Red: The Life of Secretariat’s Owner,” “Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life,” “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am,” “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” “Spielberg,” “Life, Animated,” “Very Semi-Serious,” “Free Solo” and “To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor.”

To access these films, visit hamptonsdocfest.com.