Although it’s not even Labor Day yet, the Hamptons International Film Festival is already preparing for its big event over Columbus Day weekend. On Friday, the festival announced its opening night film, “Just Mercy,” and a group of other high profile films it plans to screen this year.
“Just Mercy,” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, stars Michael B. Jordan as a young lawyer attempting to correct wrongs in an Alabama justice system skewed against him and his clients. Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Karan Kendrick, and Brie Larson also star. It will be screened on Oct. 10.
The festival also announced that Alfre Woodard will participate in the its “A Conversation With . . .” series in support of her film “Clemancy,” directed by Chinonye Chukwu. In the movie, she plays a prison warden dealing with the stress of death row executions. The festival previously announced that Brian de Palma, who is receiving a lifetime achievement award this year, will also sit down for an extended discussion of his career.
Other films to look out for are “Ford v Ferrari,” the Saturday Centerpiece film directed by James Mangold, and the world premieres of Treva Wurmfeld’s “Conscience Point,” Ben Steele’s “In Memorium,” Mark Landsman’s “Scandalous,” and Anthony Baxter’s “Flint.”
“Ford v Ferrari,” which will screen on Oct. 12, stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale in a true story about the car designer and daredevil driver who in 1966 designed a car for the Ford Motor Company to take on the Ferrari racecars that historically dominated France’s Le Mans race.
One of the Views From Long Island selections, “Conscience Point” examines how the increasing development of ancestral lands has forced the members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation to fight for what is left to protect their heritage as well as the environment.
As mass shootings become regular occurrences in this country, survivors are often forgotten when tallying their human toll. “In Memorium” looks at three communities in the aftermath of some of the deadliest tragedies: the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in Texas, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
“Scandalous” takes on The National Enquirer and its six-decade dominance of the scandal trade using archival footage to illustrate revelations about just how the publication achieved its biggest scoops. The film also examines how the tabloid helped create “fake news” and propelled it into the mainstream.
Although Newark, N.J., now has a water crisis to call its own, no other city will likely be more defined by its water problem than Flint, Mich. The city, previously known as a failed auto manufacturing center, has been battling a several-years-long water crisis that highlights the weaknesses in the country’s infrastructure and the partisan politics that gave rise to the disaster.
Passes and packages for the 2019