Picturing World Peace at Guild Hall
Autumn seems to be film festival season on the South Fork. This weekend, the World Peace Initiative Hamptons debuts at Guild Hall. As a satellite of Artisan Festival International, its mission is to promote peace and cultural diversity by showcasing both the work of artists and over 25 films from around the globe. The community has been invited to attend along with international guests including environmental engineers, diplomats for peace, filmmakers, fine artists, and fashion designers.
“We are an initiative, not just a ‘film festival’ or a ‘fine arts festival,’ ” the festival’s founder and executive director, Princess Angelique Monet, said in a release. “Promoting and expressing peace through select art forms provides a unique and entertaining platform that allows our guests the opportunity to form their own opinions based on the information being presented.”
The program begins with an opening night Halloween masquerade character ball tomorrow from 8 to 11 p.m. The party will benefit the Children and the Arts Program and children will be welcomed with adults. Tickets cost $20 per person and can be purchased online at afiworldpeaceinitiative.org.
Screenings and programs run from 10 a.m. until 10:15 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
The cinema segment, supported in part by a grant from the Suffolk County Office of Film and Cultural Affairs, includes several highlighted selections with accompanying special programs.
“Forget Us Not” by Heather E. Connell documents the fate of more than 5 million non-Jews targeted by Hitler, focusing on several “lesser-known voices” including a disabled man, a Roma girl, and a Ukrainian child. The director will attend a panel discussion.
“Lesson of Hayti” by Terry Boyd, Edward Harris Jr., and Byron Hunter examines “the unique history of black self-sufficiency and political power in the United States from its origins” following the Emancipation Proclamation, told by prominent historians and scholars. A discussion with Mr. Hunter and the film’s narrator, Dougie Doug, an actor and comedian, will follow.
“Chasing Shakespeare,” starring Danny Glover and Graham Greene, is a love story by Leonardo Santana surrounding a mystical Arkansas Native American family. The screening celebrates National American Indian Heritage Month and there will be a performance at the festival by the InterTribal Dancers. “Egypt Through the Glass Shop” shines a spotlight on the Middle East when a hip-hop producer turned filmmaker travels to Egypt and delivers a “powerful first-hand account of the Egyptian Revolution.”
“Look Up! The Sky Is Falling” is, according to the festival, a new genre of documentary that “integrates a mobile app component.” Addressing what festival organizers “believe is the single most important and terrifying environmental issue that the planet faces today — geoengineering and chemtrails,” the film shows how George Barnes, the filmmaker and Telly Award-winning director, makes a “terrifying discovery” while testing time-lapse camera equipment, then playing the footage backwards. He discovers the use of aircraft to spray the sky with toxic particles, “with the intention of blocking the sun and forcing climate change while creating unknown consequences.” Also discussed in the film is aluminum and its relationship to “aluminum-related diseases such as autism and Alzheimer’s.” It introduces a “revolutionary new app” that allows for instantaneous viewer activism. There will be a panel discussion with environmental experts and the director following the screening.
Tickets for individual programs are $15, $12 for senior citizens, and $10 for children under 15. A day pass is $35 or $30 for senior citizens. They are available at afiworldpeaceinitiative.org.