Skip to main content

A Big-House Fight on Film

Thu, 10/06/2022 - 09:53

Build.In.Kind/East Hampton and the Wainscott Heritage Project will host a screening of “One Big Home,” a 2016 documentary by Thomas Bena, at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Mr. Bena was a carpenter on Martha’s Vineyard who became alarmed by the impact of ever-larger houses being built there. Over a period of 12 years, he traded his toolbelt for a camera, took aim at the trend toward trophy houses, and worked with his community to pass a law to limit house size.

“The film is a testament to how the active engagement of citizens can achieve constructive change,” Jaine Mehring, who founded Build.In.Kind/East Hampton to slow development activity in the town, said.

The Wainscott Heritage Project was formed in 2021 by citizens resolved to preserve the history and cultural character of the hamlet. Esperanza Leon, a co-founder of the project, said “One Big Home” can “reassure any community threatened by a loss of character and sense of place that it is possible to slow or even halt that process and restore some balance.”

Mr. Bena will be on hand for a discussion after the screening.

Villages

Minister to Speak on East Hampton’s ‘Convict Pastor’

The Rev. Thomas James of the East Hampton’s first church “came to the New World in search of religious freedom but found that freedom was not enough.” So says an announcement for a lecture next Thursday provokingly titled “The Convict Pastor: Thomas James and the Puritan Roots of Christian Nationalism.”

Jul 16, 2026

Wildfire Smoke Descends, Creating Health Hazard

A storm of smoke covering Long Island and most of New York State has traveled thousands of miles from its source in Canada and the Midwest, leading to multiple air quality alerts here and giving an eerie cast to the skies.

Jul 16, 2026

On a Medical Frontier, Parents Push Forward

An East Hampton mother enters the uncharted terrain of treating an ultra-rare genetic condition.

Jul 16, 2026

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.