NewportFILM will screen documentaries by Morgan Neville, Matt Tyrnauer, Nathanel Kahn, and Andrew Solomon as part of its annual summer series.
The festival has become something of an institution in the posh seaside community — Newport, Rhode Island is an old world resort, with Gilded Age mansions that are straight out of an Edith Wharton novel (in fact, “The Age of Innocence” is partly set there). Part of the attraction is that the sunset screenings are hosted in several different historic venues, including Rosecliff, a mansion featured in the 1974 version of “The Great Gatsby” with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, the Eisenhower House, which was the “Summer White House” for President Dwight D. Eisenhower or his Mar a Lago, and the Newport International Polo Grounds.
The screenings kicked off Thursday with Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” a look at the enduring legacy of Fred Rogers, and runs through September 6th. Past films that have played at newportFILM include Brett Morgan’s “Jane, Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s “RBG,” and Jeff Orlwoski’s “Chasing Coral.”
Here’s the full list of films, venues, and talent:
Thursday, June 28
THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING
Location: Newport Art Museum Lawn
Q&A with filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn moderated by Dodie Kazanijian
Exploring the labyrinth of the contemporary art world, “The Price of Everything” examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society. Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, from current market darlings Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, to one-time art star Larry Poons, the film exposes deep contradictions as it holds a mirror up to contemporary values and times, coaxing out the dynamics at play in pricing the priceless.
Thursday, July 5
THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
Location: Salve Regina University’s O’Hare Academic Center Lawn
“Three Identical Strangers” tells the astonishing true story of three men who make the chance discovery, at the age of 19, that they are identical triplets, separated at birth and adopted to different parents. The trio’s joyous reunion in 1980 catapults them to fame but it also sets in motion a chain of events that unearths an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes far beyond their own lives – a secret that goes to the very heart of all human behavior.
Thursday, July 12
FAR FROM THE TREE
Location: The Elms
Q&A with The New York Times Best Selling Author Andrew Solomon moderated by Tanya Rivero Warren
“Far From The Tree” follows families meeting extraordinary challenges through love, empathy, and understanding. This life-affirming documentary encourages us to cherish loved ones for all they are, not who they might have been. Based on Andrew Solomon’s award-winning, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling non-fiction book “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
Thursday, July 19
SERENGETI RULES
Location: On the Beach at Newport Beach House: A Longwood Venue
Exploring some of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth, five pioneering scientists make surprising discoveries that flip our understanding of nature on its head and offer new hope for restoring our world.
Thursday, July 26
TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’
Location: St. Michael’s Country Day School Lawn
Q&A with Director Benjamin Hedin
partner: Newport Folk Festival
Peace, Love and Music themed picnic contest sponsored by Madewell
“Two Train’s Runnin’” is about the search for two forgotten blues singers, set in Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. In June of 1964 hundreds of college students, eager to join the civil rights movement, traveled to Mississippi, starting what would be known as Freedom Summer. That same month, two groups of young men—made up of musicians, college students and record collectors—also traveled to Mississippi. Though neither group was aware of the other, each had come on the same errand: to find an old blues singer and coax him out of retirement. Thirty years before, Son House and Skip James had recorded some of the most memorable music of their era, but now they seemed lost to time.
Thursday, August 2
STUDIO 54
Location: Rosecliff Lawn
Q&A with Director Matt Tyrnauer moderated by Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair)
“Studio 54” was the epicenter of 70s hedonism–a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club’s hallowed threshold, a feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
Thursday, August 9
SCIENCE FAIR
Location: Eisenhower House Lawn
Q&A with Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster moderated by Brent Lang (Variety)
Hailed by critics as “immensely likeable,” “brilliant and quirky” and an “ode to the teenage science geeks on who our future depends,” and winner of the audience award at Sundance and SXSW, National Geographic Documentary Films’ “Science Fair” follows nine high school students from around the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks and, of course, hormones, on their journey to compete at The International Science and Engineering Fair. As 1,700 of the smartest, quirkiest teens from 78 different countries face off, only one will be named Best in Fair. The film, from Fusion and Muck Media and directed by the DuPont Award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaking team Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, offers a front seat to the victories, defeats and motivations of an incredible group of young men and women who are on a path to change their lives, and the world, through science.
Thursday, August 16
CHEF FLYNN
Location: St. George’s School Lawn
Ten-year-old Flynn transforms his living room into a supper club, using his classmates as line cooks and serving a tasting menu foraged from his neighbors’ backyards. With sudden fame, Flynn outgrows his bedroom kitchen and mother’s camera, and sets out to challenge the hierarchy of the culinary world.
Thursday, August 23
LIFE IN THE DOGHOUSE
Location: Newport International Polo Grounds
Conversation with Director Ron Davis and Danny Robertshaw and Ron Danta from “Danny and Ron’s Rescue”
partner: Potter League for Animals
“Life in the Dog House” tells the inspiring life stories of Danny Robertshaw and Ron Danta and the remarkable work they do at Danny & Ron’s Rescue. Ten years and 10,000 dogs later, their unique approach to life and dog rescue will capture hearts and inspire millions to make the right choices when it comes to man’s best friend.
Thursday, August 30
UNSTOPPABLE: BETHANY HAMILTON
Location: 2nd Beach Parking Lot
Q&A with Director Aaron Lieber moderated by Tatiana Siegel / The Hollywood Reporter
“Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable” is Bethany Hamilton’s complete and untold story that follows her journey from childhood into motherhood – the ups, downs and her powerful resilience against all odds to become one of the leading professional surfers of all time. From chasing her toddler, to chasing the biggest waves, Bethany is continually rewriting the rules on being a fearless athlete and brings new meaning to the phrase “Surfs Like a Girl.”
Thursday, September 6 the film is to be announced.
