With its stunning exhibition of filmmaking skills, the 16th annual Hamptons Doc Fest has irrevocably changed the landscape of documentaries. From November 30 to December 6, thirty excellent documentaries, including five that were so good they were named on Oscar Shortlists, were screened at Sag Harbor Cinema and Bay Street Theater.
American Symphony and The Eternal Memory, two exceptional documentaries, are leading the way and have both made it onto the Oscar Shortlist for Documentary Feature Film. In addition to captivating audiences, Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony won the esteemed HDF Pennebaker Career Achievement Award. The movie closely follows musician Jon Batiste as he writes a unique piece of music for Carnegie Hall while his wife, Suleika Jaouad, fights a rare form of leukemia.
Amazingly, American Symphony wins positions in two other Oscars Shortlist categories in addition to the Documentary Feature Film category. The film’s soul-stirring song, “It Never Went Away,” and its hauntingly beautiful original music have garnered well-deserved accolades, showcasing its varied genius.
At the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Maite Alberdi’s film The Eternal Memory, which was shown in the World Cinema competition, won gold. The tale of legendary Chilean journalist Augusto Gongora and his loving wife, former cultural minister Paulina Urrutia, is told in this moving documentary. Together, they successfully negotiate the perilous waters of Alzheimer’s disease, providing viewers with an insight into the human spirit’s tenacity in the face of hardship.
Three of the seven documentary film shorts that were shown during the festival’s Shorts and Breakfast Bites events on December 2 and 3 made it onto the Oscar Shortlists for Documentary Short Film.
The controversial topic of book banning in American schools is explored in The ABCs of Book Banning, a 27-minute documentary produced by Sheila Nevins and directed by Trish Adiesic and Naz Habtezghi. With its story told from the viewpoint of youngsters, the movie offers a distinctive view on a contentious social issue.
In the 35-minute documentary The Barber of Little Rock, John Hoffman and Christine Turner take us on a trip across Little Rock, Arkansas, that is full of vision. This movie highlights a barber’s creative strategy for closing the wealth gap, founding a community bank while fusing social conscience with entrepreneurial ambition.
In the thirty-minute documentary Last Song from Kabul, master filmmaker Kevin Macdonald tells the story of fearless teenage musicians in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control. The video examines the transformational potential of art, even in the most difficult situations, via their fortitude and inventiveness.
As excitement mounts, the Academy is scheduled to reveal the final nominations on January 23. The documentaries from the Hamptons Doc Fest have captured viewers’ attention and garnered justifiable accolades, solidifying their position as the best of the best in the field of documentary filmmaking. On March 10, the Academy Awards ceremony will provide the ultimate revelation as to whether these remarkable films will reach the highest level of cinematic grandeur. The trip from Sag Harbor to the Oscar Shortlists is evidence of storytelling’s enduring power, which captures people’s attention everywhere.
