Documentary films have become the conscience of the nation, providing a deeper study of contemporary, and often unnoticed, social issues. By using the unique medium of film, Documentarians are able to cultivate a more compelling and fruitful discussion by mixing strongly-driven narratives with vivid imagery.
In recognition of the rising importance of documentaries to public dialogue, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society is proud to announce its tenth annual Documentary Week from July 29 to August 2, 2024.
PROGRAM AND TICKETS FOR 2024 will be announced in late June
SEE BELOW FOR THE 2023 DOCUMENTARY WEEK PROGRAM
COMMON GROUND
MONDAY, July 31st @7:30pm
Followed by a Q&A With Noli Taylor and Andrew Woodruff of Island Grown Initiative and Whippoorwill Farm
COMMON GROUND, which features appearances and narration by Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Rosario Dawson, Ian Somerhalder and Woody Harrelson, is the highly anticipated follow up film to Kiss the Ground, also directed by the Tickell’s, which is narrated by Woody Harrelson and won over 75 major film festival awards before being seen by over 100 million viewers on major streaming platforms globally.
COMMON GROUND is the hopeful and uplifting story of the pioneers of the “Regenerative Movement” who produce tremendous quantities of nutritionally dense food and are working to balance the climate – all while bringing our entire ecosystem back to life. The film explores how Americans from different walks of life, different political backgrounds and different parts of the country share one thing in common – the very soil beneath their feet. The film investigates the power of “regenerative” farming systems – from large to small scale farmers who are the champions of soil health as the key to unlocking more (and healthier) food to feed America and the world.
GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1st @7:30pm
Followed by a Q&A With Producer and Vineyard resident Julia Pontecorvo
In the competitive world of high school mariachi, the musicians from the South Texas borderlands reign supreme. Under the guidance of Coach Abel Acuña, the teenage captains of Edinburg North High School’s acclaimed team must turn a shoestring budget and diverse crew of inexperienced musicians into state champions.
Julia Pontecorvo is a creative producer enthusiastic about telling humanity’s most idiosyncratic and heartfelt stories through traditional and innovative forms. She started at RadicalMedia working on a variety of short documentaries for original YouTube channel THNKR and on The System With Joe Berlinger (Al Jazeera America 2014). Notable projects include the docuseries Year Million (National Geographic 2017), the Grand Clio-winning interactive horror audio play Possession Begins (Cinemax 2017), and Lance Weiler’s acclaimed Where There’s Smoke (2019 Tribeca Film Festival). Recently, she was a producer on season two of Home (Apple TV+ 2022), and a forthcoming docuseries exploring the intersection of fashion and modeling in the early 90s. Julia was also proud to be a 2020 Impact Partners Producers Fellow. She currently serves as Supervising Producer across an array of documentary projects for Firelight Media.
THE POWER OF STONE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2nd @7:30pm
THURSDAY, AUGUST 10th @7:30pm
Followed by a Q&A With Directors Barbarella & David Fokos and artist Lew French
From the filmmaking duo who created Visions of Home (featuring Heather Neill) and A Painter Who Farms (featuring Allen Whiting), comes The Power of Stone, a documentary film featuring island artist Lew French premiering at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society’s 9th annual Documentary Week Festival.
About the film: The Power of Stone offers a glimpse into the life of renowned stone artist, Lew French, during the time he was working to create the Rose Styron Garden for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. At first, Lew French appears as unyielding as the granite he works with, but beneath this artist’s rigid exterior is a deeply spiritual soul. Though he wakes up at 4am to meditate every day, Lew struggles to quiet his mind. In stone, Lew finds that which he longs for: stillness. As one friend put it, “Don’t be tricked by the idea that he’s a stone mason. He’s sort of a philosopher, artist, spiritual guide who’s working with stone.” This behind-the-scenes look at Lew’s process of creating his first public work— the Rose Styron Garden—takes viewers from a granite quarry in New Hampshire where Lew shares insights into his stone selection to Brazil, where Lew has spent 20 years creating the most singular expression of himself in the remote mountains of the Atlantic Rainforest.
About the Directors: Barbarella Fokos is a writer with multiple Excellence in Journalism Awards. David Fokos is an internationally renowned photographic artist. Together, this creative couple founded Salt & Sugar Productions and, as filmmakers, have been exploring what it is that compels artists to create. Their television show, Art Pulse TV, earned them an Emmy Award for Excellence in Arts and Entertainment Programming. In a bid to dive even deeper than the magazine-format allowed, Barbarella and David have been creating documentary films about artists whose work captured their attention. Barbarella and David split their time between San Diego and Chilmark. More at: www.ThePowerofStoneFilm.com
LITTLE RICHARD:
I AM EVERYTHING
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3rd @7:30pm
Followed by a Q&A With Director Lisa Cortes and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Director Lisa Cortés’ LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-two books and created eighteen documentary films, including Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program-Long Form, as well as a Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: WITHOUT A NET
FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th @7:30pm
Followed by a Q&A With Producer Sadie Bass
When Cirque du Soleil moves to reboot its flagship production, O, more than a year after an abrupt global shutdown, both performers and crew members face uncertainty as they work to return to their world-class standards in time for the (re)opening night curtain in Las Vegas. With unprecedented access, filmmaker Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble, Trapped) captures the dramatic personal highs and lows of the world’s most famous circus act on its journey back from the existential brink.
Sadie Bass is a two-time Emmy and Murrow award winning documentary producer. She most recently produced the film Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net – a feature documentary highlighting Cirque’s triumphant return to the stage following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to that, Sadie spent five years at CNN’s Great Big Story, most recently as the company’s Executive Producer. She was part of the original team who pioneered the creation and development of the acclaimed storytelling brand and led a talented group of 30+ producers, editors and graphic designers with an inclusive and empowering approach.
Before joining Great Big Story, Sadie honed her craft for nearly a decade while producing short documentaries and news segments for media outlets including ABC News, Newsweek & The Daily Beast, NowThis and Bloomberg. She excels at pitching stories with unique angles, tracking down and casting compelling subjects, field-producing under pressure, and maintaining an unwavering commitment to the highest standards of quality.
Sadie is passionate about culture and current events and loves documentaries that speak truth to power. She’s also obsessed with true crime, mysteries and just about any story that sounds too crazy to be true. She lives in Queens with her family and is a graduate of New York University.
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