Dan's Papers -October 9, 2009 - Honoring the Artists: Long Island Filmmakers

Unlike past covers, this week's image doesn't feature the current Hamptons International Film Festival poster by Bryan Hunt. Instead, it pays homage to a 1926 motion picture shot in Montauk: The Son of the Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Banky.

While we can't say that this area became a center for movie-making during the ensuing years, the East End has enjoyed its share of on-location productions. Particularly active were the 1960s when Mayor John Lindsay promoted New York City as a perfect place for shooting movies; the nearby Long Island environs became an accessible and inexpensive spot as well.

The 1990s brought regional filmmaking to the general locale (think John Waters and his Baltimore flicks). In works by Hal Hartley (Henry Fool) and Ed Burns (The Brothers McMullen), both men made their hometowns central to their themes concerning male rites of passage; thus, such settings became important "characters" in the plot.

Local production in the area continues, with the soon-to-be-released film about Valerie Plame Wilson, which stars Sean Penn. (An office building where Hauppauge's Suffolk County Film Office is now located stands in for the C.I.A. building.)

This year's HIFF honors the Long Island tradition of moviemaking with diverse works by residents including Eric Striffler's A Fizzy Incident, which he made as a high school student last year. Striffler has a penchant for short documentaries, which he's been putting on YouTube for three years. He notes that YouTube has been a big help in getting his videos attention from various festivals, like "First Exposure," sponsored by Suffolk County's Office of Film.

Striffler said his influences are, "Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan." While his favorite genre is suspense, his festival video is more like a reality bite based on a mundane happening. It poses a simple question: What would happen if someone dropped a can of soda that looked like a bomb while fizzing? Come to think of it, that's both suspense and reality.

In Darko Lungulov's full-length film, Here and There, action alternates between New York and Belgrade. The protagonist, Robert, is a musician who's out of work and has no place to live. Enter Branko, a Serbian who hires Robert to go to Belgrade, marry his girlfriend and bring her back to New York.

What subsequently happens is engaging and often humorous. The film also features multiple comments on Serbian and New York society and rites-of-passage, with realistic location shooting in Belgrade and equally realistic acting. It's a believable work of fiction.

Neil Leifer's short, The Perfect Game, rings true as well, particularly considering that Leifer is known for his sports photography. The plot involves the viewer from the start, with Kevin Conway playing an old-time baseball pitcher dying of cancer. While the movie is basically a conversation between Conway and a reporter, we are intrigued with the "confession" that the pitcher makes. Leifer effectively deals with the film's central challenge: how to keep things interesting when dialogue is most important.

A Fizzy Incident (part of "Youth Shorts"): Oct, 8 at 1:30 pm; Oct. 12 at 10:45 p.m.

Here and There: Oct. 11, 2:15 p.m.; Oct. 12, 6 p.m.

Perfect Game: Oct. 9, 10 p.m.; Oct. 11, 10:30 p.m.

Neil Leifer will be having an exhibit, "The Golden Age of Football," at Sag Harbor's Delaney-Cooke Gallery, with an opening and book signing on Oct. 10.