Film Fest Fever On East End

Cannes, Sundance, move over. It's East Hampton's moment in the cinematic spotlight for the next few days, as the annual Hamptons International Film Festival offers 40-plus feature films from many different countries, plus myriad shorts, documentaries, panel discussions, and special events.

The festival opened last night with the showing of "Some Mother's Son" at the United Artists East Hampton cinema and an opening night party at Nick and Toni's, the East Hampton restaurant. Screenings will continue from morning to night through Sunday.

The official guide to the festival, describing all the films and other events, was included in all copies of last week's Star and is available at the festival's box office at the Fotouhi Cramer Gallery on Newtown Lane, East Hampton. It is included again this week in all newsstand copies of The Star.

Free On Monday

Tickets can be bought at the box office from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily until the day before the screening or event. Same-day sales may be available, on a space-available basis, at the theater or event venue. The East Hampton Cinema, Guild Hall, and Bay Street Theatre are the three locations for most screenings and discussions.

After the prizes are awarded, the parties are over, and the big tents have been taken down, local residents may not be quite ready to say goodbye to the festival's bounties. They won't have to. Sunday night marks the close of the event, but on Monday free screenings of some of the festival's finest will be offered in East Hampton and at Southampton College.

In addition to the free day that has become a post-festival tradition at East Hampton's U.A. cinemas, Southampton College will host a free program with documentary and short films and filmmakers from the festival on Monday afternoon.

At The College

Three documentaries, "Queens of the Big Time," directed by Adriana Trigiani, "Never Again Forever," directed by Danae Elon and Pierre Chainet, and "Billal," directed by Tom Zubrycki, will be shown, along with "Hunting and Dating," a program of four short films.

"Hunting and Dating" will be shown at 2 p.m. The series of shorts includes Matt Smith's "Hunting Earl," Rubin Orbach's "Lucky Man," Peter Burstin's "Rendezvous," and Carlton Prickett's "Winterlude."

"Queens of the Big Time," which combines footage of the centen- nial celebration of an Italian festival in Pennsylvania with the director's grandfather's 16-millimeter home movies, will be shown at 4 p.m.

There will be a 6 p.m. showing of "Never Again Forever," a controversial film about the Jewish Defense League from its origins to its activity in the Occupied Territories today. Both directors will be on hand to discuss the work with John Reilly, a filmmaker and professor in the college's arts and media department.

Festival Jurors

The final screening will be "Billal" at 8 p.m. The theme of this film is a tragic and violent racial incident between a Lebanese family and an Anglo-Australian one.

Mr. Reilly will introduce all the films in the program at the college and will also help choose the winning documentary during the Film Festival as part of the documentary jury for his second year. Also judging the "Truth Is Stranger" documentary section of the festival are Michael Benson and Chris Hegedus.

The short film jury includes Lynda A. Hansen, Nicole Holofcener, and Jim Signorelli.

The biggest prize of the festival, the Golden Starfish Award, which will go to one of the the new films in the festival's American Independents Showcase, will be chosen by a jury of four, made up of the actor Roy Scheider, Ruth Charny, a producer, Judah Klausner, a composer, and David O. Russell, a writer and director.

Mystery Guest

Aside from the films, one of the biggest events of the festival is "A Conversation With" tomorrow from 3 to 5:15 p.m. The special guest remains a secret until then. Only a handful of people know this year's secret, but past guests have been Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Quincy Jones, and Isabella Rossellini.

This year the Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre has come on board as a sponsor of the festival and will host "A Conversation With."

Although some filmgoers think half the fun of a festival is being able to approach a movie without any preconceptions, many appreciate a little foreknowledge. To help choose from the abundant offerings, therefore, The Star has enlisted an ad hoc panel of film buffs - a diverse group from the arts and media - to write brief reviews. About a quarter of the feature films being shown are reviewed, along with one of the documentaries.

The Star left it up to our half-dozen Film Festival critics to choose films that piqued their interest. In order to make this week's deadline, the films had to be viewed on videotape, which, the reviewers noted, did not always provide ideal conditions.

Star Critics

The panel's recruits were:

Jane Ciabattari, who writes the weekly Intelligence Report column for Parade Magazine. She and her husband, Mark, also a writer, divide their time between Sag Harbor and New York City.

Joanne Grant, who directed a documentary film about Ella Baker, a longtime civil rights activist, and is now writing her biography. She is a "year-round summer resident" of East Hampton.

Joe LeSueur, an occasional contributor to The Star. Mr. LeSueur wrote theater reviews for The Village Voice and was a story editor for Twentieth Century Fox. He lives in Springs.

Marjorie Loggia, who edited "The Collected Works of Harold Clurman," a collection of the writings of the renowned critic and director. She is now working on a book about Stella Adler, the actress and drama teacher, and also writes about sports. Ms. Loggia lives in East Hampton and Manhattan.

Debra Scott, a journalist-author, who spent three years in Hollywood, where, like every Melrose busboy, she wrote screenplays, read scripts for the studios, and pitched her story ideas to anyone who'd listen. She lives in Sag Harbor.

Guy-Jean de Fraumeni, who has been The Star's regular film reviewer for the last year.

Festival Web Site

Those who are on-line can follow the festival on the Internet. The official Web Site will be presented by iLINE, an on-line group promoting and supporting independent film, along with the Hamptons International Film Festival, Filmmaker Magazine, and Peconic Online. iLINE is funded in part by Mark Rabinowitz, a part-time East Hampton resident.

Located at www.ilineltd.com/festivals/hamptons, the site will feature diaries of filmmakers at the festival, interviews, photographs, and reviews. iLINE also can be tapped into on America Online by typing the keyword: iline.