The 18th annual Hamptons Doc Fest will launch on Friday, Dec. 4, with an expanded eight-day schedule featuring 33 documentary films to be shown at the Sag Harbor Cinema, Bay Street Theater, and, for the first time, the Southampton Playhouse.
“Our 2025 program is electric with real-life stories,” said Jacqui Lofaro, the Hamptons Doc Fest founder and executive director, promising “eight days of great documentary filmmaking crafted by talented creators who edit, not censor, who discover, not destroy.” The selection is “testimony to free and frank expression — the voices we need.”
The opening night film, set for 7:30 at Bay Street Theater, is “Steal This Story, Please!” Directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the film is about Amy Goodman, a journalist who co-founded and continues to host “Democracy Now!” — a daily independent news program syndicated to over 750 radio and television stations. Ms. Goodman and both directors will be on hand to take questions after the screening, which will be followed by a cocktail reception.
The range of subjects in this year’s festival is extraordinary. On one day alone, there are films about Gentry Lee, the chief engineer for planetary exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (“Starman”); Peter Asher, an English pop star and producer who managed James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, and many others (“Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher”); Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator who in 2025 became the first transgender member of the United States Congress (“State of Firsts”), and a Macedonian farmer who nurses an injured white stork back to health (“The Tale of Silyan”).
For adventure, it’s hard to imagine a film more breathtaking than “Everest Dark,” Jereme Watt’s film about Mingma Tsiri Sherpa, the Nepalese mountaineer and national hero who risks his life to climb the dark side of Everest one last time to recover some of the 200 frozen bodies there. In addition to dramatic footage of Everest peaks, the film offers insight into the significance of the mountain for Buddhist Sherpas.
From Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, a wife-and-husband team of Iranian-American directors, comes “Cutting Through Rocks.” The film focuses on Sara Shahverdi, the first elected councilwoman in her conservative Iranian village, who challenges tradition by teaching teenage girls to ride motorcycles, opposing child marriage, and working for female land ownership. The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the world cinema grand jury prize.
“The Ark,” a film by Jeremy Chilnick and Viaeslav Rakovskyi, takes place in Eastern Ukraine after the Russian invasion. When a neighbor, drafted to fight on the front lines, asks Zhenye and Anatoliy Pilipenko if they can care for his 37 goats on their country property, their home transforms into the largest animal sanctuary in the region, as they eventually take in over 1,000 animals.
Closer to home and lighter in tone is “Raoul’s, A New York Story,” a portrait of Raoul’s Restaurant, the French bistro that was opened on Prince Street in SoHo 50 years ago by two Alsatian brothers. The film, which is also a story of the neighborhood and French food in New York, is told over the course of 10 years by Karim Raoul, a filmmaker and son of one of the restaurant’s founders, who eventually became a restaurateur himself. The film is co-directed by Greg Olliver.
The festival will wrap on Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. with “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone,” Thomas Winston’s film about Mollie Beattie, the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who was able to bring wolves back to the park after a 50-year absence. “Mollie’s Pack” is now over 750 wolves strong. The film will be shown in the Southampton Playhouse’s IMAX theater.
The recipient of the festival’s Pennebaker Career Achievement Award is Alan Berliner, whose films have been part of the core curriculum for documentary filmmaking and film history classes at universities internationally.
The award ceremony will happen on Dec. 6 at Bay Street Theater, starting at 6:30 with a cocktail/buffet reception, followed at 8 by the award presentation and an interview with Mr. Berliner. The showing of his latest film “Benita,” will conclude the evening.
“Benita” intimately recounts the life of Benita Raphan, a New York City filmmaker who died by suicide during Covid. Mr. Berliner drew on personal archives, films, notebooks, drawings, photographs, home movies, and hard drives to create a portrait of a filmmaker by a filmmaker and a film about filmmaking.
In addition to the Pennebaker Award, the festival has six other award categories, including the Art and Inspiration Award, which this year went to Cindy Meehl’s “Jimmy & the Demons,” a film about Jimmy Grashow, an artist who for six decades created irreverent woodcuts and sculptures in cardboard. His art was also featured on album covers for Jethro Tull and the Yardbirds, among others, and appeared in “Rolling Stone,” “Esquire,” and “The New York Times.” Both the director and Lesley Grashow, the artist’s widow, will take questions after the screening.
The Nancy Nagle Kelly Environmental Award went to “A Life Illuminated,” a film by Tasha Van Zandt that follows Edie Widder, one of the first women to explore the ocean’s twilight zone, descending 3,300 feet into its darkest depths in a submersible and capturing on film marine life that generates its own light. After the showing Ms. Van Zandt will discuss the film with Carl Safina, the noted author and ecologist.
“Cover Up,” a film by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus about Seymour M. Hersh, the indefatigable investigative journalist who exposed the Vietnam and Iraq war scandals, took home the Veritas Award. “The magnitude of Sy’s work is just so astounding that what this man has uncovered, it just should be celebrated in every newsroom, every journalism school,” said Ms. Poitras. Mr. Obenhaus, who lives in Springs, will attend the screening.
Other award-winning films include “Monk in Pieces,” a mosaic in song and images of the life of Meredith Monk, the groundbreaking composer, performer, and visionary. Billy Shebar and David Roberts, the directors, won the festival’s Legacy Award.
The Impact Award went to Jota Mun’s “Between Goodbyes,” which follows a queer Korean adoptee as she reconnects with her birth mother in Seoul, while the Human Rights Award was won by “Nuns vs. the Vatican,” Lorena Luciano’s documentary about a former Italian nun who breaks 30 years of silence to name her abuser, a prominent Jesuit priest and artist.
The complete schedule of Hamptons Doc Fest, including two programs of short films and ticketing information, can be found on the festival’s website. In addition to tickets to individual programs, a festival pass that includes admission to all films, receptions, opening night, and the Pennebaker Award evening can be had for $375. Passholders must reserve tickets in advance.
