‘96 Hamptons-DAY ONE: Arriving, Checking In, and Lounging

by Eugene Hernandez

DAY ONE of the Hamptons International Film Festival began quietly as filmmakers, aficionados and industry types made the mid-week trip to East Hampton for the Fourth Annual fête. If every "i" and "t" had yet to be dotted and crossed at various festival venues no one really seemed to mind, after all it was a beautiful autumn day -- leaves, reddened by a recent cold snap, had begun to fall and folks seem ready to settle in for four days of films, seminars and parties.

Checking in at the Festival's Hunting Inn headquarters, Arthur Borman ("Shooting Lily") seemed a bit tired after a red-eye flight from Los Angeles and a mix-up at Laguardia Airport -- apparently his driver for the trip to Eastern Long Island decided to leave without him. Arthur is looking forward to his film's first festival screening (He assured us that he will let us know how it went with a diary entry...) the film garnered strong buzz at the recent Independent Feature Film Market in New York and since then, Arthur has been busy securing international distribution and wooing several domestic distributors.

The place to hang in between screenings is apparently the lounge above The Cigar Box, a local establishment a few doors down Main St. from the UA Theaters. Make your way past the front counter (and the bulldog mascot, Pushkin) and head up the circular staircase to the Directors Guild of America-sponsored "Filmmaker/Press Lounge." Spotted lounging yesterday were Festival Exec. Director Ken Tabachnick, Juror Roy Scheider, PR Mavens Susan Jacobs & Henry Eshelman, and Anjelica Huston & Festival Chair Toni Ross, who were overheard chatting about the Olympics, prior to Ms. Huston's post-screening Q & A session.

Filmmaker Steve Feder appears calm a few hours before the sold out, world premiere of his new film, "The Cottonwood." He completed the project this summer and took it to the IFFM at the urging of a financier. Feder is pleased to report that yesterday's East Hampton Star features his film's first review, and it's a thumbs up. Writer Joanne Grant called the project "a bright, witty, lightweight comedy, charmingly told by Steven Feder" (Feder was pleasantly surprised to learn that Grant is the mother of indieWIRE's own Mark Rabinowitz).

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Ing K, a filmmaker and journalist from Bangok, was hanging in the Lounge. The column she's writing for a Thai publication is entitled "Shoestring Diaries," and Ing calls the series a "cinema lovers diary." Ing is currently living in West Hampton finishing a feature with partner, Brian Bennett. The film, entitled "My Teacher Eats Biscuits," is a religious satire which Ing calls, "a send up of eastern mysticism." Hailing New York as the "shoestring capital of the world," Ing is finishing the film here because, as she explains it, "they do not print 16mm in Thailand." posted on October 18, 1996 |Share