HamptonsFilm’s SummerDocs Series Presents: “Lily Topples the World”

Lily Hevesh is an amazing young woman. Her personal story alone is worthy of a movie. Yet what is important at the moment is that her documentary film, “Lily Topples the World”  will be screened  this Saturday August 21^st at 7p.m. at Guild Hall as part of HamptonsFilm’s SummerDocs series. 

The documentary explores both the world of the dominos toppling community and specially Lily Hevesh and her importance in it. Her YouTube channel is worldwide watched with wildly entertaining filmed domino tumbles. 

Hamptons.com interviewed both Lily Hevesh along with the film’s  Director, Jeremy Workman. He is both a superb filmmaker and editor whose features include, The World Before Your Feet, Magical Universe, and Who Is Henry Jaglom? 

When Lily Hevesh was asked what she loved best about the film she said, “The thing I love most about the documentary is how it showcases an odd sort of art form but also makes it cool and seem bigger than it is. Just the fact that it shows more of a behind the scenes authentic look on what my personal life is like because you don’t really get to see that on my YouTube video’s. It’s kind of neat to have that sort of crossover. You see me doing these big professional projects but then you also see me in college hanging out with friends.” 

When it came to discussing the efforts of Jeremy Workman making this project happen Lily said, “I think Jeremy did a fantastic job. As we were filming he didn’t have a necessarily have an idea how this story  would go I think he went with perspective of just capturing as much as he could. Then in the editing process kind of figuring out that story, so he didn’t have an objective to push some sort of theme or specific goal. He went into see what this world of dominos was actually like and then captured it in a very authentic way. So, I think he did a very good job directing.” 

Jeremy Workman then explained what brought him to the project. , “I was very intrigued by the domino toppling community. I was watching a lot of domino toppling video’s myself. As I watched more, just from a personal perspective I was realizing more I watched all roads were leading to this (project) with a girl who is the head of it, who was the creator of the channel. It just kind of caught my attention and I began to just get really interested in it as a fan. It was the first time that I had ever approached a movie or documentary as a fan. Then I found myself really very taken by her (Lily) artistry and then eventually just reached out to her, more as just a casual ‘Hey I am a fan, I’m interested in you maybe there is an idea to do a film. It was just a little spark on an idea but over the course of many many months we decided to take the plunge and do a movie together.” 

Since the film is going to be shown at Guild Hall Lily said, “I am so excited for the film to be playing there (Guild Hall.) I have never been to the Hamptons and I think this film there is the only film that’s going to be playing that night, and that is super exciting, a whole night dedicated to Lily Topples the World and Alec Baldwin is going to be there and the Hamptons is such a cool place, I never been there personally but I am ready to excited to check it out, meet some people there maybe do some workshops with dominos. I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be a different experience for me because I really haven’t seen the film much in person with a live audience, I have only seen it in my house (in NH) and also at a local film festival nearby in Massachusetts. This will be a much bigger scale. I will be excited to be on stage and answer some questions, people in the audience are going to have quite a few questions. It’s always good to interact and get to just say hello.” 

Making the film was no ordinary project Mr. Workman explains, “I knew I would be filming her doing all these phenomenal displays, but I also wanted the movie to be very different from YouTube channel. I wanted it to go into this really personal place almost really like going into her personal space. I realized there was going to be two different kinds of shooting(filming.) On one hand there would be the domino topples that I shot with multiple cameras, sometimes using as many as eight to ten cameras and also using things like techno cranes, GoPro’s and all kinds of hidden cameras sometimes even asking audiences to contribute their footage  just to create these amazing set pieces. I also knew we wanted he film to get personal and intimate and in those cases it weas just me with a camera shooting hand-held.   

Ms. Hevesh concluded with these thoughts, “I think that in terms of the film I just hope that it inspires people to do whatever they want with passion that might seem odd or just not really accepted in society and own it, because if you enjoy what you are making , creating, and putting out toy are the only person that really matters to, It’s not really something other people can have an opinion about, I mean obviously they can but it’s for you at that point and it’s only for you. If other people like it, then awesome, it’s OK. That is just something I have learned that can be applied to any situation. As for the future? In the future I am hoping soon to expand the love of domino art and get it more widely accepted.” 

Tickets are $40 at guildhall.org. For more information on Lily Hevesh, visit her website hevesh5.com or her YouTube channel youtube.com/hevesh5.  Available on discovery+on August 26th, 2021