Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center Screening Errol Morris’ “American Dharma”

Just before its US release, Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center will host a special screening of Errol Morris’ American Dharma on Sunday, October 27.

After focusing on Secretaries of Defense Robert McNamara in The Fog of War and Donald Rumsfeld in The Unknown Known, the Oscar winning filmmaker turned his attention to Steve Bannon.

“The last work that sprung from Errol Morris’ genially inquisitive mind and unflinching eye may be one of his more thought provoking; probably his darkest,” explained Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, Sag Harbor Cinema’s Artistic Director. “We are thrilled to be able to bring it to our audiences a few days before its US release, at New York’s Film Forum.”

The film, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, in 2018, is the outcome of a 16-hour dialogue between Morris and the controversial, outspoken former White House Chief Strategist, covering everything from his beliefs to how movies impacted his perception of the world to his current feelings about President Trump, and much more.

“Facing danger, square on, is usually the best course of action. Our country was plunged into chaos, or worse, in 2016. And Stephen K. Bannon was at the center of it. I feel that it is important to talk to him, to investigate him, and to understand his point of view. Steve Bannon asked me why I wanted to make American Dharma,” Morris reflected. “I told him I didn’t understand him or why he was doing what he was doing. But I thought if making a film could help me, and others, understand any of this then it would be a good thing.”

Laurie Simmons, Flowers on Legs, 2017, 13.875″ x 9.875″, Archival Digital Print, is featured in Wild and Tame.

American Dharma will screen at Guild Hall (158 Main Street, East Hampton) at 6 p.m. There will be a post-screening and discussion at The Maidstone Hotel (207 Main Street, East Hampton) at 8 p.m. Ticket sales from both the screening and dinner will support the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. Tickets for the screening are $15 and tickets for the movie and dinner are $95. To purchase the tickets for the screening and dinner, call Zach Zunis at 631-324-0002.

“Does shedding light on Bannon give him more attention? Maybe. But I worry more about indifference, silence, avoidance, a lack of thoughtful analysis. I recently published a book, The Ashtray, that is really about truth, what truth means, and also the denial of truth,” Morris added. “We live in a time when people are trying to make up reality on the spur of the moment, as if reality doesn’t exist independent of us. As if reality is simply up for grabs. I passionately believe that there is a real world out there and that there is such a thing as truth. And one of the most repellant things ongoing is the denial of that fact.”

Additionally, lululemon East Hampton (35 Main Street, East Hampton) is presenting a new art exhibition, Wild and Tame, in collaboration with the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. Debuting Friday, October 25, the exhibition, which was curated by artist April Gornik, will highlight the works of Alice Aycock, Tulla Booth, Elizabeth Down, Cornelia Foss, Sally Gall, Erica-Lynn Huberty, Bonnie Lautenberg, Christa Maiwald, Steve Miller, Alexis Rockman, Laurie Simmons and Ned Smyth. Wild and Tame offers a glimpse at the varied viewpoints regarding how we perceive and construe the world beyond ourselves.

“However realistic a painting or photograph is, the artist who makes it inevitably inflects it with his or her personality and pictorial sensibility,” Gornik reflected. “All artists ‘tame’ their subject matter this way, and all the work in this show shifts the way we think of the world outside ourselves in inventive, sometimes humorous, and surprising ways.”

Wild and Tame will be on view through Sunday, December 1. An opening reception will take place on Friday, October 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

For more information, visit www.sagharborcinema.org.