Poignant Documentary To Be Featured At The Parrish Art Museum During Family Month

UPDATE: This event has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 11th at 1 p.m.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will be hosting an inspiring evening on Friday, February 10th as they feature a moving documentary, Underwater Dreams, as part of the Parrish’s Family Month. The award-winning film is directed by Mary Mazzio and narrated by American film and television actor Michael Peña.

Underwater Dreams follows a group of students from a Title I high school – where most of the students live in poverty, who, with encouragement from two of their enthusiastic high school science teachers, enter a sophisticated underwater robotics competition sponsored by the NASA and the Office of Naval Research, among others. The four competitors reach out to oceanic engineers and military contractor for assistance and learn that they would need glass syntactic flotation foam for the underwater robot, however, with their limited budget, all they could afford was PVC pipe and duct tape from Home Depot.

Undeterred, the group perseveres and creates “Stinky” – their robot. They test and test and test the robot until they feel comfortable competing and the results are astonishing.

Jonathan Alter of The Daily Beast said the film was “the most politically significant documentary film since Waiting for Superman,” while David Noh of Film Journal noted it was “astonishing… already a contender for the best documentary of 2014,″ and Gary Goldstein of Los Angeles Times called it “moving and insightful.”

This film is recommended for ages 10 and up. Underwater Dreams will screen at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 10th. The film will run for approximately 86 minutes.

In addition to Underwater Dreams, additional Family Month programming will include the Awards Presentation and Reception for Parrish’s Student Exhibition on Saturday, February 11th, from 3 to 5 p.m., Lasers in Space on Friday, February 17th at 6 p.m., a screening of The Iron Giant on Friday, February 24th at 6 p.m., Open Studio for Families on Saturday, February 11th, Saturday, February 18th, and Saturday, February 25th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Winter Vacation Art Workshops from Monday, February 20th through Friday, February 24th (advance registration and payment required), and Community Day on Sunday, February 26th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $12, but free for members, children, and students.

UPDATE: This event has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 11th at 1 p.m.

Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-283-2118 or visit www.parrishart.org.