Spend Earth Day Learning About Earth’s Majestic Creatures During Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival’s Spring Docs Day

Marvel at our awe-inspiring environment with Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival (HT2FF), who is presenting a Spring Docs Day that coincides with Earth Day (Sunday, April 22). Taking place at Bay Street in Sag Harbor, the double feature will showcase two fascinating films that center around nature.

“Cameras record worlds of wonder we cannot see except in award-winning films,” Jacqui Lofaro, founder/executive director of the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, reflected. “We are excited to screen two documentaries that spotlight scientists committed to protecting our natural world.”

The viewings will commence with Netflix’s Mission Blue at 2 p.m.

“The oceans, 90 percent of our planet, have fierce advocates in Dr. Sylvia Earle and our own Carl Safina,” Lofaro explained. “Their film, Mission Blue, tells it all.”

The Emmy Award-winning film, directed by Fisher Stevens and Robert Nixon, revolves around the life and work of oceanographer, marine biologist, and environmentalist Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is leading the vital campaign to create “Hope Spots,” global networks of safeguarded marine sanctuaries that would function as underwater national parks – which Earle considers the most efficient way to restore the ocean’s health.

Dr. Earle, a former Chief Scientist of NOAA, founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc., Mission Blue and The Sylvia Earle Alliance, and is the Chair of the Advisory Councils of the Harte Research Institute, the Ocean in Google Earth, the Marine Science and Technology Foundation and the SRVInstitute. Not only has she led over 100 expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours underwater, the Florida State University and Duke University graduate has 22 honorary degrees and penned over 180 scientific, technical and popular publications.

“As one of the first and foremost American women oceanographers, she became a standard-bearer among female field-research scientists, while also marrying and raising a family, long before the term ‘supermom’ ever entered the lexicon,” The Hollywood Reporter said.

The viewings will commence with Netflix’s Mission Blue. (Courtesy Photo)

Award-winning scientist, author and founding president of Stony Brook University’s Blue Ocean Institute, Dr. Carl Safina, who makes a cameo in the film, will take part in a Q&A following the viewing.

The second film, Bird of Prey, will make its New York premiere at 4 p.m.

“Bird of Prey, a film of rare beauty seen by very few, is a special Spring Docs selection for the East End’s celebration of Earth Day,” Lofaro said. “Why? Because we can proudly claim that another great bird, the Osprey, was saved from extinction and thrives in our own backyard.”

Directed by Eric Liner, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology documentary features astonishing footage by six-time Emmy Award-winning wildlife cinematographer Neil Rettig. In 1977 Rettig captured the initial images of the world’s largest and rarest eagle, the Philippine Eagle. Bird of Prey covers Rettig’s return to the Philippines as he attempts to locate the raptor that is on the brink of extinction.

Admission for Mission Blue is free (reserving a seat online is highly recommended) and tickets for Bird of Prey, which can be purchased online or at the Bay Street Theater box office, are $20.

Bay Street is located at 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, visit www.ht2ff.com.