The Circuit

by Stephen Garrett
One of the tonier affairs on the regional festival circuit, the Hamptons International Film Festival opened its 16th edition on Wednesday night in apt style with "Valentino: The Last Emperor," Matt Tyrnauer’s tender, big-hearted look at the final year in the life of Italian couturier Valentino Garavani and his 45-year legacy in the world of fashion. The intersection of art and commerce was the documentary’s leitmotif and a natural subtext of the Hamptons, being such a storied playground nexus for New York’s power brokers and the media elite.

Fierce cosmopolitanism amid such a rustic setting: Long Island’s gilded enclave, while less radical than the hippie heritage surrounding upstate New York’s Woodstock Film Festival, still embraces its political issues with vim. Witness this year’s festival trailer, a short by music-video maestro Bob Giraldi (himself a HIFF alum with 2000’s "Dinner Rush") that shows a street queue of talkative people discussing what sounds like a plot line to an exciting film, when the camera suddenly reveals that they’re actually all standing on line to vote and really gabbing about the Obama-McCain race. It’s a neat, concise conflation of the cinephile’s mindset in this tight election year.

Most festivals these days tuck the word “International” into their moniker in a bid to sound more prestigious, but HIFF has spent years earning that right—and this edition cements its reputation even more. 

Their longtime Conflict and Resolution sidebar, which highlights war-torn hot spots throughout the world, is this year joined by Israel at 60, a half-dozen films that explore the state of the holy state. Not enough proof of their global outreach? Look no further than the main competition films vying for the festival’s Golden Starfish award. Of the six, only one, Patrick Read Johnson’s "’77" is made in the U.S.A.

Epitomizing the change is incoming executive director Karen Arikian, a longtime vet of the Berlin Film Festival and a savvy connoisseur of cinema. Her appointment last spring gave balance to a festival that had lost artistic director Rajendra Roy in mid-2007, when he was tapped to become head curator of the Museum of Modern Art.

“Last year it was pins and needle,” says Roy, who also pointed out that HIFF was also coming to terms with the imminent departure of its previous executive director Denise Kassel (announced last January). “It was a really tough year to lose both the administrative and artistic side.” 

Arikian’s appointment alleviated that concern: her background includes experience with both.

One of her first decisions, in fact, was to make Fortissimo co-head and film financier Wouter Barendrecht the recipient of the HIFF/ indieWIRE Industry Toast (the Dutch-born, Hong-Kong-based businessman is also the award’s first foreigner, adding to HIFF’s worldly outlook).

Berdendrecht, well loved in the industry (John Cameron Mitchell, the evening’s host, called him the “playboy of the Pacific Rim”), received affectionate tributes from such directors as Wong Kar-Wei and distributors like Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard.

The best accolade came from Jim Jarmusch, though, who sent a video tribute with Christopher Doyle. “To your exquisite taste in weird movies,” he toasted. “And send money!”