Hamptons Doc Fest's Pennebaker Career Achievement Award Goes to Michael Moore

On Saturday, December 7, at 6:30 p.m., Hamptons Doc Fest will present this year’s Pennebaker Career Achievement Award to Michael Moore for his long career, not only directing, but also producing and writing most of his 13 films, as well acting in four films, producing three television series and publishing eight books.

Moore’s belief is that “one great movie can change your life, and that powerful films can help change the world.”

The Hamptons Doc Fest runs December 5 to 11 at the Sag Harbor Cinema and Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, and the awards gala will take place Saturday, December 7, at Bay Street Theater starting at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail/buffet reception followed by the award presentation at 8 p.m. and a screening of Moore’s first documentary, “Roger & Me.” The award, sponsored by Regina K. Scully, founder and CEO of Artemis Rising Foundation, will be presented by Scully and Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s partner and co-filmmaker.

“Roger & Me” debuted in 1989 and chronicles the economic impact of General Motors’ auto plant closures in Flint, Michigan, the city where Moore was born, where he was elected to the school board at age 18, and at 22 founded an alternative newspaper called the Flint Voice, which he edited for 10 years.

Flint was economically devastated when the plants closed and over 30,000 people lost their jobs. For the film, Moore tracked down the General Motors CEO Roger Smith (the “Roger” in “Roger & Me”) to make him answer for his actions, and he also detailed the emotional effects the plant closures had on the people of Flint.

The film has won numerous awards since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1989, and in 2013 was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

Hamptons Doc Fest also congratulates Michael Moore for the Traverse City Film Festival, which he founded in 2003 and ran for 20 years until its closure in 2023.

The Pennebaker Award is named in honor of the late documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, a longtime Sag Harbor resident and pioneer in nonfiction film. Previous recipients in chronological order include Richard Leacock, Susan Lacy, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, Barbara Kopple, Stanley Nelson, Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Sheila Nevins, Robert Kenner, Frederick Wiseman, Dawn Porter, Sam Pollard, and last year, Matthew Heineman.

In addition, receiving the Doc Fest’s Art & Inspiration Award, Thursday, December 5, at 5:30 p.m., at Sag Harbor Cinema is “Musica!,” which follows four passionate young Cuban musicians, who through music hope to find success and fulfillment, whether in Cuba or abroad.

The film’s directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who will both attend the Q&A, earlier won two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature with the films “Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt” and “The Times of Harvey Milk.” They also won a Grammy for Best Music Film for “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.”

For more information on the complete Hamptons Doc Fest, including other films that will be honored with awards, and tickets and passes for films at both theaters, visit hamptonsdocfest.com. No tickets will be sold at the theater box offices. A limited number of tickets may be purchased by credit card only at the festival table in the theater lobby prior to the film, if seats are available.

More Hamptons Doc Fest screenings

Opening Night Film – Thursday, December 5, 8 p.m., Sag Harbor Cinema

“Merchant Ivory” (2024, 111 min.), is a definitive tribute to the legendary filmmaking team of producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory whose over 40-year personal and professional partnership produced such elegant literary film adaptations as “A Room With a View,” “Howards End” and “Remains of the Day.” Providing commentary in the film are dozens of actors including Hugh Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Thompson. Both James Ivory (now 96) and director Stephen Soucy will be at the cinema for the Q&A, which will be followed by a cocktail reception. Merchant died in 2005.

HDF Impact Award to Ford Foundation’s JustFilms — Friday, December 6, 7:30 p.m., Sag Harbor Cinema

For 75 years, JustFilms has funded social impact films, many of which have been shown at Hamptons Doc Fest, including two this year — “Union,” screening after the Impact Award, and “The Battle for Laikipia,” screening on Wednesday, December 11, at 5 p.m. at Bay Street Theater.

“Union” (2024, 104 min.) chronicles the story of a group of warehouse workers, led by an underestimated Chris Small, as they launch a grassroots campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island to start the American Labor Union, with a meager budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Both directors, Brett Story and Stephen Maing, will attend the Q&A, which will be followed by a cocktail reception.

HDF Breakthrough Director Award, Sunday, December 8, 2 p.m., Sag Harbor Cinema

This new award will be presented to Angela Patton and Natalie Rae for their film “Daughters” (2024, 108 min.), to be shown Sunday, December 8, at 2 p.m. at the Sag Harbor Cinema, co-presented with New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). “Daughters” is about four young girls preparing for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their fathers who are incarcerated in a Washington, D.C. jail. The directors will attend the Q&A after the film, which won two awards in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival — Festival Favorite and Audience Choice. Patton also won a “Champion of Change for Enrichment for Marginalized Girls” award from President Barack Obama in 2016, and Rae earlier won Rock Video of the Year at the MuchMusic Video Awards.

HDF Environmental Award, Monday, December 9, 8 p.m., Bay Street Theater

“Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics” (2024, 84 min.) is directed by Ben Addelman, who has directed four award-winning feature documentaries, and Ziya Tong, a science journalist, who will attend the Q&A via Zoom. The film represents a ground-breaking investigation into the growing threat of microplastics on human health, with Tong revealing through visits with leading scientists around the world and through her own scientific experiments that these tiny particles are now in peoples’ organs, blood, brain tissue and even the placentas of new mothers. The film makes an urgent call to action.

HDF Human Rights Award, Tuesday, December 10, 5:30 p.m., Bay Street Theater

Directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s film “Zurawski v. Texas” (2024, 99 min.) is about the court case Amanda Zurawski and four other women filed with fearless attorney Molly Duane against Texas and the state’s attorney general in opposition to the state’s abortion ban. Perrault will appear on Zoom for the Q&A after the screening. Among the executive producers are former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.

Closing Night Film, Wednesday, December 11, 7 p.m., Bay Street Theater

“The Bones” (2024, 98 min.) is directed by Jeremy Xido, who will attend the Q&A via Zoom. A cinematic adventure, the film travels with paleontologists from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to the Saharan desert in Morocco to unearth dinosaur fossils before the bones disappear into the hands of fossil collectors, museums and auction houses, without a chance to reveal a possible key to saving humanity from extinction.

Find the full schedule, tickets and passes at hamptonsdocfest.com. No tickets will be sold at the theater box offices. If seats are available, a limited number of tickets may be purchased by credit card at the festival table in the theater lobby prior to the film. A $350 festival pass includes admission to all films at both venues and award ceremonies and gala. Tickets to individual films are $17. Tickets to the Opening Night Film and the Impact Award and film, including a reception at Sag Harbor Cinema, are $30. The Saturday, December 7, Pennebaker Gala, which includes a buffet reception at Bay Street Theater, is $65.