Regina King’s directorial debut ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…, starring Eli Goree, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Aldis Hodge will close this year’s 28th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival taking place October 8 – 14, 2020.
Based on the award-winning play of the same name, the film tells the story of one evening in 1964 when four icons of sports, music, and activism gathered to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
To dive deeper into the film, and into his career, Tony Award® winner Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays legendary singer Sam Cooke in the film, will participate in A Conversation With… series. Odom, Jr. originated the role of Aaron Burr in the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton, and he recently starred in the new Apple TV+ animated musical-comedy series Central Park, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and in the limited Freeform series Love in the Time of Corona.
“We have long admired the work of Regina King – throughout the years she has given phenomenal and groundbreaking performances, and we look forward to being able to now spotlight her craft and skill behind the camera with her directorial debut,” said HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent. “The festival is also thrilled to welcome Leslie Odom, Jr., whose artistry and talent is unparalleled, for our ‘A Conversation With…’ series.”
In addition to the Closing Night film, the festival also announced four feature films in the lineup.
U.S. Premiere: Nathan Grossman’s documentary I AM GRETA follows the now 17-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg (Air, Land + Sea).
East Coast Premiere: Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s documentary TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION tells the story of two artists and writers of the past century, examined in a dialogue that stretches from their early days of friendship to their final, unsparing critiques of each other (World Cinema).
Chloé Zhao’s NOMADLAND stars Frances McDormand in the story of a woman who sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada (Spotlight).
Garrett Bradley’s documentary TIME follows entrepreneur, abolitionist, and mother of six boys Fox Rich, who has spent the last two decades tirelessly campaigning for the release of her husband Rob, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a crime they committed in the early ’90s in a moment of desperation (Documentary Competition).
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…
Closing Night Film
dir. Regina King (USA), 2020
On one incredible night in 1964, four icons of sports, music, and activism gather to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. When underdog Cassius Clay, soon to be called Muhammad Ali, (Eli Goree), defeats heavyweight champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Convention Hall, Clay memorialized the event with three of his friends: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge).
Based on the award-winning play of the same name, ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… is a fictional account inspired by the historic night these four formidable figures spent together. It looks at the struggles these men faced and the vital role they each played in the civil rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 1960s. More than 40 years later, their conversations on racial injustice, religion, and personal responsibility still resonate.
I AM GRETA
U.S. Premiere
dir. Nathan Grossman (Sweden), 2020
Back in 2018, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg organized a one-person protest for climate action by setting up camp in front of the Swedish Parliament building with a simple sign: “School Strike for Climate.” Just one year later, she finds herself at the forefront of a global movement borne of her activism, invited to speak at high-profile institutions across the world, from European Parliament to the 2019 UN Climate Summit in New York. Showcasing candid, never-before-seen footage, Nathan Grossman’s documentary tracks both her meteoric rise to prominence from a shy student to a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and the indelible impact she has had on a new generation of climate change activists. A HULU release.
TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION
East Coast Premiere
dir. Lisa Immordino Vreeland (USA), 2020
Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s (LOVE, CECIL, HIFF 2017) latest documentary is an intimate, candid portrait of two luminaries of American literature—Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Jim Parsons (voicing Capote) and Zachary Quinto (voicing Williams) lovingly recreate this complicated relationship through the pair’s personal writings, encapsulating their early days of friendship as well as the eventual unsparing critiques they famously traded. Compellingly assembled from archival footage and photographs, TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION captures in their own words a fascinating tableau of two brilliant artists who collaborated and collided in their lifelong pursuit of creativity.
NOMADLAND
dir. Chloé Zhao (USA), 2020
In the aftermath of the economic collapse and with no opportunities left in her small Nevada town, Fern (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand) packs her van and embarks on a peripatetic life, outside the norms of conventional society. As she drives along the dusty highways of the American West in her beaten-down RV, she encounters a community of like-minded individuals (many played by real-life nomads) who eventually become her mentors and friends. Inspired by Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, director Chloé Zhao’s (THE RIDER) latest film is a sweeping tale of displacement, a dust-brushed depiction of people drifting away, further and further towards the outskirts of society. A Fox Searchlight release.
TIME
dir. Garrett Bradley (USA), 2020
Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, abolitionist and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early 90s in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the country’s prison-industrial complex. An Amazon Studios release.
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