The 18th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival will screen a lineup of new independent features, documentaries and shorts for ten days from Thursday, July 18 to Saturday, July 27, 2103. Opening night features the East Coast premiere of ZAYTOUN, directed by Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree), and closing night will feature the East Coast premiere of the Norwegian and German dramatic thriller, TWO LIVES, directed by Georg Maas, which takes place in Norway in 1990.
Opening night film, ZAYTOUN stars Stephen Dorff (Somewhere) playing an Israeli soldier who is shot down over Beirut during the 1982 Lebanese War. He is taken prisoner by inhabitants of a Palestinian refugee camp, and among his captors is a ten-year-old boy, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal). The festival describes the film as a moving portrait of the tentative bond forged between the Israeli pilot and the refugee boy.
Closing night film, TWO LIVES is described as a compelling meditation on identity, morality and family. Katrine (Juliane Köhler) is the ‘war child’ of a Norwegian mother and a soldier from Germany’s occupying army. An adult now, she enjoys family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. Everything changes for Katrine when a web of concealments is revealed. The fine cast includes Norwegian film legend Liv Ullmann as Katrine’s mother.
Other highlights include the festival honoring legendary producer and indie film powerhouse Christine Vachon of Killer Films with a Career Achievement Award. It will coincide with the screening of her new film, Deep Powder.
The documentary, TWA FLIGHT 800 will have its its festival premiere screening followed by a Q & A panel discussion with the filmmakers, Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup.
TWA FLIGHT 800 presents the saga of the catastrophic crash off the south shore of Long Island on July 17, 1996. At the time, it was called “the largest aviation investigation in U.S. and world history.” But it was also the most controversial. Now, a team of insiders from that investigation comes forward in this feature documentary to uncover what really happened to TWA Flight 800. It is also the story of one extraordinary scientist, Tom Stalcup, who spent years fighting for access to documents and evidence. Thirteen years into his quest, several retired members of the official crash investigation joined him. In TWA FLIGHT 800 these former government insiders blow the whistle on their own investigation and spend two years helping the scientist uncover the truth. What follows is a story of intense personal journeys and a grand-scale exposé with breathtaking implications.
TWA FLIGHT 800 is an EPIX Original Documentary with a premiere date on EPIX and EpixHD.com on July 17, 2013.
Stony Brook will present the World Premiere of the feature, A NEW YORK HEARTBEAT, directed by Tjardus Greidanus, described as a riveting story about gangsters in 1959 Brooklyn, starring Escher Holloway, Rachel Brosnahan (Beautiful Creatures) and Eric Roberts.
Foreign films include THE BLITZ directed by Ate de Jong (Drop Dead Fred), will be making its U.S. premiere at the festival. The dramatic film is set just days before the Germans bombed the Netherlands in May 1940. The Festival will also host the U.S. Premiere of the German drama, THE TOWER, directed by Christian Schwochow.
Other international films making East Coast Premieres is the powerful documentary from Pakistan, THESE BIRDS WALK, the Serbian-Croatian MY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, the Polish drama MANHUNT, the Turkish feature WATCHTOWER, the Israeli drama INHERITANCE, directed by acclaimed actress Hiam Abbass (Lemon Tree) in her directorial debut. She also stars in the film.
MUSCLE SHOALS, a documentary about Rick Hall’s FAME recording studio and its house band, born in the tiny town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, is making its New York Premiere. Keith Richard, Aretha Franklin, Bono, Wilson Pickett, Greg Allman and many others are featured