Muslim Woman in New York CIty, Jan 2017. Photo: Nicholas Whelan.
Sag Harbor and the World: Strength in Diversity
Saturday, September 9th, 2017 at 7:30pm followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
(Rain Date: Sunday, September 10th at 7:30pm.)
From its beginnings as a Whaling port to today, Sag Harbor has embraced its multi-culture heritage. From the indigenous to the newly settled, the Village has become a diverse community coexisting in peace and productivity.
As with much of history, the immigrants and refugees today come to this land in the hopes of building a new life and/or escaping a world filled with war, political, religious and social persecution, and more.
Through their art, these young filmmakers attempt to bring a new perspective to their audience about the similarities we share with people we label as "different". By zooming in on individuals that share this human experience we can all relate to: hopes, dreams, love, fear, anger… a connection is made possible that can diminish any prejudices one might hold. The goal with these films is to ultimately develop awareness of the fact that if we want to live well, we must live well with each other, regardless of how different we believe we may be.
"It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within." – James Baldwin
About the filmmakers
Sailor Brinkley Cook
Identity and Freedom - Episode 3
Sailor Brinkley Cook, is a Photography major and Psychology minor at the Parsons School of Design. She started the Freedom and Identity Project as a way to dive deeper into thoughts she has been struggling with during a transitional period in her life. Interested in the concepts of freedom and individuality in this modern world, Sailor sees these videos as having become an exploration of those concepts through the eyes of different people.
“I shot visuals of my subjects first, in a place they said to feel most themselves, and interviewed them last because I wanted the videos to feel separated (and yet brought together) by how their identity is viewed publicly and how they truly view themselves as. I hope to keep this project going and explore these ideas more until I run out of people to interview.” – Sailor Brinkley Cook
Vincent Urban
In Lebanon - during the Syrian Crisis, 2014
In September 2014, Vincent Urban traveled to Lebanon to capture what life is like for Syrian refugees living in the Bekaa Valley and hosted by the humanitarian organization MEDAIR who has been helping newly arriving refugees primarily with establishing safe shelters since 2012. Check out to see what they are doing at: medair.org
“This film is a collection of sights and sounds from our experience in the informal settlements of the Bekaa Valley where more than 130.000 Syrian refugees are seeking safety. The government has been hesitant to allow formal refugee camps, so these families are living in makeshift shelters on rented farmland from Lebanese farmers with little to no amenities such as water and sanitation. The Bekaa Valley is situated just an hour drive West to the capitol, Beirut, and just a few kilometers away from Damascus, the Syrian Capitol. We also shot some surrounding landscapes and life in Beirut to show the visual and cultural context of the situation in Lebanon.” – Vincent Urban
Jackson Hyland-Lipski
A Day without Women
Jackson Hyland-Lipski is an activist and filmmaker from New York. He is currently on the National Team of Women's March as the Videographer/Head of Web Development, and Head of Special Projects for Women's March Global. Women's March is a non-profit organization that formed from the Women's March on Washington, which on January 21st, 2017 was the largest protest in US History, with over 600 marches and over 6 million people worldwide.
As of August 23rd 2017, Jackson is living in Edinburgh, Scotland for one year, where he is working with the local women’s rights and human rights organizations to create a Women’s March Scotland chapter.
Video Summary: March 8th, 2017 was International Women’s Day. For this day, Women’s March decided to create an event called “A Day Without a Woman” to amplify the necessity of women’s rights and shed light on the numerous issues under that umbrella. The rally started at the southeast corner of Central Park where people spoke, and moved to Columbus Circle, where we were supposed to rally in front of Trump International Hotel. The police, however, blocked off the hotel, so the march organizers decided in the last moment to sit in the Columbus Circle round-about, blocking traffic. A dozen of our main organizers were quickly arrested, and many of us went down to the precinct for the next eight hours until they were all freed. As the Women’s March videographer, I was fortunate enough to access the stage for the speakers, film the sit-in, and film interviews with the organizers after they were released from jail. I filmed, edited, and composed the music for this video within two days so that it could be released quickly by Women’s March.
Jackson Hyland-Lipski is a graduate of Northeastern University, where he received a BA in Film and Philosophy with a minor in Writing
Nicholas Whelan
A Refugee's Story - Rezwan
Nick was born into a family of storytellers as the grandson of the filmmaker, D.A Pennebaker. Originally a drummer, Nick implements his percussive background into the sound and motion of the films that he shoots and edits. Rhythm is the most important aspect of his style of story telling, as it creates an emotional impact on the audience that words can't quite do. Nick's mission through film is to ultimately bring a new perspective to an audience, and hopefully drive a change in the way we see ourselves and the world we live in.
In February 2017, I flew out to Belgrade, Serbia to meet with the International Rescue Committee team that had hired me to bring awareness to the city's growing refugee population with a film. We walked up to a young Afghani teen in the park and asked if he would share some of his story with the camera. He agreed, as long as we didn't show his face. This is the story of Rezwan.
Dave Fitzpatrick
From the Head to the Heart
Dave is a cinematographer, editor, and award winning photographer. An avid learner and optimist, his positive outlook is reflected in the work he produces. Ultimately his mission is to create work that drives more curiosity in the world. If his work can contribute to a world with more empathetic, curious people - he'll feel accomplished with his life. Until then, there's so much work to be done... and he's only getting started.
From The Head to the Heart was filmed over the course of 5 months, while working with an education start up in Southern India. The goal was to create a series of "Empathy Challenges", short films that help us all move closer and closer towards a deep desire to truly understand one another: to understand the struggles and the beauties, the seemingly mundane and the wildly exciting, the differences and the deep similarities. We all need water and food. We all want better education for our youth. These are just a few of the ideas that From The Head To The Heart hopes to remind us of.
Public funding provided by Suffolk County.
