Promising another festive opening to the holiday season, Hamptons Doc Fest celebrates its 18th year with an expanded eight-day festival, screening 33 documentary beginning on December 4th and closing on December 11th in Sag Harbor, both at the Sag Harbor Cinema and the Bay Street Theater, and new this year, at the Southampton Playhouse.
“Our 2025 program is electric with real-life stories,” said Hamptons Doc Fest founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro. “Join us for eight days of great documentary filmmaking crafted by talented creators who edit, not censor, who discover, not destroy. It’s testimony to free and frank expression—the voices we need.”
Tickets to individual films at all three venues are $17. For tickets and to learn more, go to WWW.HAMPTONSDOCFEST.COM. No tickets will be sold at the three 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.
TUESDAY, DEC. 9, AT BAY STREET THEATER
12:30 p.m. “The Secret of Me” (2025, 97 min.) is a search for truth by a Louisiana college student, who discovers in 1995 through a textbook, that her doctor and parents have kept a startling secret from her about a radical psychological experiment on twins that caused a global scandal. This is the feature-length directorial debut for Grace Hughes-Hallett, who earlier produced “Three Identical Strangers” and won a Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Her Q&A will be by pre-recorded Zoom.
3 p.m. “Everest Dark” (2025, 90 min.) To appease the mountain gods, who are angry with Mount Everest’s existence as a cemetery, and with its commercialization by the climbing industry, the famous Nepalese mountaineer and national hero Mingma Tsiri Sherpa risks his life to climb the dark side of Mount Everest one last time to recover some of the 200 frozen bodies there, of both climbers and Sherpas. The film includes not only breathtaking shots of Everest peaks but also insight into the significance the mountain has for the Buddhist Sherpas. Canadian director Jereme Watt , who is an avid snowboarder and cross country skier, will attend the Q&A by a pre-recorded Zoom. This film is a 2025 nominee for Best Canadian Documentary. Watt’s earlier film, “Everything’s Coming Up Rosie,” won Best Canadian Short Film.
5:30 p.m. “Rebel With a Clause” (2025, 86 min.) is an unlikely film about a Harvard-educated grammarian Ellen Jovin, who sets up a folding table on a Manhattan sidewalk with a homemade sign that says “Grammar Table.” Right away, pedestrians start asking questions, telling stories and filing complaints. Soon Ellen and her filmmaker husband Brandt Johnson take the show on the road, visiting all 50 states to show that passionate “Oxford comma” disagreements can unexpectedly bring us closer together. There’s also a book out, which was a national bestseller in 2022, plus a paperback edition in 2025. The film, which represents Brandt Johnson’s feature film debut, premiered at the San Francisco Doc Fest in May 2025. Earlier he was the writer, director, star of “Brad Advice,” a comedy web series, and also a playwright. Both Jovin and Johnson will attend the Q&A.
8 p.m. “Holding Liat” (2025, 97 min.) follows the emotional journey of the Israeli-American family of Liat Atzili, an American citizen, who was kidnapped in the Hamas raid, along with 250 others, from her kibbutz on October 7, 2023. What began as an attempt to secure her return leads to conflicts within the grieving family. Director Brandon Kramer and producer Lance Kramer will attend the Q&A via a pre-recorded Zoom. The brothers, co-founders of Meridian Hill Pictures based in Washington D.C., have made award-winning films. “Holding Liat” won the Best Documentary Award at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10, AT BAY STREET THEATER
12:30 p.m.. “Cutting Through Rocks” (2025, 94 min.) is the documentary feature debut of the husband-and-wife team of Iranian-American directors Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, who will appear for a Q&A in a pre-recorded Zoom. In this moving film, Sara Shahverdi, the first elected councilwoman in her conservative Iranian village, works to challenge tradition by teaching teenage girls to ride motorcycles, by opposing child marriage and working for female land ownership. But when her motives are questioned, she has to confront her own sense of identity. The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.
3 p.m. “SPEAK.” (2025, 103 min.).In this documentary by award-winning director Jennifer Tiexiera, five top-ranked high school oratory students spend a year writing a spell-binding, 10-minute speech from memory, with the dream of winning one of the world’s largest, most intense speaking competitions—the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Championships. Previous participants in the NSDA, which draws over 150,000 competitors a year, have included Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt and U.S. Supreme Court Justic Ketanji Brown Jackson. Producer Guy Mossman will be in attendance for the Q&A.
5:30 p.m. “The Ark” (2025, 93 min.) Zhenye and Anatoliy Pilipenko’s dream of a quiet country place is shattered overnight when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022. They face the impossible choice of fleeing from the violence or staying to protect their home. When a neighbor, drafted to fight on the front lines, asks the couple if they can care for his 37 goats, their home transforms into the largest animal sanctuary in Eastern Ukraine, as they eventually take in over 1,000 animals, such as a donkey, bull, cows, sheep, chickens, peacocks and pigs. The film is directed by Jeremy Chilnick and Viaeslav Rakovskyi. Chilnick and producers Tony Castle and Roxy Hunt will all attend the Q&A.
8 p.m. “Raoul’s, A New York Story” (2025, 98 min.) is a unique portrait of New York City’s most iconic French bistro—Raoul’s Restaurant, located at 180 Prince Street in Soho ever since it was opened by the two Alsatian Raoul brothers in 1975. The film is told over the course of 10 years, through the eyes of Karim Raoul, a filmmaker and son of the restaurant founder, who eventually became a restaurateur himself. It’s also the story of the history of Soho and the history of French food in New York. The directors/producers are Greg Olliver and Karim Raoul, who will both be available for the Q&A.
THURSDAY, DEC. 11, AT SOUTHAMPTON PLAYHOUSE IMAX THEATER
7:30 p.m. Closing Night Film “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone” (2024, 93 min.). Honored as Hamptons Doc Fest’s Closing Night Film at the Southampton Playhouse IMAX Theater is “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone” directed by Thomas Winston, who will attend the Q&A.
The film tells the story of Mollie Beattie, the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and how she was able to bring wolves, including Alpha Female #5, back to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, after a 50-year absence. The pack, dubbed “Mollie’s Pack,” is now over 750 wolves strong.