Films At WHBPAC

Beginning Tuesday, July 9, at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, Andrew Botsford will once again introduce the summer films each Tuesday night and discuss them afterward with guest commentators, followed by an informal audience discussion.

Botsford is a visiting professor and communications consultant for the graduate arts program at Stony Brook Southampton, and co-host of the annual Hamptons Doc Fest. An actor and board member with the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue since 1985, he has written extensively about film, theater, and the arts and was for 20 years the associate editor of The Southampton Press and editor of its Arts & Living section.

First up is “Wild Nights with Emily” this Tuesday. A description of the film states: “In the mid-19th Century, Emily Dickinson is writing prolifically, baking gingerbread, and enjoying a passionate, lifelong romantic relationship with another woman, her friend and sister-in-law Susan . . . yes this is the iconic American poet, popularly thought to have been a recluse. Beloved comic Molly Shannon leads in this humorous yet bold reappraisal of Dickinson, informed by her private letters.”

On July 16, “Ophelia” is a take on “Hamlet” from the woman’s point of view. “Echo in the Canyon,” on July 23, celebrates the explosion of popular music that came out of LA’s Laurel Canyon in the mid-’60s, as folk went electric and The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas and the Papas gave birth to the California Sound. On the last Tuesday of the month, July 30, Kenneth Branagh’s “All Is True” features the life of William Shakespeare (portrayed by Branagh).

All the shows start at 7:30 PM. For more information, visit the website at www.whbpac.org.

bridget@indyeastend.com