We spent the past 3 days in a whirlwind of films, panels, meals and parties that collectively are the Hamptons Film Festival.

Arriving Friday, i was taken by the extrordinary spirt and energy of this 13 year old festival. A surprising humber of friends from the film world were milling about the Huntting Inn where the industry check in and lounge was headquartered.

After two weeks of amost non-stop talk about politics, we determeined that we'd see a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and try and let the issues part of our brain take a rest for a bit. Of course filmmfestials don't realy work that way - and the mix of our friends innvitations, tickets availbe and weather conspired to send us out of the rain and into series of screenings that were not entirely planned for. That's often how you end up where you should be.

Swung by Bookhampton for a panel discussion on Antidote for the new "Ugly American". Anthony Kaufman (fellow indiwire blogger) was provicative. the panel was Director Jesse Atlas,Producer: Eyal Dimant(AT THE GREEN LINE); Ellen Perry (THE FALL OF FUJIMORI); Academy award winning producer Geralyn Dreyfous (BORN INTO BROTHELS), and the Craig and Brent Reneau from "Off To War". The topic was broadly about how to support filmmakers looking at global subjects. What was most interesting was the fact that the films that had pre-sale deals with TV talked the most about objectivity and not having a point of view. The bottom line is - the more the funding comes from sources that don't want to be tied to advocacy, the harder it is to make films that take a stand on issues.

Then, our first screening - Welcome to California. I'm not sure what i can say about this movie. It was written, directed by, and stared Susan Traylor. And while it's clealry a deeply personal story - most of it went over my head.

Friday Night we did the circut of parties from Southhampton to Amaganset - spending time with David Leitner at Susan Barish's party to celebrate "Loverboy". From there - a jaunt with "Inside The Bubble" EP Ronald Guttman and his wife Amy to Amaganset to Stephen Talkhouse for the filmmakers party - and then back to The Star Room for another festival sponsored event. The Star room was wall to wall with terrific folks. Tom Quinn from Magnolia, Chrisopher Pizzo from Washington Square Films, hanging out Goldcrest's Seth Carmichael. It was almost 2am - and the party was just warming up... but we had a day of films the next day so we were out.

Saturday - Favela Rising. A very intersting film. We've covered the plight of the favelas in the film "Journalists: Casulties of War" so i've seen the images of the story through the eyes of Jack Youngelston who reported the story of Tim Lopes. But this film is far more intimate than our piece - shot over 8 years from the streets of Vigário, a slum that is at the center of the drug wars in Rio. From the streets comes Anderson, and the birth of the AfroRegea moment. The film is highly stylized, both in it's graphical apprach, almost like a 90 min music video. At times the art direction overwhelms the story - but the story is so extrorindary it can almost be overlooked. The crushing poverty and hopelessness of the slums seems byeond hope... and in the end the story of a series of small human scale victories seems more believalble than any sort of global story or overarching message. For me, that is the streght of this movie. A celebration of differnace that impacts a single community in a meanful way. This film was sold to HBO and Think Films.

Saturaday pm - Sag Harbor Cinema. Sold out premeir of "Who gets to call it art". This film chronicals Henry Geldzahler and his impact on the modern art world from his perch ad the Metropolitical Museum of Art. For folks who know the Modern world well, this may be old hat. But seeing Frank Stella, Andy Warholl, James Rosenquist, Larry Poons, David Hockney, Mark Di Suvero in historic footage, (and then some of them in current days) was a terrfic journey into the art world. I hand't known about Henry Geldzahler - so much like Favela Rising's central character Anderson Sa, it was intersting to see how one personal's passion can have such a profound impact on a corner of the world.

And finally - to Southhampton, the the The Parrish Art Museum for the screening of Why We Fight. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at the Museum of TV and Radio back in the spring with the film's Director Eugene Jarecki. Back then, Jareki had shown a segment of Eisenhower's final speech - where he coined the phrase "Military-INdustrial Complex" and sounded the alarm. the brief clip Jarecki showed back in May was disturbing. In it's entirely - the film is both gripping and deeply unsettling. While Farenhight 9/11 was troubling - it left you with a sense that the problems we were facing could be changed with a single united vote to fix the country. There is no such simple solution in "Why We Fight" - instead Jarecki weaves a complex problem that suggest that our standing army and global dominance is inexorably woven into our society. After the film - Jarecki did a Q&A, and brought up Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York City cop who lost a son on Sept. 11 and petitioned the government to put his son's name on a bomb destined to be dropped on Iraq. Together the filmmaker and the father seemed both passionate and powerless. What can we do? What will change? How can we impact change. "Why We Fight" is slated for a 200 screen wide release in January. And it's pretty clear that it will generate lots of important conversations.