Staunch!: The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival
Friday, June 12th– Sunday, June 14th
Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

Staunch!: The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival

Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

followed by
Unpacking Grey Gardens Panel with fashion, gender, sexuality and film personalities, experts, and director Albert Maysles

Staunch!: The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival

Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

4:00 pm Book signing of the new Grey Gardens book
-authors Rebekah and Sara Maysles along with Albert!

8:00 pm Live cabaret show, sing along contests, prizes!
Come perform, join in or sit on the sidelines.

Staunch!: The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival

The Beales of Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.
The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary's legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.
Criterion Collection trailer>

5:00 pm Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

"I knew I'd never regret it, but I didn't know it would be as good as this!" - Little Edie after watching Grey Gardens, 1975

"I enjoyed it... I laughed myself sick – it's terribly amusing. And it's hilarious, and then terribly sad – you'll cry, too." - Big Edie after watching Grey Gardens, 1975

Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Followed by a panel discussion with Albert Maysles, Lucy Barzun Donnelly (Executive Producer, HBO's Grey Gardens), other speakers TBA. 

Reception sponsored by Sugar Hill Ale!

**1930's Ambitious Women Pre-Code Matinee Double Feature**

"They see me as a woman. I don't see that. But when I get out of here; I do. When I go to New York City, I see myself as a woman. But in here I'm just, you know, Mother's little daughter." - Little Edith Bouvier Beale, Grey Gardens, 1975

Blonde Venus
Dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1932, 93 min
One of many collaborative efforts between director Josef von Sternberg and star Marlene Dietrich, Blonde Venus is depression-era film exemplifying the melodramatic conceit of the "fallen woman" who must suffer for her indignity. Dietrich plays German cabaret singer, Helen Faraday, who, driven to raise money to save her husband from an illness, works her mojo at nightclubs and has an affair with tycoon Nick Townsend (Cary Grant). But Helen's means of support only tears apart her marriage, and threatens her custody of her beloved son. Particularly notable is a scene of Dietrich singing "Hot Voodoo" in a gorilla suit, imbued with problematic racial overtones, but also boundary crossing for the time in which the film was made. As writer Patrice Petro states, is "blackness an 'accessory' for white women - a mask or costume to be worn and removed at will," or is Dietrich's "position in this film much more ambivalent, as suggested, for instance, by the dizzying fusion of incompatible images in the 'Hot Voodoo' number, or even by [Helen/Dietrich's] friendship and identification with...Cora / Hattie McDaniel, who helps her protect her child and elude the long arm of the law?"- Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History, p 155

Imitation of Life
Dir. John M. Stahl, 1934, 111 min
Based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, John Stahl's film version casts Claudette Colbert as the widowed Bea Pullman, who becomes businesswoman extraordinaire with the assistance of her black friend Delilah (Louise Beavers), and then goes on to follow Bea and Delilah's relationships with their daughters Jessie and Peola, as they each try to navigate their place in the world. Though the film's take on race, class and gender is certainly dated, Time Magazine listed it as one of the 25 Most Important Films on Race because of the complex relationship between Delilah and her light-skinned a daughter Peola, played by Fredi Washington, who renounces her mother in order to gain success by "passing" as a white woman. The New York Times at the time of its release called it "the most shameless tearjerker of the Fall," and wrote, "The stentorian sobbing of the ladies in the Roxy mezzanine yesterday seemed to suggest that it held a vast appeal for the matinee trade as well as for Miss Hurst's large and commercially attractive public. On the whole the audience seemed to find it a gripping and powerful if slightly diffuse drama which discussed the mother love question, the race question, the business woman question, the mother and daughter question and the love renunciation question."

"Babe - when are you going to be a mature woman? Who talks very attractively, you know, like Jacqueline talks? Jacqueline wouldn't talk like that - oh no! She's too charming." - Big Edith Bouvier Beale, to Little Edie, 1973

“What [Jack Bouvier] told those girls about me – I'm telling you, those girls wouldn't be what they are today if it hadn't been for the father telling 'em to get ahead of me... 'Don't let that little sweetheart of Sigma Chi get ahead of you, Jackie.' That's why she was first lady. She didn't care for Jack Kennedy. Not one single bit. Or any of the Kennedys. Maybe she liked them after she got married. I do think if you have children by a man, you get to love him. You know, you're crazy about the children – so I think marriage is good as a contract, a written contract." - Little Edith Bouvier Beale, 1973

Primary
Dir. Robert Drew, 1960, 60 min.
Shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles and edited by D.A. Pennebaker, Primary is considered a milestone in the direct cinema movement in America. With their use of mobile cameras and light equipment, Leacock and Maysles were able to achieve a level of intimacy with the film's subjects unseen in earlier documentaries. The film covers the 1960 Wisconsin Primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the Democratic Party nomination for President, with stunning black and white close-ups of both candidates on the road while campaigning, which speak for themselves. It also portrays a young Jacqueline Kennedy supporting her husband on the road, a role which, but for a twist of fate (the death of the elder Joe Kennedy) Little Edith Bouvier Beale may herself have filled.
When David Maysles asked Little Edie if she ever thought of the possiblity of being first lady, she responded "I think I could have if I hadn't always been tied down. You know, I was tied down even then - I had to return to East Hampton... I think that was a swimming meet, the house party [where I met Joe Kennedy]... He was much nicer than Jack. Jack couldn't compare! But I think they were just as happy with Jackie as they would have been with Edith Beale. Cause think of what I would have dragged into the White House. I would have had the South floating all around the White House every minute."

Followed by a discussion with Albert Maysles, a cinematographer on Primary and Grey Gardens director.

**Special Brunch Screening with Jerry "The Marble Faun" Torre**

Little Edie: Mother's mad about this Italian boy, named Jerry. And I'm telling you... there wasn't one minute when I wasn't watching Jerry, my whole summer was Jerry! Course he's very talented and everything and he could be a wonderful actor and he's a wonderful boy, Lois darling.
Lois Wright: Didn't you say he posed like a faun, yesterday?
David Maysles: The Marble Faun, they call him.
Lois: He must have an unusual talent to go into a faun pose.

The Beales of Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.
The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary's legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.
Criterion Collection trailer>

Sneak Preview:
The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens
Dir. Jason Hay & Steve Pelizza, work-in-progress, 13 min.
From the filmmakers: "Jerry Torre's life story unfolds as a classic American tale. A compromising childhood, then a dash for freedom leading him indirectly to Grey Gardens, a formative event in his life. Later awakening to his sexuality in the 1970's in New York City, going on to travel in Europe and the Middle East under unique circumstances, and sadly falling into some of the darker passions in life. Eventually pulling himself up and dusting himself off, he decides to heed a lifelong call to carve stone and discovers his love for the craft. Jerry Torre's sculptures help free him, and he fully develops into the beloved individual he is today."
The Marble Faun Website>

Followed by a discussion with sculptor Jerry Torre, about his life with the Beales and beyond! Jason Haye and Steve Pelizza will also be on hand to discuss their work-in-progress film, The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens.

Light brunch fare and mimosas available before, during and after the screenings/discussion.

STAUNCH FAMILIES: A Grey Gardens Celebration III
Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles
(Tickets for Back Waking Forward honored for this screening of Grey Gardens)

Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Special extras TBA.

STAUNCH FAMILIES: A Grey Gardens Celebration III
Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

The Beales of Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.
The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary's legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.
Criterion Collection trailer>

Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Followed by a Q&A with Co-director/Cinematographer Albert Maysles. With Sugar Hill Ale reception to follow.