S.H. Cinema, Lighthouse Project Series Launch / Mental Health / Nov 3rd

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Sag Harbor Cinema’s Lighthouse Project Launches

Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 11am at Sag Harbor Cinema

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Free Series Promotes Mental Health Awareness, Advocacy & Action

Through Film Screenings and Expert Panel Discussions

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Sag Harbor Cinema is proud to launch its Lighthouse Project, a year-round film and discussion series that illuminates mental health awareness, advocacy and action. Sag Harbor Cinema’s Lighthouse Project will be free and open to the public, and will offer equitable access to mental health information with expert-led panel discussions. Its goal is to demystify, to destigmatize, and to promote knowledge about mental disorders, and to disseminate information about their treatment using film as an entry point for discussion.

The first Lighthouse series event will take place on Sunday, November 3, from 11am-2pm, and will focus on adolescent mental health. This event is free to the public, but registration will be required due to limited seating capacity. Sag Harbor Cinema will screen Florian Zeller’s film The Son (2022), starring Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern, from 11am-1pm. Attendees should be advised that the film features an adolescent in a mental health crisis, and has depictions of adolescent self-harm and suicidality.

After the film, there will be a panel discussion about the nature and manifestations of adolescent depression and suicidality, and the cross-cultural dynamics that many young people encounter in accessing mental health resources and treatment on the East End of Long Island.

Dr. Daniel Knoepflmacher: Vice Chair of Education in Psychiatry and Training Director for the General Psychiatry Residency Program at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, who holds an MFA in Film Production and had a prior career in the motion picture industry.

Anastasia Gochnour, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Program Director at OLA of Eastern Long Island’s YouthConnect; and Angelica Ortiz, Master of Social Work, and Program Coordinator at OLA of Eastern Long Island’s YouthConnect. Sag Harbor Cinema Board Member Dr. Diana Diamond will moderate the discussion and the Q&A that follows.

The Lighthouse Project is kindly sponsored by the Florin Smith Family.

Dr. Diamond, a psychoanalytic clinician, professor, and researcher with private practices in New York City and Sag Harbor, leads the Lighthouse Project. She is a Senior Fellow at the Personality Disorders Institute (PDI), an international research and clinical training center at the Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Diamond is also Professor Emerita in the doctoral program at the City University of New York (CUNY); Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; and on the faculty at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NYSPI). She has written and lectured internationally about film and psychology.

“There is not one person or family that hasn’t been touched by someone with a mental health concern,” says Dr. Diamond. “People come to me with many questions, but most often I hear: ‘How do I better understand what they’re going through? How can I help?’ Many times, a person and/or family struggling with mental health issues can feel isolated, and they don’t know where to turn. The Lighthouse Project is a critical initiative that uses the power of film to bring our community together to offer information and resources to the general public as well as those in immediate need, and to discuss questions about mental health in a safe space.”

“The Lighthouse Project speaks to important issues many in our community must manage, and we hope this new initiative will allow us to gather at the Cinema and offer support and resources for those seeking to learn more about specific mental health concerns,” says Genevieve Villaflor, Executive Director of Sag Harbor Cinema.

The Lighthouse Project was created by Bill Collage, Sag Harbor Cinema Education Chair, and is organized by Meghan McGinley, Director of Education at Sag Harbor Cinema.

Reserve a spot to attend this free community program at www.sagharborcinema.org.

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ABOUT THE FILM

THE SON

Directed by Florian Zeller

USA/UK/France, 2022; 123 mins, in English

Rated PG-13

A cautionary tale that follows a family as it struggles to reunite after falling apart. The Son centers on Peter (Hugh Jackman), whose hectic life with his infant and new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) is upended when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) appears at his door to discuss their son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who is now a teenager. The young man has been missing school for months and is deeply troubled. Peter strives to take care of Nicholas as he would have wanted his own father (Anthony Hopkins) to have taken care of him while juggling his and Beth’s new son, and at work an offer of a dream position in Washington. However, by reaching for the past to correct its mistakes, he loses sight of how to hold onto Nicholas in the present.

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Sag Harbor Cinema

As a not-for-profit, community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present, and future of the movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image—from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.

Visit www.sagharborcinema.org for more information.

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OLA of Eastern Long Island

Founded in 2002,OLA of Eastern Long Island, Inc. (Organización Latino Americana) is a nonprofit Latino-focused advocacy organization working in the five East End towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and Shelter Island. Faced with the need to improve mental health care access on the East End, OLA launched Youth Connect, the only local program of its kind, in 2022. An emotional and mental health support program for middle and high school students, Youth Connect provides a team of trained crisis counselors who respond to calls and texts in Spanish and English from adolescents in need of support. The call/text helpline is available 9am-11pm 7 days/week.

Visit www.olaofeasternlongisland.org for more information.

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