S.H. Cinema’s Lighthouse Project: ‘Addiction & Recovery’ / 6.22nd @ 11 AM, Screening & Discussion, ‘Half Nelson’

Sag Harbor Cinema’s Lighthouse Project Presents

“Addiction & Recovery”

Sunday, June 22, 2025 at 11am at Sag Harbor Cinema

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Free Series on Mental Health Awareness will include screening of HALF NELSON

and Panel Discussion of Experts

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

The second Lighthouse series event will take place on Sunday, June 22, from 11am-2pm, at Sag Harbor Cinema and will focus on addiction and recovery. This event is free to the public, but registration will be required due to limited seating capacity. Sag Harbor Cinema will screen Ryan Fleck’s HALF NELSON (2006) from 11am-12:30pm. The film stars Ryan Gosling (who earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance) alongside Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie. Attendees should be advised that the film features substance misuse, and has depictions of adolescent drug trafficking.

After the film, there will be a panel discussion about the nature and manifestations of addiction and recovery. Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds and Dr. Jaclene Jason will be featured panelists. Dr. Reynolds is President/CEO of Long Island’s Family and Children’s Association (FCA), and previously served as Executive Director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD). Dr. Jason is a clinical psychologist and senior director of Behavioral Health and Addiction Services at Northwell Health’s South Oaks Hospital. Minerva Perez, Sag Harbor Cinema Board Member and Executive Director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, will moderate the discussion and the Q&A that follows.

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

“At Sag Harbor Cinema, we believe in the power of film to spark empathy and insight,” says Genevieve Villaflor, Sag Harbor Cinema’s Executive Director. “This edition of the Lighthouse Project on addiction continues our commitment to create space for our community to come together, learn, and support one another.”

The Lighthouse Project was created by Bill Collage, Sag Harbor Cinema Education Chair; is led by Dr. Diana Diamond, Sag Harbor Cinema Board Member, and psychoanalytic clinician, professor, and researcher; and is organized by Dr. Meghan McGinley Arnone, Director of Education and Grants Management at Sag Harbor Cinema.

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

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HALF NELSON

Directed by Ryan Fleck

USA, 2006; 102 mins, in English

Rated R

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a history teacher at a Brooklyn school. Though well-liked by his students and colleagues, he secretly spends his evenings hopping bars and getting high. A female student named Drey (Shareeka Epps) catches him in a drug-induced haze after a basketball game, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. As Dan struggles with his addiction, he tries to act as a mentor to the girl, whose brother is serving time for dealing drugs.

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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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