Port Jeff Doc Series Kicks Off with Record Attendance

The at on Monday Sept. 12 with a showing of Buck. In attendance was a record breaking 193 audience members. 

Honey Katz shepherded the event for the Greater Port Jefferson Northern Brookhaven Arts Council and the films director, Cindy Meehl, was the speaker for the event.

Quoting from the flyer the movie “follows Buck Brannarman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. He overcomes the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment.” 

Buck, along with his brother were in an extreamly abusive relationship with their father. The were rescued and raised in a foster home by Forest Shirley and his wife. Buck was raised to put aside his abusive background and he applied his new upbringing to the training of horses. 

The movie is his story and the methods that he now teaches. There was lively discussion with a packed audience. 

Next week we are showing The Loving Story, winner of the WGA Documentary Screenplay Award at AFI/Silverdocs 2011.  

Similar in message to a current movie, The Help, while discussing social mores of a time 50 years ago, they are still with us in some ways. This documentary tells the story of “Richard Loving, he is white, and Mildred Jeter, she is black. and when they married in 1958, their home state of Virginia was one of 16 states that considered the two of them to be criminals. Their crime? Miscegenation—marriage between the races. With the help of two young and inexperienced lawyers, the Lovings sued the state of Virginia and, in 1967, the case was argued before the Supreme Court," according to the movie flyer.

The film's director Nancy Buirski will be the speaker leading an interesting discussion.

I have added a few photographs in this blog, there are more on my PBase account.