STAUNCH FAMILIES: A Grey Gardens Celebration III

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

Back Walking Forward

Dir. Kavery Kaul, 2011, 40 min.

Back Walking Forward tells an inspiring story about the aftermath of brain injury. A car accident left Eric with traumatic brain injury. Modern medicine enables most brain injury patients to survive coma, but what happens after that? On the unpredictable road to recovery, an active young man suddenly bound to a wheelchair, unable to start college, Eric struggles to relearn life skills, as he searches for a place in a once-familiar world. His family must redefine happiness, as they too search for a "new normal". They wander the borderland between hope and despair. Will Eric walk again?

Followed by a Q&A with director Kavery Kaul, with the film subjects Eric, Susan and Isaac Michalowski in attendance

Kavery Kaul is an award-winning director and producer of documentaries that have been shown in theaters and on television, in the U.S. and internationally. Born in India and brought up in the U.S., her bicultural background crosses many borders. Often her films are driven by characters who challenge assumptions about who they are. They bridge worlds and break down the barriers separating "them" and "us". Kavery explains, "I was drawn to Eric --- his truths and untruths, the profound and the poignant, and his understanding of what's really important in life. In Back Walking Forward, I wanted to enter his inner world and trace his family's quest for a new normal in the face of such enormous uncertainty."

5:30pm

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 Bonus Material TBA

Staunch!: Grey Gardens 3

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

The 3rd Annual Grey Gardens Staunch Fest is a weekend long celebration of Staunch Families, June 10th-12th, 2011.

"But you see in dealing with me, the relatives didn't know that they were dealing with a staunch character. [...] S-T-A-U-N-C-H. There's nothing worse, I'm telling you. They don't weaken, no matter what." - Little Edith Beale.

   This year's Grey Gardens Staunch Celebration is a weekend exploring "staunch" families on film - families whose members despite everything 'don't weaken, no matter what', for better or worse. For Grey Gardens, in the decaying titular East Hampton mansion, a tight knit mother and daughter pair, while blocking out much of the outside world, over the years have expanded their family to include cats, raccoons, a singing cowboy, an effete pianist, a teenage handyman, a gardener, a local psychic, and a pair of visiting filmmakers. At the center, the bonds of blood between mother and daughter drive a complex relationship filled with regret, longing, anger, but above all, love. Our families, however we may define them, make us who we are - they can cultivate the best and the worst in us, drive us crazy, drive us forward and/or trap us.

Friday, June 10th to Sunday, June 12th