Documentary Recalls The Many Facets Of Toni Morrison’s Life

The 12th annual Hamptons Doc Fest opens its fall season with the acclaimed documentary “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am,” the artful and uplifting new film on the life and works of the legendary African-American author, winner of Pulitzer (1988) and Nobel (1993) Prizes, who passed away on August 5.

The film screens at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Sunday, September 22, at 5 p.m. Present for the post-film Q&A will be the film’s director and producer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, a friend of Toni Morrison’s for 38 years.

The film, through interviews with Morrison, follows her life from childhood in the steel town of Lorain, Ohio, through her education at Howard University, marriage and motherhood, editing life at Random House, the publication of novels “The Bluest Eye,” “Sula,” “Song of Solomon,” and “Beloved,” and teaching at Princeton University.

Along the way, it also follows the African-American experience from slavery through the civil rights movement. The film features interviews with Angela Davis, Hilton Als, Fran Lebowitz, Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez, Farah Griffin, long-time editor Robert Gottlieb, and Oprah Winfrey, who made “Beloved” into a feature film. The documentary also covers the ceremony where Morrison received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012.

“The Morrison film seemed a perfect way to begin our fall season and pay tribute to her life,” said Hamptons Doc Fest founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro. “Toni Morrison’s voice was raw, beautiful and eloquently honest. Her authentic words jolted us out of complacency, starting with her earliest work, “The Bluest Eye.” This documentary of her life, made by longtime friend Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, brings her back to us in wonderful ways. Morrison was, and remains, a natural treasure of American literature.”

The 12th annual Hamptons Doc Fest will run December 5 to 9 with five full days of documentary films at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, featuring a carefully curated selection of intriguing and engaging documentary films.

“Our screening committee spends countless hours reviewing the entered films, to find those that challenge, enlighten and delight our audiences,” said Lofaro. “We never stop looking for well-told stories. And simply put, a good documentary is a well-told story.”

Tickets for the September 22 Toni Morrison film are $20 at both hamptonsdocfest.com and baystreet.org.