Overnighting in the Far East of Long Island to Attend the Screening of “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” at the Offshore Art and Film Festival

Me on the Long Island Railroad last Friday – a three hour plus ride from Brooklyn to Montauk in the far far corner of Long Island.

A poster for the Offshore Film Festival greeted me on the train platform as I disembarked at the final stop.

My AirBnB host generously offered to show me the Lighthouse at the far corner of Montauk (and Long Island – so far east one can see Rhode Island across the waters of Long Island Sound, past Connecticut’s eastern border.)

According to my host, George Washington himself commissioned this lighthouse. My host also called it the only tourist attraction in Montauk. Outside of the beaches, I suppose.

There are hardly any buildings of note to photograph in the main town. I thought because of the high cost of housing and accommodations in Montauk, I would see a plethora of grand houses and hotels, but it all looks rather modest even if the prices are not. Montauk’s isolated position at the tip of Long Island has made it exclusive and expensive, but it doesn’t look it.

I photographed this sign because the name “Meeting House Lane” attests to early Quaker influence on the area, as my Quaker hubby Ed confirmed.

This is why people go to Montauk. The beaches. They are nice, but nice beaches are up and down Long Island; perhaps the priciness of the town and distance from the rest of Long Island makes these beaches less crowded than the others?

Fort Pond, a large lake in the middle of Montauk.

The Montauk Tower, one of the few buildings over two stories in Montauk.

Solé East Resort, where the Offshore Art and Film Festival was taking place this night.

The evening started with an Art Walk on the resort grounds.

J.O. Jerusalem would give a live performance later this night, after the screenings.

Jules Sheehan encourages you to touch the Braille messages on her paintings.

Elsa Keefe would also present a short film tonight of her diverse nude models communing in nature.

Jordan Bromley and Christine Wexler, founders of the Offshore Art and Film Festival

Me with local filmmaker Chase Markoff, writer and star of the short “Candied Lips”, which screened the previous night.

Setting up the screening area – it would be an outdoor affair.

Women Make Movies sponsored panel with festival female filmmakers, hosted by Nicole Page.

Speaking: Sassy Mohen, the director of the freewheeling agitprop “How to Hack Birth Control”, which desperately needs a follow-up now that the Supreme Court has so horrendously changed the landscape for women’s reproductive options in the USA.

Me before the evening’s screenings of shorts, of which “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” would take the closing spot.

There was a lot of loudly vocalized enthusiasm after (and even during) the screening. It was especially good to be able to exchange ideas with fellow filmmakers at length, and get their impressions of the film.

J.O. Jerusalem, with model, creating his next work as a live performance.

The next day I checked out another Montauk beach. Where the first one I photographed was near the main town and hotels, this one was near a local neighborhood (and my AirBnB).

And then I took the LIRR back to Brooklyn.