By GREGORY ZELLER //
Pop your corn and silence those cellphones – one of Long Island’s leading cultural centers is going to the movies.
Beginning later this month, the Stony Brook-based Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame will dim its lights for a new Local Filmmaker Series. The hall, known best as a musical mecca, will lean into its “entertainment” identity by spotlighting Long Island-based auteurs and their cinematic creations, with a pantheon of dramas, horrors, comedies, documentaries and other genres expected to grace LIMEHOF’s silver screen.
This is not the first time the Hall of Fame has presented moving pictures: Concert films and music videos are mainstay attractions, rolling regularly in the LIMEHOF main theater and on other screens throughout the museum.
And certainly, the Hall of Fame is no stranger to special events: It regularly hosts musical performances by local musicians and recently extended the run of “Billy Joel: My Life – A Piano Man’s Journey,” a comprehensive centerpiece exhibition tracing the career of Long Island’s favorite son.
Tom Needham: Film buff.
But moving beyond music to celebrate regional independent filmmakers is a natural evolution for a venue designed to trumpet not only Long Island musicians but all entertainers – and entertainment creators – with Island roots, according to LIMEHOF Vice Chairman Tom Needham.
“Since LIMEHOF is no longer just a ‘music hall of fame,’ it is looking to raise awareness about other Long Island entertainers, such as filmmakers,” Needham noted.
Sponsored by Hicksville-based booking agent G&R Events and Patchogue-based music PR firm Magnetic Vine, the series is scheduled to include monthly Saturday afternoon matinees of locally produced movies. First up, on April 19, is “The Lady of The Lake: The Legend of Lake Ronkonkoma,” a 2024 thriller leveraging Native American folklore, written and directed by Maria Capp.
The series is slated to continue May 17 with director Sean King’s 2024 fright-fest “Screamwalkers,” a horror-comedy parody of 1980s and 90s slasher flicks that mixes gratuitous gore and giddy guffaws as it sends up classics like “Friday the 13th,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream.” Future series installments will be announced.
Ready for its closeup: Lake Ronkonkoma stars in filmmaker Maria Capp’s Native American-themed thriller.
Each monthly screening will include an audience Q&A with the filmmaker, who will also be featured on the “Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame Podcast,” available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other leading podcast platforms. The screenings are free for LIMEHOF members and covered by general-admission tickets for nonmembers.
The Hall of Fame is currently accepting nominations for other Long Island-rooted films and filmmakers to be featured in the series – and hoping to expand the series’ scope through the nomination process, according to Needham.
“LIMEHOF is open to working with other arts organizations to select worthy filmmakers who would benefit from a special screening in a unique museum setting,” the vice chairman added.
