Friday, May 28, 2010

Young Filmmaker Returns to His Roots

One of the reasons Hamptonyte Blog was launched is because its founders grew up near the Hamptons, studied in the Hamptons, worked in the Hamptons, became aspiring artists and writers in the Hamptons, and ultimately became fed up with the usual suspects and closed-door policies of many of the arts venues in the Hamptons. Mostly, Hamptonyte Blog has reported snarkily on the "cultural" happenings and "artistic" events going on, particularly in the summer. We're sorry...Countess LuAnn de Lesseps is not culture, and Alec Baldwin being cast to lead Equus is bleh. And fashion shows from fameballs gouging into their trust funds to live out some self-absorbed, creepy, Sex and The City fantasy is poo. We're calling it out every time.

This is not to say that Alec Baldwin doesn't have the right to participate in the Hamptons' artistic community, in fact, he's earned the right, as have many other celebrities we may goof on here. But we'll always be convinced that there is a well-spring of uncelebrated artistic talent with modern voices and important things to say about the world around us.

Meet Grant Curatola. He's representin' for the gangstas all across the world. Well, not really, he's a graduate of the Ross school, a fairly posh private school built in an idealic East Hampton setting surrounded by 140 acres of woodland. He's gone off to NYU and is studying film there, and there's an interesting article on him at Hamptons.com

Maybe Grant isn't the best example of a young artist struggling to build an audience and create a platform on the east end. After all, he did attend a posh private school and is now attending another posh private school. But Hamptonyte Blog has to admire that he seems to be trying to add a fresh voice to a very stale east end arts community. He could shoot his indie film anywhere, yet he returned to his old back yard. He's even considering submitting the film to the Hamptons Film Festival (which is a stroke-fest, but at least Grant's entry makes sense). We're not class warriors, after all. And we're keenly on the lookout for aspiring, unheralded artists who are trying to be seen, heard, read, discovered while working in the Hamptons. E-mail us if you know such a person who could use some ink. Or, in this case, some link.

1 comment:

  1. well said. your blog is right on. young artists like Grant Curatola need to be heard.

    ReplyDelete

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