Hal Hartley, Keynote Speaker

The New York Times refers to writer, director, composer Hal Hartley as “A leader of the 1990’s American independent filmmaking movement... one of the most distinctive cinematic talents to emerge at the close of the 20th century”.

Hartley was born November 3, 1959 in Islip, New York, and grew up in the town of Lindenhurst, not far away. He studied at the Massachusetts College Of Art in Boston for the academic year 1977-78, then, in 1980, entered the filmmaking program of the State University of New York at Purchase and graduated in 1984. Hartley’s first feature, The Unbelievable Truth (1988) was produced on a $10,000 bank loan, and launched a string of critically acclaimed independent films, including, Trust (1991), Simple Men (1992), Amateur (1994), Henry Fool (1997), The Book of Life(1998), Kimono (2000), No Such Thing (2001), Milk and Honey (2003) and his latest film The Girl from Monday, which opened in New York in May 2005. Trust won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991 and Henry Fool was nominated for the P’Alm D’Or as Best Film at Cannes in 1998. It received the Palm D’or for Best Screenplay that year.

Hartley also composes the scores for many of his films under the pseudonym, Ned Rifle