Film Festival Celebrates Famed Photographer Tony Vaccaro

GREAT NECK, NY — November 1, 2017 — The Gold Coast Arts Center will combine two important art forms — film and photography — when it hosts an opening reception for an upcoming exhibit called “Tony Vaccaro, an American Photographer,” and kicks off the Gold Coast International Film Festival with the Long Island premiere of Underfire: The Untold Story of Tony Vaccaro.

On Sunday, November 5, 2017, at 3:30 p.m. the Bow Tie Squire Theater, 115 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, NY will screen Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro (2016), the remarkable story of World War II frontline infantryman and legendary photographer Michael A. “Tony” Vaccaro, who created one of the most comprehensive, haunting and intimate photographic records of the war using a smuggled $47 camera while developing the negatives in his helmet at night. Immediately following the film, Mr. Vaccaro and the film’s director Max Lewkowicz and its producer Valerie Thomas will participate in what promises to be a fascinating, and informative Q&A session.

An opening reception for a new exhibit, “Tony Vaccaro, an American Photographer,” featuring Mr. Vaccaro’s acclaimed, wartime and celebrity photography will be held on Sunday, November 5, 2017 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Gold Coast Arts Center, 113 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, NY 11021. The exhibit will be open to the public daily at the Gold Coast Arts Center from November 5, 2017, to February 4, 2018.

Mr. Vaccaro, whom the BBC called the “greatest combat photographer of WW II,” and the Italian press dubbed “Il Maestro,” captured a broad range of our world in a photographic career that has spanned more than 80 years. After the war, Mr. Vaccaro became a renowned fashion and lifestyle photographer for Life, Look, Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Flair, and many others, and his photographs captured such luminaries as John F. Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Lauren Bacall, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

“From his earliest contact sheets from Italy in 1939, Tony Vaccaro’s photographs have consistently demonstrated impeccable balance, journalistic integrity, technical innovation, and an eye for whimsy; all of which characterize his eight decades of work,” stated Jude Amsel, Gallery Director at the Gold Coast Arts Center. Mr. Vaccaro notes, “In my photos what I want to see is dignity. In my photos man is king.”

“Tony Vaccaro, an American Photographer” is sponsored in part by Gianna Cerbone-Teoli of Manducatis Rustica restaurant in Long Island City.

For more information about the reception, the exhibit, or the film festival, please visit www.goldcoastarts.org, or call 516-829-2570.

About the Gold Coast Arts Center
The Gold Coast Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance and outreach. Located on the North Shore of Long Island, it has brought the arts to tens of thousands of people throughout the region for more than 20 years. Among the Center’s offerings are its School for the Arts, which holds year-round classes in visual and performing arts for students of all ages and abilities; a free public art gallery; a concert and lecture series; film screenings and discussions; the annual Gold Coast International Film Festival; and initiatives that focus on senior citizens and underserved communities. These initiatives include artist residencies, after-school programs, school assemblies, teacher-training workshops and parent-child workshops. The Gold Coast Arts Center is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education program, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. More information can be found at www.goldcoastarts.org.

About the Gold Coast International Film Festival
Since 2011, the festival has brought the latest Hollywood hits and Indie favorites to standing room only audiences throughout the fabled Gold Coast of Long Island. Add A-list celebrities and unforgettable events to the mix and it’s easy to see why the Gold Coast International Film Festival has become the “go to” festival for film buffs and the public; (it is also the last major film festival on the East Coast before Awards season). The Gold Coast International Film Festival is produced by the not-for-profit Gold Coast Arts Center.

Previous honorees and special guests of the festival and the Gold Coast Arts Center include film industry VIPs Francis Ford Coppola, Hugh Grant, Baz Luhrmann, Brian Dennehy, Paul Sorvino, Ed Burns, Bruce Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Lou Diamond Phillips, Morgan Spurlock, Eli Wallach, Gabriel Byrne, Jacques Pepin, Bill Plympton, Phil Donahue, Phylicia Rashaad, Joan Allen, Jay McInerney and Michael Cuesta, as well as composer Morton Gould, artists James Rosenquist, Oleg Cassini, Edwina Sandys and Bob Gruen, comedian Susie Essman, Broadway stars Kelli O’Hara, Melissa Errico and Savion Glover, and 4-time Oscar winner for production and costume design Catherine Martin.

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