Proclaimed “the single greatest concert movie of all time” by Rolling Stone Magazine, “The Last Waltz” by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese will be co-presented by Hamptons Doc Fest and the Southampton Arts Center, outdoors in the SAC garden, on Sunday, June 27, with live music performed beforehand by the band JL Rolls the Dice, beginning at 7:30 PM. The film screens at 8:30.
The film documented the Canadian-American rock group The Band’s final farewell concert on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, after the group’s 16 years on the road. It featured Rick Danko on bass, violin and vocals, Levon Helm on drums, mandolin and vocals, Garth Hudson on keyboards and sax, songwriter Richard Manuel on keyboards, percussion and vocals, and songwriter Robbie Robertson on guitar and vocals — performing their many hit songs such as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “Stage Fright,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and “Don’t Do It,” interspersed with studio segments and interviews by Scorsese.
They were joined on stage by over a dozen of the rock legends of the 1960s and ’70s — including Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters and Neil Young — playing blues, rock and roll, New Orleans R&B, Tin Pan Alley pop, folk and rock.
“Scorsese left us a time capsule of one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made. It’s guaranteed to lift all spirits and for that, we are grateful,” said Hamptons Doc Fest founder and executive director Jacqui Lofaro.
In 2019 the film was also selected for preservation in the National Film Registry “for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress.
JL Rolls the Dice band will perform some of the The Band’s hit songs as well as their own music. The group includes Randolph Hudson, Fred Gilde, Al Buonanno, Klyph Black and Jim Lawler.
Bring a beach chair or blanket. Tickets for the evening are $15, $10 for SAC members, at www.southamptonartscenter.org.