The Flamingo with Adam Sekuler (Bellwether)

Director Adam Sekuler joins us in person for a post-film conversation. This screening is free to Amherst Cinema Members.

In her late sixties, Mary Phillips boldly seeks pleasure; attending dungeon parties, engaging in intimacy with strangers through her BDSM practice.

THE FLAMINGO is more than just a coming-out story; it’s a deep dive into Mary’s world, where she offers healing touch and guidance to others, challenges society’s notions of aging and female sexuality, and explores the complexities of intimacy and self-embodiment.

Over glasses of pink lemonade, by the bonfire, and in the most vulnerable moments, Mary’s joie de vivre and compassion shine through, even as she navigates the uncertainties of finding love on her terms.

Shot in an observational style, the film ultimately offers a new way of seeing, processing, and understanding the experience of aging with pleasure.

Adam Sekuler is an award winning filmmaker, curator, educator and editor. Screening in forums and film festivals throughout the US and internationally, his many alternative films strike a delicate balance between stylization and naturalism, creating a poetic and lyrical form of visual storytelling.

His feature length documentary TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS won the Radical Empathy Jury Award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival where his film 36 Hours also won the Carolee Schneemann Award. He's produced short works for Barry Jenkins, Lisandro Alonso, Josh and Benny Safdie, Valerie Massadian, Amie Siegel, and Joe Swanberg. As an editor he's worked with Robinson Devor, Courtney Stephens, Pacho Velez and Stephanie Spray. He's currently an assistant professor in Journalism and Media Production at University of Michigan - Dearborn.