A dim cinema is one of the few remaining spaces where complete strangers tacitly agree to feel something together: communal tears, unforced laughter, sharp inhales before a plot twist. Mark Lubell, Sag Harbor Cinema’s new executive director, believes these shared human moments in a movie theater are just as important as the film itself.
Before joining the beloved Hamptons institution, Lubell spent his own summers in nearby Noyack, where he remembers long hot days at Sandy Hollow Day Camp, working as a horse groom at Topping Riding Club, and brushing elbows with the likes of Calvin Klein and George Soros. As an adult, he grew fond of Murf’s Backstreet Tavern, where yacht owners split pints with the crews that man them—on a sweltering summer day, everyone is welcome.
On the clock, Lubell built his career supporting fine art photography, most recently as the executive director of the International Center of Photography (ICP). But he still felt the call of the East End. After debuting ICP’s light-filled new campus on Ludlow Street in 2020, he felt it was time for a new chapter. Now, at Sag Harbor Cinema, he’s working to cultivate a space similar to Murf’s, where people can put aside their differences over a bag of popcorn in a cool, dark room.
Tell me about your journey to Sag Harbor.
I was born and raised in New York, but my parents had a house in Noyack. It was the best of both worlds. My wife is from Georgia, and I told her, “In order to survive the city, it’s always great if you can get out, even if just for a day.” We bought this house in Sag Harbor 14 years ago. It was walking distance from Murf’s, so it was perfect.
Then, the pandemic happened, and we, like so many, came out here permanently. Our kids really loved it, and it became harder and harder to come back. I’ll always be a New Yorker. But I do think there’s a special community out here.
How did you get involved with Sag Harbor Cinema?
I used to work at a dot-com company just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. In the city, when something terrible happens, everyone comes together. After 9/11, a group of us created an exhibition of photographs on Prince Street for charity. That became a kind of unofficial memorial site. We had 2,000 people a day lined up. We had a website that got something like two billion hits in the first two months. We even did a best-selling book. It really shaped me and my profession because I was so moved by how everyone connected over that exhibition.
From there, I worked at Magnum Photos, which at the time was the Rolls-Royce of photojournalism. But the world was changing—anyone can take an image now. So I revamped their whole business model. Later, I became the executive director of ICP. We raised close to $90 million to open this new building on the Lower East Side. We opened in January 2020 and closed seven weeks later. We pivoted quickly and reopened again once safe, but by then my family was pretty ingrained in Sag Harbor. Then I got a call to see if I was interested in the Sag Harbor Cinema.
What role do you think film fills in Sag Harbor’s artistic community today?
A cinema is one of these places where you will laugh and cry in the dark with strangers. When the film is over, you’ve shared an experience together. You had a very human moment. And I felt like that’s a bigger idea than just the cinema. We have fewer and fewer moments when we’re spontaneously coming together with people of different political affiliations, different economic statuses. A cinema is one of those places. And when the film is over, and you walk out, I feel that you have a little more compassion for your fellow human beings.
What can we expect this summer?
Our incredible creative director, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, is working on this film noir summer series, in which she has some great films like Blue Velvet and The Great Gatsby. I’ve been told that Spielberg has said that the theater has the best quality in terms of sound and projection for an independent theater. Also, the Green Room, the bar in the back, has two terraces with one of the best sunsets in Sag Harbor.
Lastly, what are the movies that shaped you?
Cinema Paradiso. A Room with a View. There are so many great movies, but for me, the big message is that we go into these spaces and have shared experiences with each other.
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