Grateful to team up again with Erik Buckham of Palaceworks @seabuckler — he designed our In Transit poster years back and brought his keen eye to this one too. I know enough Photoshop to get myself in trouble. Erik knew enough to save it.
“A lyrical, empathetic, elegiac portrait of Tangier Island.”
Thank you @alissawilkinson and @nytimes for featuring us!
Opening tonight @quadcinema :
quadcinema.com/film/been-here-stay-here
May 15–21
POST-SCREENING Q&As Friday May 15 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Moderated by Duy Linh Tu, Columbia Journalism School
Saturday May 16 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion & Ecology
Moderated by J. English Cook & Alec Turnbull, Climate Film Festival
Sunday May 17 – 3pm
David Usui, Director
Elizabeth Rao, Editor
Moderated by Nelson Walker, Maysles Documentary Center
Watch an exclusive clip from @davidusui 's Been Here Stay Here, opening at @quadcinema this Friday and named one of our 15 films to see this month.
Here's the synopsis: "Set on a remote island in the Chesapeake Bay, Been Here Stay Here is a feature documentary in the tradition of the Maysles Brothers, D.A. Pennebaker, and Frederick Wiseman. Filmed with a quiet, unadorned vérité approach, it brings audiences inside one of the most isolated communities in America: a conservative Christian fishing town fighting to hold on as the land beneath them disappears."
Congratulations to BFC member David Usui on the New York theatrical premiere of Been Here Stay Here! (Tickets: link in bio)
Been Here Stay Here opens at Quad Cinema on May 15 for a one-week theatrical run. Set on Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay, the film offers an intimate portrait of a centuries-old Christian community confronting profound change while holding fast to faith, family, and place.
David Usui is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn. He works as a director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and story consultant.
Following its world premiere at IDFA and screenings at Docaviv, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, AFS Doc Days, and DC Environmental Film Festival, the film makes its New York theatrical debut with special post-screening conversations throughout opening weekend.
POST-SCREENING Q&As
Friday May 15 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Moderated by Duy Linh Tu, Columbia Journalism School
Saturday May 16 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion & Ecology
Moderated by J. English Cook & Alec Turnbull, Climate Film Festival
Sunday May 17 – 3pm
David Usui, Director
Elizabeth Rao, Editor
Moderated by Nelson Walker, Maysles Documentary Center
Additional screenings daily through May 21.
Tickets and showtimes available here:
quadcinema.com/film/been-here-stay-here
More information at beenherestayhere.com
#brooklynfilmmakerscollective #documentary #documentaryfilm #climatejustice #davidusui
Opening May 15 in New York! Been Here Stay Here (@beenherestayhere ) comes to Quad Cinema for a one-week run. 🎥 Directed by BFC member David Usui (@davidusui )
Set on Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay, the film offers an intimate portrait of a centuries-old Christian community confronting profound change while holding fast to faith, family, and place.
Following its world premiere at IDFA and screenings at Docaviv, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, AFS Doc Days, and DC Environmental Film Festival, the film makes its New York theatrical debut with special post-screening conversations throughout opening weekend.
Tickets available now — link in bio.
POST-SCREENING Q&As
Friday May 15 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Moderated by Duy Linh Tu, Columbia Journalism School
Saturday May 16 – 7pm
David Usui, Director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion & Ecology
Moderated by J. English Cook & Alec Turnbull, Climate Film Festival
Sunday May 17 – 3pm
David Usui, Director
Elizabeth Rao, Editor
Moderated by Nelson Walker, Maysles Documentary Center
Additional screenings daily through May 21.
Tickets and showtimes available here:
quadcinema.com/film/been-here-stay-here
More information at beenherestayhere.com
#brooklynfilmmakerscollective #indiefilm #documentaryfilm #documentary #climatejustice
Official trailer for Been Here Stay Here.
Opening May 15 at @quadcinema and May 27 at @laemmlemonicafilmcenter@laemmleglendale
A film about faith, community, and what it means to stay when leaving feels inevitable.
Set on Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay, the film follows residents navigating a shifting landscape while holding onto their way of life. As outside narratives close in, the story stays with the rhythms of daily life, offering a portrait shaped from within rather than imposed from the outside.
Tickets and details in bio.
Great to see we’re included in The Film Stage’s “15 Films to See in May,” curated by Jordan Raup.
Been Here Stay Here opens May 15 at the Quad Cinema in NYC. Laemmle theaters starting May 27.
Tickets are on sale now! Been Here Stay Here opens Friday, May 15 at Quad Cinema for a one-week theatrical run.
Opening Weekend includes special post-screening Q&As.
Friday May 15 – 7:00pm
Q&A with:
David Usui, director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island Mayor
Moderated by:
Duy Linh Tu, Academic Dean & Professor, Columbia Journalism School
Saturday May 16 – 7:00pm
Q&A with:
David Usui, director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion & Ecology
Moderated by J. English Cook & Alec Turnbull, Climate Film Festival
Sunday May 17 – 3:00pm
Q&A with:
David Usui, director
James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island mayor
Moderated by:
Nelson Walker, Maysles Documentary Center
Link for tickets in bio
Hope to see you there!
Excited to share that Been Here Stay Here will have its NYC theatrical premiere at Quad Cinema starting May 15.
The film will run for a full week, with screenings each day and Q&As throughout the run. This one feels especially meaningful. We’ve spent the past year bringing the film to small towns across the Chesapeake Bay, often in places where stories like this don’t usually land.
Same film, different room.
Hope you’ll join us.
Excited to head back to Virginia for another screening of Been Here Stay Here. Join us this Wednesday, April 15 – 7pm at @alamowinchester . Director @davidusui and story producer @marthawollner with be there for a post-screening Q&A.
When we are young, people tell us many things as if they are settled forever. Gravity works this way. History happened that way. Our bodies, they imply, are solid in the same dependable way as the chair we’re sitting in, the floor under our feet, or the wall we lean against. We don’t question it because there seems to be no reason to. We are here. We take up space. We bump into other people on the streets. End of story.
Except it isn’t.
I remember hearing, almost in passing, that atoms are mostly empty space. Mr. Powell, my sixth-grade chemistry teacher, said it the way teachers sometimes do when they’re watching the clock. No emphasis. No drama. Just another fact written briefly on a chalkboard before it was erased and replaced with the next one. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. Why would I? I was busy worrying about tests, about whether I’d be called on, or whether there would be any 25¢ cinnamon rolls left by the time I got to the cafeteria.
But some facts have a way of lingering quietly, like a conversation overheard in a diner that doesn’t make sense until years later.
Read the full Substack
Link in biobio
