The Urgency of Real

The Hamptons International Film Festival typically takes up a lot of oxygen in the fall on the South Fork, but it’s worth celebrating a slightly smaller but just as vital event in late autumn: the Hamptons Doc Fest.

Running this week for its 18th year, the festival of documentaries was founded by Jacqui Lofaro and has become an essential part of the region’s arts scene every year. It’s a 12-month undertaking for Lofaro and her staff, and the result is always a tantalizing buffet of outstanding filmmaking, not to mention unforgettable stories.

The arrival of the era of streaming services has been a mixed bag for filmmakers: As the future of Warner Bros. Discovery is being decided, and Paramount and Netflix are trading bids for the studio and its intellectual property, there’s a fascinating debate about the role of streaming in Hollywood’s future. But it seems beyond debate that streaming has been lifeblood for directors who make documentary films — viewers seem to have an unquenchable thirst for “true crime” and nonfiction genres, and the various services are happy to deliver, in bulk. That’s good news for the documentary filmmakers, who often were, themselves, a sort of side road compared to the superhighway of big-budget dramas, comedies, action films and animated features.

As the Doc Fest has shown every year, though, some of the very best films these days are documentaries. There is nothing like the urgency of real-life stories; talented filmmakers have developed entirely new ways to tell them.

Lofaro’s festival will screen 33 movies during its eight-day run, some of them shorts and some of them full-length treatments. You’ll find some of them on streaming services in the coming months, and one thing she noted was that this year’s lineup features more women as directors, or as the subjects of films. “Women take top billing,” is how she put it, and added, “It’s time.”

Whether it’s a portrait of musician Meredith Monk, who is woefully underappreciated for her half-century career as a music innovator, or a deep dive into the story of E. Jean Carroll and her successful lawsuit targeting the current president over sexual assault allegations, to a dozen others, these are movies that tell true stories that are often more gripping than the most well-crafted fiction — and more unpredictable.

Not to mention fun: On Tuesday, Ellen Jovin, a grammar expert who is the subject of the film “Rebel With a Clause,” did what she’s famous for: She set up her “Grammar Table” outside Bay Street Theater to field questions, stories and comments about grammar. It’s something she’s done in every state.

Kudos to Lofaro: Like documentaries themselves, her little festival has really come into its own.