NEWSLETTER
‘Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart’ to make its New York Film Festival Premiere
Stony Brook, NY — The second annual LIMEHOF Music Documentary Film Festival will be held from September 25th through 27th at the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF) in Stony Brook Village (at 97 Main Street). Opening night (Friday, 9/25) will feature Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart by Dori Berinstein, a six-time Tony-winning Broadway producer, Olivier winner and Emmy Award-winning director, producer and writer of film and TV. Dori Berinstein is also expected to attend and participate in a Q&A panel.
“Kenny Loggins’ music has been woven into the soundtrack of American life, and Conviction of the Heart gives audiences an extraordinary opportunity to see the man behind those unforgettable songs,” said Tom Needham, Executive Director, LIMEHOF Music Documentary Film Festival. “We couldn’t imagine a more exciting film to open the LIMEHOF Music Documentary Film Festival, and having Tony and Emmy Award-winning director Dori Berinstein with us for Opening Night makes the evening truly special. This is going to be a celebration of music, filmmaking and one of the most remarkable careers in American popular music.”
The film focuses on the life of multi-platinum, Grammy, Emmy-winning and Oscar- and Tony-nominated songwriter/recording artist Kenny Loggins, who was a shy, gawky, unpopular kid with low self-esteem. Thinking he had to create a persona to do the “rock star thing,” Kenny spent the subsequent 50 years reinventing himself repeatedly. His career has been a journey into being himself.
“We're absolutely thrilled that Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart will open the LIMEHOF Music & Documentary Film Festival this year!” Berinstein said. “The festival's commitment to celebrating the artistry of both documentary filmmaking and music makes LIMEHOF the perfect home for our film. I'm deeply grateful to be part of this community of filmmakers and music lovers and very much looking forward to the Festival!”\
The film made its world premiere the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto on April 27, 2026, and to date has only had one New York private screening when Loggins was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. This is the documentary’s first public film festival screening in the state of New York.
The film features the late music executive and LIMEHOF Inductee Clive Davis, who was originally from Brooklyn. In the film Kenny Loggins and Clive Davis are in a scene talking about Davis’s role in discovering Loggins and giving him his first major opportunities in the music business.
When Clive Davis passed away in June of this year, Kenny Loggins posted this tribute on his Facebook page: “I owe my career to Clive Davis. He believed in me when others would only 'wait and see.' He had the ability to use his 'gut' instead of just looking at the numbers. The last of his kind in this business, he will be missed.”
Actor Kevin Bacon also appears in the film. Other musicians and composers featured in the film include David Foster, Richard Marx, Michael McDonald, Jimmy Messina, Dean Pitchford, Scott Bernard, Rick Cowling, Adam Nitti, Chris Rodriguez and more.
The three-day festival features 43 music documentaries from 11 different countries. Tickets and passes are available now. The full line up of films has been announced and the full details are available on LIMEHOF’s website.
About Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart
Kenny Loggins, multi-platinum, Grammy and Emmy-winning songwriter and recording artist, was a shy, gawky kid with low self-esteem who thought he had to create a persona to do the rock star thing. Over the subsequent 50 years, Kenny has continually reinvented himself, turning a deeply personal journey into a remarkable career defined by authenticity, resilience and musical versatility. Kenny Loggins: Convictions of the Heart follows his life and career, from his breakthrough as half of the enormously successful duo Loggins & Messina, whose albums sold more than 16 million copies, to his extraordinary solo career and his emergence as perhaps the defining movie-soundtrack hitmaker of his generation.
With iconic songs including “I’m Alright,” “Footloose” and “Danger Zone,” Loggins helped define the musical identity of some of the most beloved films of the 1980s. “Footloose” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since surpassed one billion Spotify streams, while “Danger Zone” became a cultural phenomenon through Top Gun and found a remarkable second life nearly four decades later in Top Gun: Maverick. Along the way, Loggins also established himself as a major songwriter, co-writing the Grammy-winning “What a Fool Believes” with Michael McDonald, and expanded his audience through his acclaimed family music, including Return to Pooh Corner. Having sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, his five-decade career is ultimately a story about finding the confidence to stop playing a role and become yourself.
About Director Dori Berinstein
DORI BERINSTEIN is a six-time, Tony-winning Broadway producer, an Olivier winner and an Emmy-award-winning director, producer and writer of film & television
As a filmmaker, Dori’s work includes: A Man with Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole, ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway, Carol Channing: Larger Than Life, Gotta Dance and Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love (Emmy Award). Dori’s current documentary, Couture To The Max, chronicles the adventures of 10-year-old Fashion prodigy Max Alexander. www.dramaticforces.com
Dori’s Broadway Productions include: Stereophonic (Tony Award), Company (Tony Award), Is This A Room, Dana H, The Prom (Drama Desk Award), Legally Blonde (Olivier Award), Virginia Woolf (Tony Award), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Tony Award), Flower Drum Song, The Crucible, Golden Child, Big and Fool Moon (Tony Award).
Dori supervised production on Dirty Dancing and Jim Henson’s MuppetVision 3-D, executive-produced Isaac Mizrahi’s award-winning documentary Unzipped and Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story and directed and produced the TV Series Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming. Dori also produced Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of her Broadway Musical The Prom for Netflix (Golden Globe Nominee). Dori has worked as a Producer or Exec for DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, NBC, MTV, Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, Oxygen Media, Vestron Pictures, and Walt Disney Imagineering.
Dori is the Executive Director of The Commercial Theater Institute. She is the recipient of Broadway’s CTI Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theatre Producing and the Jacob Burns Vision Award. She is Co-Founder and CEO of The Broadway Podcast Network (bpn.fm/) and The Lights of Broadway (https://www.
About LIMEHOF
Founded in 2004, the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the idea that Long Island’s musical and entertainment heritage is an important resource to be celebrated and preserved for future generations. The organization, which encompasses New York State’s Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Kings (Brooklyn) Counties, was created as a place of community that inspires and explores Long Island music and entertainment in all its forms. In 2022, LIMEHOF opened its first Hall of Fame building location in Stony Brook, New York. To date, the organization has inducted more than 130 musicians and music industry executives, and offers education programs, scholarships and awards to Long Island students and educators.
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