FESTIVALS | TRIBECA

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Tribeca, “Bad Rap”

The other face of Black America
[Documentary]
Directed by Salima Koroma

Asian-American rappers have it rough from the very beginning. Hip-hop culture is one of hyper-masculine machismo and aggressive sexuality. How are Asian men supposed to be taken seriously when they have been so perpetually desexualized and neutered in mainstream American media? How are Asian women supposed to be received when they don’t fit the bastardized porn star beauty standards expected of ... more >

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TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, “Bugs”

Crunch
Directed by Andreas Johnsen

It would have been so easy for Andreas Johnsen to make his new documentary “Bugs” a harmless, twee film about two Westerners traveling the world searching for edible insects. The set-up seems ripped straight from the Travel Channel or the Food Network: chef Ben Reade and researcher John Evans scour the globe sampling as many of the 1,900 species of consumable insects as possible. In Kenya we watch ... more >

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MAGNUS, chess player

From child to chess genius
[Documentary]

TRIBECA FESTIVAL, New York - In all seventy-six minutes of Benjamin Ree’s new documentary “Magnus” I’m not sure if I can remember ever seeing Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest ranked chess player, ever smiling during a game. He smiles plenty when he wins, but that’s not the same. During the games his eyes scrunch up and his face tightens into a mask of marbled concentration. The happiest we ever ... more >

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“A kind of murder”

A Christine Vachon / Ted Hope production
Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel and Eddie Marsan
Directed by Andy Goddard

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL - For a man who takes great pride in being a writer of crime fiction, architect Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson) sure acts like a blithering idiot when he get embroiled in an actual murder investigation. It’s quite astonishing, really; he doesn’t do one thing right. When his mentally unbalanced and suicidal wife winds up dead beneath a rural overpass—the same overpass where ... more >

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“The Human thing,” Tribeca Film Festival

Film was shown in VIEWPOINTS program
Héctor Medina, Enrique Molina and Carlos Enrique Almirante
Directed by Gerardo Chijona

Director Gerardo Chijona liberally name-drops a plethora of Hollywood films in “The Human Thing”: “3:10 to Yuma” (1957), “The Godfather Part 2” (1974), “Terminator 2” (1991), and even 'The Sopranos.' One would expect that with such a macho pedigree of visceral violence “The Human Thing” would be some kind of high-octane thriller or cinematic homage. But it’s neither. The film is one of words and ... more >

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Tribeca Film Festival: “Always Shine” and “AWOL”

Two films that should've best been kept out of Tribeca

Sophia Takal’s “Always Shine” and Deb Shoval’s “AWOL” have many things in common. For starters, both are films about a duo of women by female directors—the former a jagged psychological thriller about two actresses, the latter a bittersweet lesbian romance. Both female duos find themselves pushed to the edge by a domineering patriarchy, the former by the demanding and objectifying world of fashion ... more >

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Tribeca Film Festival – “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”

[City Room Creative, MediaWeaver Productions, Relativity Studios]
Steve Aoki
Directed by Justin Krook

Steve Aoki is one of the most influential DJs in the history of electronica, being one of the first artists to combine hardcore punk with dance music to create a genre unlike anything heard in the U.S. before. After a decade of grinding his way through underground gigs and festivals he has become one of the biggest acts on the planet. Playing over 300 shows a year, he has been touted as one of the ... more >