Sports nearly took center-stage at Tribeca (this year just as much as in years past) with a documentary like Cosima Spender’s PALIO being shown here as well as Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt's HAVANA MOTOR CLUB, the latter which I'm discussing here. More than a documentary about illegal car racing in Cuba, HAVANA MOTOR CLUB is a frank attempt at illuminating car racing as a metaphor for freedom of ... more >
Archives for April 2015
ARCHIVES
TFF2015 | Gaskets and blacktop dreams, it’s HAVANA MOTOR CLUB!
Film premiered at Tribeca on 4/19
Buena Vista Social Club, the blacktop edition
Directed by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt
STEAK (R)EVOLUTION
From Hyōgo Prefecture to France
How would you judge a piece of steak as being the best in the world? By its flavor, the texture, some meat-to-fat ratio? The casually informed gourmand might point to Japan’s kobe beef, that practically defied brand of meat from Hyōgo Prefecture renowned just as much for its marbling as for the cattle breeders’ unusual methods of raising them: giving them beer; regular massages; playing Mozart day ... more >
At TFF2015, two films about disease, afflicting the filmmakers themselves
Both films were screened at this year's Tribeca Festival
Both PRESCRIPTION THUGS AND TRANSFATTY LIVES are about crippling diseases—one voluntary, one not—and both are intensely personal, given how these afflictions affect both directors themselves. TRANSFATTY LIVES, the slightly better of the two films, played on Wednesday, while PRESCRIPTION THUGS was shown on Thursday and will play again Saturday at 6:30 PM at Chelsea's Bow Tie Cinemas. Chris ... more >
TFF2015 | Among the believers
Pakistan under the clutch of fundamentalist Islam
Co-directed by Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Ali Naqvi
Pakistani cleric Maulana Aziz has perfected the art of creating extremists. Throughout his war-torn, economically ravaged homeland he has opened up a series of madrasas that exclusively teach the memorization of the Quran. The students come from desperately poor families who can’t afford to feed them. Aziz’s Red Mosque network of madrasas’s ffoffers of free food, lodging, and an “education” prove ... more >
TALK | A casual conversation with Jeanie Finlay, director of “ORION, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING”
Finlay was born in Nottingham, England
She directed her first documentary short, "Love Takes" in 2003
Screen Comment critic Nate Hood recently attended the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and reviewed the film "Orion: the Man who would be King" (his article is available online). He met with director Jeanie Finlay afterwards. I had the opportunity to check out Orion: The Man Who Would Be King" a couple of days ago and I was blown away by it. So how did you first hear about “Orion?” Jeanie Finlay: ... more >
TFF2015 | ORION, or who was the ultimate Elvis impersonator
The man who would be king was a 'Bama boy (Alabama, that is)
"If Elvis could make it sounding like Elvis, why can’t I?” This line best sums up the inexplicable futility and cosmic tragedy of the life of Jimmy Ellis, a singer from Orrville, Alabama who skyrocketed to fame in the late seventies and early eighties thanks to his uncanny vocal resemblance to the recently deceased Elvis Presley. Desperate to cash in on the explosion of popularity surrounding the ... more >
TFF2015 | Autism in Love
Directed and produced by Matt Fuller
My name is Nathanael Hood and I’m autistic. And in my twenty-six years on this earth I have never seen a film that treated autism with the same level of respect and dignity as Matt Fuller’s AUTISM IN LOVE. It examines four subjects: Lenny, a twenty-something living with his parents who agonizes over his inability to get a girlfriend; Dave and Lindsey, two Autistics who have managed to overcome ... more >