When the documentary “Love, Gilda” premiered at last year’s Tribeca film festival I got left out in the cold. No ticket, it was a sellout. But after taking in the film’s premiere on CNN recently, I could see why “Love, Gilda” would garner such success. This tribute of the life of late comedienne Gilda Radner (1946-1989) is filled with warmth, cheer and heart. I was incredibly fortunate to be able ... more >
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TALK with Lisa D’Apolito of “Love, Gilda”
"Her comedy and her battle with cancer are both inspiring”
Produced by Lisa D’Apolito, Bronwyn Berry and James Tumminia
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING provided “some of the most heart-breaking moments at the last Tribeca Festival
As an exploration of the human spirit, this film is indispensable
An ITVS/POV/Chicken & Egg/Tribeca Film Institute production
Directed by David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall
Every year, thousands of gamers, programmers, and journalists converge at the Penny Arcade eXpo (PAX) to celebrate video game culture. As one of the world’s premier gaming conventions, the booths and hallways are choked with endless screens of pixelated carnage and mayhem. All except for one, that is. At this booth, a quiet middle-aged man guides players towards a video game that isn’t about ... more >
STRANDED IN CANTON
Congolese entrepreneurship. In China.
Måns Månsson and Hongqi Li’s STRANDED IN CANTON is a Swedish/Danish co-production about a Congolese businessman, his Cameroonian girlfriend, his struggles with a Lebanese storage facility owner, and his increasingly hopeless prospects in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Truly, this is a post-globalization world: the boundaries between countries and continents have been rendered essentially ... more >
APPLESAUCE, a confused but intentful mess
From this year's Tribeca Film Festival
Amari Cheatom
Directed by Onur Tukel
Onur Tukel’s APPLESAUCE is a mess. But the problem is that I’m almost certain that it was intended to be a mess from the very beginning. Like an Ornette Coleman record, the unity comes from the disunity and spontaneity of non-harmonious elements blended together around a central theme. In the case of APPLESAUCE, that theme is perhaps the necessity of empathy. Spurred on by a controversial ... more >
SLOW WEST
John Maclean's SLOW WEST is foremost a showcase film. His first full-length directorial effort, the film seems to exist to demonstrate and validate Maclean's cinematic acumen. Described as a European road trip movie, it follows Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a sixteen year-old Scottish aristocrat who journeys to America seeking his lost love Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius). Along the way he is ... more >
NECKTIE YOUTH
An oft-stately and delicately composed film
This is Shongwe-La Mer's debut feature
Film premiered at this year's Tribeca
In gutters of suburbia Jabz (Bonko Cosmo Khoza) and September (Sibs Shongwe-La Mer) wander in an anhedonic daze. It’s been one year since their friend Emily (Kelly Bates) hung herself in her backyard, live-streaming her suicide to millions all over the world. Their parents contentedly spend their days working and talking politics, largely oblivious to their children’s struggles with death, ... more >
Sharon Badal | SHORT FILM AT TRIBECA
Short Film programmer gives a few rules of thumb
I recently caught up with Sharon Badal, Short Film Programmer of the Tribeca Festival, and what I learned in thirty minutes could land dozens of books on “How to Make Short Films” in the recycle bin. Sharon's information about this underrated and experimental format, which has long been a filmmaker’s stepping stone, both confirmed some festival dos and donts and disproved some long-held theories ... more >