Tribeca Film Festival 2014
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PowerPoint Transmedia: Choose Your Own Documentary
The Storyscapes section of the Tribeca Film Festival this year was a bit like an oversized playground. Housed in multiple stories of a lofty Tribeca building, the transmedia installations were interspersed with Bombay toting waiters and bars. The majority of the exhibitions I took part in involved Oculus Rift: if you angled your head just so, the “camera” would pan accordingly to reveal another person, object, space, et cetera, much like a video game. One selection that I was sad to miss was Choose Your Own Documentary, which was slotted four times during Storyscapes, since it was not just a transmedia documentary but also a live, interactive show. 1566 variations of Chose Your Own […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 30, 2014 -
Five Questions with Güeros Director Alonso Ruizpalacios
Much like the counter-movement it depicts, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Güeros is built upon a series of elements that slyly double back on one another. Smartphones in 1999, remnants of behind the scenes footage to break the third wall, a road trip through town, and handheld camerawork to counteract otherwise formal rigor all comprise this tale of three young men in the midst of a Mexico City National University upheaval. Troublemaker Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) is sent South by his mother to live with his dissident, often lackadaisical brother Sombra (Tenoch Huerta) and his best friend Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris). Wasting the days away in their concrete compound, the three become […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 1, 2014 -
“You’re Really Just Talking to Yourself:” Beau Willimon, David Simon, Nate Silver and Anne Thompson on Audiences and Data
“There are two asteroids corrupting media,” bellowed radio host John Hockenberry at the start of the Tribeca Film Festival’s “Stories By Numbers” panel last week. The first, viewing patterns; the second, data streams. “Narratives,” he opined, pacing before Beau Willimon, David Simon, Nate Silver and Anne Thompson, “are becoming indistinguishable from vices.” It’s no secret that Netflix’s limitless entree into consumer preferences has informed much of its success in the realm of original content. Hockenberry noted that big brother Sarandos can scrutinize viewing behavior down to its utter minutiae: “what people skip over, what sex scenes they replay, is all fed back into […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 28, 2014 -
Five Questions with Something Must Break Director Ester Martin Bergsmark
A moody exploration of the human need for connection — with others, and ourselves — Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break centers on Sebastian, a queer, androgynous twenty-something, in desperate need of grounding. Drifting through unfulfilling sexual experiences in grungy, modern day Stockholm, a chance encounter leads Sebastian to Andreas, a straight man who nevertheless can’t seem to resist Sebastian’s advances. As their relationship deepens, so do Andreas’ doubts, sending Sebastian towards his feminine alter ego, “Ellie.” Filmmaker spoke to Bergsmark about making the transition from documentary to narrative, and the film’s alternately loose and stylized execution. Something Must Break had its North […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 25, 2014 -
2014 Tribeca Film Festival Winners
I’m openly hopping on the Brandon Harris bandwagon and declaring Tribeca’s programming vastly underrated. Leaps and bounds ahead of SXSW, much of the curation this year proved artful and risky, with standouts including Fishtail, Güeros, Young Bodies Heal Quickly, Gabriel, Broken Hill Blues, Ne Me Quitte Pas, Glass Chin, 1971, Summer of Blood and so forth. Even its selections that didn’t completely click were admirable in their aims. It’s frustrating then that the winners feel so incredibly safe. Particularly, the gifting of the Best Documentary prize to a two-time Academy Award nominee, when I can think of no fewer than five first timers in competition who were more deserving of both […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 25, 2014 -
“A Tiny Drop of Dew”: Journey to the West at the Tribeca Film Festival
Journey To The West‘s 14 shots begin with an extended screen-filling close-up of Denis Lavant’s face, neck and shoulders. His carotid artery’s unignorable pulsing attests to how difficult it is to attain complete stillness and mastery of even a small portion of the body; wrapped in a Buddhist monk’s robes, Lee Kang-sheng’s subsequent slowgoing progress across Marseilles magnifies that strain across an entire person. Lee must always maintain motion without going any faster than absolutely necessary, and his legs and torso sometimes wobble with the effort of restraining more violent movements. In two extended centerpiece shots, he descends the stairwell […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 24, 2014 -
“A Different Approach to Dissent”: 1971 Director Johanna Hamilton and Whistle Blowers on Government Abuses
On March 8th, 1971, an anonymous group of individuals calling themselves the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole thousands of secret government documents. Within those documents was considerable proof of what many in the activist community had long suspected but been unable to prove: that the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, was spying on law-abiding citizens and participating in a broad range of illegal activities designed to neutralize any and all critics of American policy. The group made photocopies of the most damning documents and sent them to various […]
by David Felix Sutcliffe on Apr 24, 2014 -
Five Questions with Point and Shoot Director Marshall Curry
A shy, sheltered, OCD-afflicted only child, Baltimore native Matthew VanDyke was not the likeliest member of the 2011 Libyan rebel militia, but Point and Shoot, the new documentary from Academy Award-nominee Marshall Curry, chalks VanDyke’s trajectory up to sheer sense of adventure. Determined to give himself “a crash course in manhood,” VanDyke leaves Baltimore behind with a camera in hand, winding his way through Africa atop a motorcycle. Along the way, he meets Nuri, his iconoclast counterpoint who will draw him into the revolution. Filmmaker spoke to Curry about relating someone else’s footage, and the documentarian’s dilemma of capturing the moment truthfully and artfully. Point […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 23, 2014 -
5 Questions for Ballet 422 Director Jody Lee Lipes
Making his name with Afterschool and Tiny Furniture, Jody Lee Lipes has quickly solidified his standing as one of the most impressive American cinematographers currently working. Alongside a diverse slate of DP work (he both shot and directed episodes of Girls and is currently working on Judd Apatow’s next feature Trainwreck), Lipes has also been establishing himself as a documentarian. 2009’s Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same followed the title artist in the middle of a creative and personal breakdown/breakthrough; for 2010’s co-directed NY Export: Opus Jazz, Lipes staged a 1958 Jerome Robbins ballet on New York’s […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 22, 2014 -
Tribeca Film Festival XIII #2: Survey Says
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence (don’t strain yourself trying to find out) that the same year the Tribeca Film Festival was partially acquired by Knicks owner James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Company, the ESPN-sponsored sports film sidebar — a reliable showcase of “30 For 30”-esque jock docs destined for the network — kicked off with a gala screening of actor Michael Rappaport’s When the Garden Was Eden, a documentary about the Knicks’ late ’60s and early ’70s glory years. Here, the director of the well-regarded A Tribe Called Quest doc Beats, Rhymes & Life (which I wrote about here) relies on standard-fare […]
by Brandon Harris on Apr 22, 2014
