Tribeca Film Festival 2014
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5 Questions for Below Dreams Director Garrett Bradley
New Orleans-based multi-media artist Garrett Bradley makes her feature debut at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival with Below Dreams, a tough-minded portrait of three economically-challenged twentysomethings trying to settle a life for themselves in a city that’s seen its own share of recent adversity. Honest and sensitive, the film is informed by Bradley’s own experience living in New Orleans, and she developed the script based on interviews conducted on frequent Greyhound bus trips there. Below Dreams is an alumni of the IFP Narrative Labs. Filmmaker: What’s been new creatively for you in terms of moving from gallery-based work to a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2014 -
5 Questions for Time Is Illmatic Director One9
Last year the Tribeca Film Festival opened with Mistaken For Strangers, a sideways documentary view of The National followed by a performance from the band. Attendees moved from screening venue to a separate show space, but this year both opening night parts were combined at Madison Square Garden’s Beacon Theater. First came One9’s Time Is Illmatic, a history of Nas’ seminal 1994 album, then the 20th anniversary performance. You can go here to read Brandon Harris’ take on the movie (which plays once more on Friday). Ten years in the making, One9’s debut documentary tracks the making of the instant […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 21, 2014 -
Joss Whedon Sells Directly to Fans Following Tribeca Premiere of In Your Eyes
Earlier this month, we ran an interview with Monica Peña, a first time filmmaker who capitalized on the festival premiere of Ectotherms by immediately selling the film on her website. Such a concept is spreading beyond no-budget land and into the distribution strategy of alterna-mogul Joss Whedon. Following last night’s world premiere of In Your Eyes at the Tribeca Film Festival, Whedon — the film’s writer/executive producer — announced that it was immediately available for rent on Vimeo on Demand. He did so not in person, but from the set of the latest Avengers installment, ensuring the tidbit’s viral-ability. Chances are, it’s working nicely. In Your Eyes is available […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 21, 2014 -
Tribeca Film Festival XIII #1: Street Dreams
No one gets confused anymore that going to the Tribeca Film Festival can mean being on the Upper West Side to watch a rapper perform. What’s to be confused about? The festival outgrew Tribeca. In the “Tribeca” of the mind — at least for those living outside New York — the Triangle Beneath Canal is synonymous with the festival started by Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal in the wake of 9/11. But festival venues aren’t down there: global brands don’t trade in symbolism unless it makes economic sense. Why shouldn’t the Big Ten have twelve teams? Nobody cares. Certainly not […]
by Brandon Harris on Apr 21, 2014 -
5 Questions for Traitors Director Sean Gullette
From 2005 to 2010, Sean Gullette (still most commonly ID’d as the star of Pi) lived full-time in Tangier, Morocco. Expanding on a 30-minute short made in 2010, Gullette’s feature directorial debut Traitors tracks a Clash-esque femake punk rock band (their big chorus is “I’m so bored with Morocco”) stuck in Tangier. When frontwoman Malika (Chainmae Ben Acha) decides to pay for a demo recording session with a one-off drug run, the film’s second half takes her out of the city and up to the Rif Mountains. The Tribeca Film Festival is the latest stop on an extensive festival circuit […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 20, 2014 -
Robert De Niro’s First Vine
Posted by Jerome Jarre is what he bills as Robert De Niro’s first six-second film. (On first view, it kind of falls into the “Hey, is this thing on?” category of unintentional art.) Hat tip: MUBI Notebook.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2014 -
Tribeca: 5 Questions for Glass Chin Writer/Director Noah Buschel
“Boxing has always drawn dumb, confused macho guys like myself,” writes filmmaker Noah Buschel. “It’s cool, it’s tough, it’s naked, it’s true…. But the thing about boxing, as Norman Mailer pointed out, is that it’s just as sensitive as it is murderous. If you go to a boxing gym, and Floyd Mayweather’s not there, it is a remarkably quiet and tender place.” Buschel heads straight into that quiet and tender place with his latest, Glass Chin, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. Since he’s already written an essay for us about the film itself, we sent Buschel a set of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2014 -
5 Questions for Ne Me Quitte Pas Directors Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koeverden
Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koeverden’s Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don’t Forget Me) takes its name from a Jacques Brel song whose fervid tone fits its disheveled subjects well. Marcel and Bob are best friends: deep in rural Belgium, they wile away their hours in a drunken haze, footage that straddles a productively uncomfortable tragic-comic line. Marcel’s wife leaves him at the beginning, which gives him more time to spend with older, more grizzled, seemingly more resigned Bob: their epic drinking bouts regularly punctuate the film, getting into more and more dangerous territory as spiral downward and, unnervingly, take […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 18, 2014 -
Five Questions With Fishtail Director Andrew Renzi
After serving as a producer on films including Afterschool and Two Gates Of Sleep and directing three shorts, Andrew Renzi is transitioning to directing features with not one but two films in 2014. First up is Fishtail, a portrait of life on a Wyoming cattle farm shot in a mere four days. Speed doesn’t mean sloppy haste: Fishtail makes full use of its 16mm widescreen frame, carefully capturing agricultural processes that connect the present to the old American West. Later this year, expect Renzi’s Richard Gere-starring drama Franny; his documentary premiered yesterday at the Tribeca Film Festival. In an email […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 18, 2014 -
Five Questions With Intramural Director Andrew Disney
Take a look at Andrew Disney’s website — with his commercials, music video work et al. neatly assembled in their own sections — and you’ll see a very well-organized director adept at representing himself. An NYU alum, Disney (yes, he’s related, though not closely) made his feature debut with 2011’s Searching for Sonny, shot in his hometown of Fort Worth. Now an Austin resident, Disney returns with Intramural, a comedy of arrested development about a group of friends who get their fifth grade football team back together. Pitched as being in the vein of Wet Hot American Summer and Hot […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 17, 2014
