I used to go to the Tribeca Film Festival every year when I lived in New York City, especially because my workplace was in Tribeca, and I learned that I could buy individual tickets to films. Why not, right? I learned quickly that it was much too hard to get into the big headliners, which would come out in theaters anyway. In the early 00s, it made sense to see the smaller films that might never get major distribution. The most memorable film I saw in those early years was the 2003 documentary about the origins of the song "Uska Dara" (as I knew it in the Eartha Kitt version) Whose is this Song? which is now available to buy on video if I really wanted to see it again.
For me, films are now both easier and more difficult to see. The huge amount of streaming content and the straight-to-DVD market means I will probably be able to see almost any TFF film currently running - eventually. On the other hand, I don't go to the movies as much as I used to because I don't live in NYC where there were so many arthouse cinemas to choose from. At some point, trying to strategize by watching films that I don't think will get distribution backfires, because sometimes the reason films don't get distribution is because they're just not that good. That said, with the example of Whose is this Song? in mind, I will make an effort to see some of the more intriguing, less commercial foreign language films before the streaming festival ends. Some of those films include the documentary about the 2019 protests in Chile, Primera the experimental narrative feature Roaring Twenties, the Dominican/Haitian documentary Stateless and the Egyptian feature film, Souad.
I've been trying to get the most out of my streaming pass by watching a lot of movies. Here's what I've seen so far.
Day 1: June 9: Shorts
While the in-person festival was doing their big premiers and galas, the only available films to stream online were shorts. I watched Almost a Year, Cherry Lemonade, and Enough. I'd recommend all three of these, though Almost a Year was probably the most accessible and well put-together as a short film. Enough is like a long music video, but very thought-provoking. here it is on Youtube.
Day 2: June 10: See For Me
The first and only feature film available for the Tribeca at Home audience was the Canadian thriller, See for Me. This was quite a good thriller. Sure, it's somewhat predictable, since it's part of a general "heist" genre, but the plotting is believably character-driven, and the characters are different from the types you often see in films in this genre. The central character, a recently blinded professional athlete, is a petulant teen, and her ex-military helper on the assistance-for-the-blind phone app "See for Me" are both completely believable, as is their sometimes failed communication.
Day 3: June 11:Mark, Mary and Some Other People and 7 Days
This was my rom-com day. These movies both had conventional rom-com elements and were also totally enjoyable films with interesting things to say about love and identity. Mark, Mary and Some Other People is a fun, smart, sexy movie about a young couple who decide to try an open marriage and all the complication that ensues. It's very "of the moment" while also having a bit of a self-conscious 70s throwback vibe, including brief appearances from the characters' wild aunt, who they go to for advice based on her experiences of "swinging" - played by Leah Thompson. 7 Days about a young Indian-American couple who go on a date arranged by their mothers and are then locked down together in the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, may be a bit more conventional for the genre, as an odd couple/opposites attract story. However, it was totally charming and has some interesting depth beyond the reflection on arranged marriage. To me, the most interesting element of the story was that both the characters cheat themselves out of what they really want even though they have the opposite response to their parents' wish for them to maintain Indian cultural traditions. One adheres to the most conservative rules and the other rebels against everything, and neither one is able to express who they really are as a result.
Day 4: June 12: Poser & The Kids
Poser is a thriller that is mostly an excuse for a showcase of interesting bands in the Columbus, OH indie music scene. The story focuses on a shy young woman who's making a podcast about local bands and her interviews and efforts to belong in a scene that includes performancs by Damn the Witch Siren and lead singer Bobbi Kitten playing herself. People who have been involved in local music scenes will find a lot in this movie that resonates with their experiences, including those people who hang around on the borders of the scene and may seem a little "off." The script is a bit predictable, but the representation of a music scene is fun.
The Kids is an in-depth return to the experiences of the non-professional actors, mostly NYC skateboarders, who starred in the 1995 Larry Clark and Harmony Korine fiction film, Kids. This film is the final product of an effort by one of those kids now in his 40s, Hamilton Harris, who wound up working with Austrailian director, Eddie Martin to finally get the movie made. Learning more about the lives of the skateboard crew at the center of the film Kids makes that original film appear even worse in retrospect. While many critics hailed the film's "gritty realism" and described it as a "quasi-documentary," it was more the case as Henry Giroux wrote at the time that the film potrayed the group in a historical, cultural and political vaccuum, as a group of aimless and nihilistic creeps. This film restores the integrity and intelligence of the people it was ostensibly about, such as the girls who hung around in the scene but refused to do the film because of how sexist the script was. This film reveals all the complexity of the world that the movie Kids failed to see. As one twitter user remarked, the film is upsetting and enraging, but I'd argue, worth seeing. Hamilton Harris is a fascinating person in his own right, and his analysis of the period is what drives most of the film.
June 13: All the Streets are Silent, Claydream and No Man of God
My first three movie day. I started in the morning with a second documentary about the NYC 1990s skating crew, All the Streets are Silent which was a Tribeca feature from 2020. This is a much glossier representation of the same skateboarding crew, with a focus on the cultural blending of hip-hop, skateboarding, and streetwear in NYC in the 1990s. There's much less here about the lives of the individual scene members, but a lot of cool history of Club Mars (which I was lucky enough to go to when it first opened in 1988) and the Stretch and Bobbito show.
from the Columbia college radio station and the history of brands Zoo York and Supreme. If you're into skateboarding or 1990s hip-hop, it's a must-see.
Tribeca's promo refers to Claydream as warm-hearted, and I think that's a great description of the film. It tells the story of claymation animator Will Vinton from his beginnings as a hippie stop-motion filmmaker to his dream of becoming the next Walt Disney, including his great successes with the California Raisins and his ambitious, commercial flop, claymation feature about Mark Twain.
. The movie shows Vinton's flaws as well as his genius, and will give you another reason to hate Phil Knight of Nike if the sweatshops weren't enough.
I was hesitant to watch No Man of God because it's a movie about Ted Bundy, and I'm very skeptical of most of those, and because it's going to be released in theaters in August, thus breaking my old rule of avoiding "big" movies at Film festivals. Luke Kirby is excellent as Ted Bundy, but the overall vibe of the film was like the TV series Mindhunter, except not quite as good. It sees like it was made for people who have already consumed a lot of media about Bundy because it doesn't explain much about his crimes, and makes oblique references to Anne Rule and others who have written about him. My general sense is that there were some interesting ideas here but they didn't quite get fully realized in this movie.
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