25 FILMS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO AT THE TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

By Scott Macaulay

At last year’s Tribeca Film Festival I discovered two of my favorite films of the year, Alma Har’el’s Bombay Beach and Panos Cosmatos’s Beyond the Black Rainbow. I’m hoping for at least as good a track record this year, and in surveying the schedule I see more than enough potential candidates. Assuming I can successfully surmount my usual Tribeca challenge — getting into a film-festival headspace while working at home in New York — here are 25 films I’m interested in checking out. As befitting the mission of this magazine, there’s a heavy American independent focus, and I’ve also avoided films that aren’t at least receiving their U.S. premiere at Tribeca. There are also several IFP Narrative Lab films and Filmmaker “25 New Face” directors below as we always keep a close eye on our alumni.

1. Any Day Now. Travis Fine’s finely acted 9/11 drama The Space Between was one of Tribeca’s sleeper gems a few years ago, and now Fine returns with ’70s-set world premiere about gay adoption starring Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt.

2. BAM150. I have a personal interest in Michael Sladek’s documentary on the Brooklyn Academy of Music as I’ve attended its Next Wave festival for years. Back when I worked in the ’80s NYC performing arts scene, BAM’s Next Wave was the pinnacle of interdisciplinary production. Featuring interviews with Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson and others, the film promises to be a behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of our most important arts institutions.

3. Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story. With City Island, Raymond De Felitta had one of not just Tribeca’s but American independent film’s biggest sleeper hits of recent years. Now, De Felitta returns to the festival with what is said to be a wrenching documentary about his father, filmmaking, and racism in the South.

4. Broke. We’re entering the second wave of financial-crisis documentaries, with stories rippling outwards from the obvious tales of banking malfeasance. Billy Corben’s Broke looks at destitute pro athletes, those whose competitive psychologies may have had something to do with their own post-game financial … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “THE REVISIONARIES” DIRECTOR SCOTT THURMAN

By Dan Schoenbrun

Every ten years, the Texas Board of Education revises its textbook standards, leaving the curriculum decisions up to a staggeringly small council of fifteen members. And while this practice has been critiqued on a national level before, The Revisionaries shines a particularly introspective light on the entire procedure. Focused around Board of Education member, devout Evangelical Christian, and all-around complex figure Don McLeroy, this new documentary from director Scott Thurman and the Silver Lining Film Group is sure to stir up debate at the Tribeca Film Festival and beyond.

Filmmaker: What originally interested you about the Texas Board of Education? When did you become aware of their process for revising textbook standards?

Thurman: I first heard of the political debate over how to teach evolution from Science teachers as I began the project, which was initially focused on the classroom. After the board raised national attention in 2008 during the science curriculum standards review process, I felt there was a much greater audience for a film about the political issue, but I continued to pursue characters to guide the story.

Filmmaker: How did your thesis project, “Standing Up to the Experts” inform and influence this project?

Thurman: I was focused on the science standards for my thesis project, and in that time, I had only begun to build the relationship with our main character, Don McLeroy. The Revisionaries structure is built more around Don, as I continued to follow him for a total of 3 years throughout the science and social studies hearings.

Filmmaker:  Similarly, how did your experiences working as a news photographer impact your filmmaking process? Are there major differences in the way you approach journalism and documentary filmmaking?

Thurman: I developed an appreciation for the short form, journalistic approach early on, but as I became less interested in popular issues and more interested in personal experiences, I shifted to an observational style, following subjects for longer periods of time to provide a more in depth portrait of characters and the circumstances they find themselves in.

I still strive for an objective representation of the issue and all … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “FIRST WINTER” DIRECTOR BEN DICKENSON

By Dan Schoenbrun

To properly evoke the apocalyptic landscape and tone of his directorial debut, filmmaker Benjamin Dickinson lived like he filmed – amidst the chilling rural winter that his characters find themselves trapped within. Opting to forgo electricity and even food while filming the movie’s most desperate sequences, Dickinson and his crew lend what should prove to be a hard won authenticity to First Winter. Premiering in competition this Thursday at the Tribeca Film Festival, First Winter stars Lindsay Burdge, Paul Manza, and Kate Lyn Sheil.

Filmmaker: Talk to me a bit about the genesis of First Winter. Where did the idea for the film come from?

Dickenson: Lindsay Burge (Marie) and I started spending a lot of time at “Heartland” – Paul Manza’s (who plays Paul in the film) yoga retreat – a few years ago, and I really wanted to capture the experience of living in this type of community. Over the past couple of years, we’d been talking a lot about homesteading, and it became apparent rather quickly how difficult it is to really be self-sufficient. And then the post-apocalyptic scenario provided a way to explore that notion in an extreme way that was also very relevant to a lot of our modern anxieties.  The second piece came when we were living in the house while Paul’s mom, Heidi, was dying.  Paul took care of her as she died and we were there helping out, and that experience formed the rest of the movie. The film is dedicated to her.

Filmmaker: What kind of steps did you take to ensure that the shoot matched the film’s pseudo-apocalyptic tone?

Dickenson: It was sort of method filmmaking.  All of the cast and crew holed up together in that farmhouse last winter for the duration of the shoot.  We all cooked, ate, and lived together for a month. During the part where everyone is starving, we turned off the power and heated the place only with fire, and the cast fasted.  We limited contact with the outside world as much as possible.  I think it’s safe to say that it changed … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “NANCY, PLEASE” DIRECTOR ANDREW SEMANS

By Dan Schoenbrun

Sometimes the simplest premises can be the most devastating. Andrew Semans’ debut feature Nancy, Please follows Paul (Will Rogers), a Yale PhD student as he tries (or, kind of tries) and utterly fails to complete his dissertation. His excuse for this lack of productivity? He’s accidentally left an essential annotated copy of Dickens’ Little Dorrit at his old apartment. Worse still, the book is now in the care of his ex-roommate Nancy (Eléonore Hendricks), a woman who he views as something of a sociopath. As Paul’s attempts to get the book back grow more and more desperate, Semans plumbs the lowest depths of his lead’s psyche.

Filmmaker: You’ve described Nancy, Please as an exploration of “the perverse allure of victim-hood.” What inspired you to explore this topic? What about it interests you?

Semans: The idea of victim-hood as a desirable state came from writing a protagonist who yearns to be passive. Paul, the main character in the film, is falling behind and failing to meet his professional/academic obligations. Likewise, he’s fearful of new personal commitments. As a result, he dreams of slipping away. He wants to wrap himself in a sleeping bag and suck his thumb in a toasty closet until all his burdens evaporate. But to simply shirk his responsibilities would be cowardly and shameful. Therefore, he needs an excuse – an outside agent on which to place blame for his dropping out. If he were the victim of a great injustice, he could neglect his responsibilities with impunity. Handily for him, there’s a convenient villain on whom he can place blame – Nancy – and a situation in which he can easily cast himself as the hapless, blameless target. Over time, Paul becomes very invested in maintaining his “persecution” at the hands of the “evil” Nancy because it allows him to maintain the moral high ground while dropping the ball on everything. It’s a win-win!

I’m loath to admit it, but I can identify with this will to “righteous passivity” pretty readily. I frequently find myself fighting the urge to deflect responsibility while maintaining a protective layer of lofty … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “RUBBERNECK” DIRECTOR ALEX KARPOVSKY

By Dan Schoenbrun

Over the last few years, actor Alex Karpovsky has slowly grown into one of the most recognizable faces in American indies. And with a recurring role on Girls, Lena Dunham’s upcoming HBO series, he stands poised to break through to a wider audience. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Karpovsky has found time to migrate behind the lens for Rubberneck, his directorial followup to 2009′s Second City improv documentary Trust Us, This is All Made Up. A psychological thriller about an unhinged scientist (Karpovsky, directing himself) who grows increasingly obsessed with a co-worker he’s recently had a one-night stand with, Rubberneck premieres this Friday as part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s Viewpoints section.

Filmmaker: How did you conceive of the character of Paul? What kinds of themes did you hope to explore through him?

Karpovsky: Garth (co-writer and producer of Rubberneck) and I wanted to make a subtle, slow-burning psychological thriller where unreciprocated desires and perverse secrets throb well below the surface. My father is a scientist and I grew up around a lot of scientists. Though it’s a generalization, many scientists are quite introverted and reserved. Paul is a very withdrawn researcher at a laboratory on the outskirts of Boston, someone who keeps his feelings close to himself and who buries his wants, frustrations, and history quite deep. By focusing the story on him, we felt we could explore the themes of obsession and sublimated desire in way that complemented our initial interest.

Filmmaker: What was the writing process like? Was working with Donovan different from some of your previous collaborations?

Karpovsky: I’ve never collaborated with a writer on a film before. It was truly great, and I hope to collaborate much more in general on future projects. For me, it kept the writing process fun and helped preserve perspective on the big picture. That’s something I surrender easily when I write alone, tending to lose myself in peripheral caverns for a detrimental period of time.

In terms of the actual process, we tinkered with the macro and style settings on Microsoft Word to essentially create a … Read the rest

“ARTIFICIAL PARADISES” — A HAMMER TO NAIL REVIEW

By Michael Tully

(Artificial Paradises world premiered at the 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam before screening at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. It opens theatrically in New York City at the reRun Gastropub on Friday, March 30, 2012. Visit the film’s official website to learn more.)

Yes, Yulene Olaizola’s Artificial Paradises is about drug addiction. But not only does Olaizola take her time in revealing this agenda, her patient filmmaking and reverence for the gorgeous natural environment in which she shoots keeps that agenda from elbowing its way into the foreground. It’s this gentle approach that distinguishes Artificial Paradises from the rest of the “foreign-film-festival-circuit” pack. This is a minor film, but it resonates and lingers.

Set in the seemingly discarded coastal resort town of Jicacal, Mexico, Artificial Paradises opens with nearly seven minutes of dialogue-free establishing shots. This footage casts such a soothing spell that one would be forgiven for thinking they are settling into a nature relaxation video instead of a feature film. But soon, Olaizola introduces two main figures: Salómon (Salómon Hernández), a 65-year-old peasant whose closest companion is the marijuana that he smokes on a daily basis; and Luisa (Luisa Pardo), a 25-year-old chiva (heroin) addict who has come here to smoke the rest of her stash before detoxing once and for all. Over the course of a few days, Salómon and Luisa find themselves forging a timid platonic bond that hints at something deeper.

Olaizola’s quiet magic trick here is that Artificial Paradises runs a brisk 82 minutes, yet while the story takes place over the course of several days, it somehow advances as if being played out in real time. Perhaps it’s that unhurried opening sequence, or maybe it’s the way that cinematographer Lisa Tillinger slowly pans across the landscape, or how she dollies in and out as if on tiptoes. Whatever it is, it provides comfort in a way that films rarely do.

Normally, in a low-budget work such as this, the nonprofessional cast and their self-conscious glances into the camera would be distracting, a sign of amateur filmmaking. But here, these “accidents” add an … Read the rest

TRAILER WATCH: HARMONY KORINE’S “THE FOURTH DIMENSION”

By Nick Dawson

An anthology film with bizarre “rules” that was produced by Vice Films and Grolsch FilmWorks and directed a trio of international auteurs including Harmony Korine, The Fourth Dimension was always destined to be decidedly odd. But, on the evidence of this newly released trailer, it looks like it could be pretty great too. Korine’s contribution to the film features Val Kilmer as a motivational speaker (called Val Kilmer!) trying to get people to harness their “awesome secrets,” while the rest of the film is comprised of segments from Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko and Poland’s Jan Kwiecinski about a time travel-obsessed scientist and a group of rebellious teens, respectively.

The Fourth Dimension has its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24.… Read the rest

DAVID GELB, “JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI”

By Brandon Harris

Jiro Ono, the world’s most acclaimed sushi chef, is not one to rest. As hard working an octogenarian as you’re ever likely to encounter on screen, Jiro is a celebrity in Japan, but little known here in the States. That is likely to change thanks to director David Gelb’s portrait of the man, his two sons and the philosophy of diligence, hard work and perfectionism they demonstrate in Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

A hit at last year’s Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festival, it depicts the rigorous work ethic that Jiro, who began making sushi professionally shortly after World War II, insists upon from himself and his staff of apprentices. Captaining an incredibly small restaurant that seats less than a dozen, only serves sushi and requires reservations up to a year in advance, Jiro has passed on his passion for sushi to his two sons, both of whom are budding sushi chefs themselves.

Gelb, who studied film at USC, first became obsessed by sushi as a youngster when his father Peter, the manager of the Metropolitan Opera, would take him on business trips to Japan. The now 28-year-old director co-directed the short Lethargy, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Burns, with Daddy Longlegs co-director Josh Safdie when they were both just 18 years old.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which is being distributed by Magnolia Pictures, opens this Friday in Manhattan.

Filmmaker: You’ve said elsewhere that you initially set out to make a documentary about sushi culture. How did you end up focusing solely on Jiro?

Gelb: I started out shooting little test segments, feeling out the style of the film and also hoping I might be able to raise some money with them. I shot a short on my favorite L.A. sushi chef Nozawa. He actually just retired last week. That was kind of a big deal — I don’t know if you saw the huge piece in the Times about Nozawa?

Filmmaker: I didn’t.

Gelb: He’s one of the most interesting sushi chefs in the United States as well … Read the rest

BLACKHOUSE FOUNDATION STRESSES STRATEGY AND COMMUNITY IN THE FESTIVAL PROCESS

By Dan Schoenbrun

Last night at HSBC’s corporate headquarters in New York, The Blackhouse Foundation celebrated the launch of the 2012 film festival season with a networking event and panel discussion focused on festival strategy.  Now in its fifth year, Blackhouse is a non-profit organization set up to support communities of black filmmakers throughout the festival process. The Foundation has had a presence at many of the top North American festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, and the LA Film Festival.

Blackhouse exists to help black filmmakers at all stages in their careers, a fact made clear by the event’s attendees. The talent in the room ranged from NYU film students in production on their theses to up-and-coming documentarians like Michael Brown (whose first feature 25 to Life is currently in post production).  Also in attendance were more established filmmakers such as Gun Hill Road director Rashaad Ernesto Green and Precious producer Lisa Cortes (who also serves on Blackhouse’s board.)

A sense of community pervaded over the proceedings. And indeed, the importance of such a community was stressed during the night’s panel discussion. Blackhouse co-founder Carol Ann Shine spoke of the sheer number of filmmakers competing for shelf space in today’s film festival environment. She stressed that filmmakers should align themselves with organizations such as Blackhouse, stating that “having a community behind you, or a village so to speak, really does help.”

Meanwhile panelists Basil Tsiokos of the Sundance Film Festival, Cara Cusumano of the Tribeca Film Festival, and Amy Dotson of IFP discussed what filmmakers can do to make sure that their submissions stand out from the masses. Dotson stressed the importance of a compelling artistic statement, one that captures the passion behind the filmmaking process. “I want to know you as a person,” she explained. “That you’re not in this for a hobby.” Cusumano recommended reaching out to programmers directly, arguing that “people think the process is impenetrable. It isn’t.” She even stated that she appreciates it when filmmakers deliver their submissions to her in person, then stick around to chat with for five minutes. Tsiokos reacted to this statement with bewilderment – … Read the rest

ALMA HAR’EL, “BOMBAY BEACH”

By Brandon Harris

Stunningly shot and formally audacious, Bombay Beach, the first feature of Israeli-born music-video director and cinematographer Alma Har’el, is a rare bird, the type of film that seems to be building its own cinematic language from the ground up. Sure, it embraces some stylistic and thematic similarities with a whole host of filmmaking luminaries, but it is dancing to its very own tune, both literally and figuratively.

Har’el, as we discuss below, quickly entered the lives of various people living around the California hamlet of Bombay Beach, a derelict precinct that was once a haven for zealous developers in the ’60s, after scouting the place for a music video shoot. She found undocumented lives of great wonder and choose to make artwork out of their struggles and eccentricities, their dreams and failures, their prejudices and their grace. Dispatching the term “subjects” for “collaborators,” Har’el creates a visual, highly narrative tone poem concerning a number of snake-bitten but essentially decent and partially victimized people living on the margins of the California desert. With characters that include bi-polar, overmedicated child and his explosives-addicted parents, a mildly racist, trailer-dwelling octogenarian with an ear for poetry and a lovesick football prospect who seeks to escape the ghettos of the Salton Sea through an athletic scholarship, Har’el casts a warm but unforgiving eye on a forgotten corner of America.

Bob Dylan and Beirut both contributed music to the highly atmospheric, oddly touching film, which premiered in Berlin’s Panorama section before making its North American Premiere at Tribeca, where it won the International Documentary Competition’s top prize. While it wears the influence of Harmony Korine, Larry Clark, Lynne Ramsay, David Gordon Green, Charles Burnett and Gus Van Sant (just to name a few), it announces a major new directorial talent in Har’el who is working in a key all her own.

Bombay Beach opens at the IFC Center on Friday.

Filmmaker: Watching your film again I was struck by the notion that this film was made by someone who had an intense connection to this place. How did you first discover Bombay Beach and … Read the rest