Tribeca - Discovery – New and Emerging Talents
April 15th 2009 14:53
Fourteen innovative visions from emerging voices encompass the Discovery section. From lighthearted and amusing to provocative and timely, this is a rich collection of documentaries and narratives from the next generation of film makers.
American Casino, directed by Leslie Cockburn. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie Cockburn's debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiting defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard & Poor's and other high-level players in the subprime mortgage gamble and, on the flipside, visiting the working-class Americans who were the unwitting chips on the table.
Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB, directed by Mandy Stein. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Fueled by vintage performances by the likes of Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television, Bad Brains, and The Ramones, this doc charts the history and far-reaching influence of iconic downtown club CBGB and its fight for survival against the Bowery homeless shelter that sought to shut it down. Sonic Youth, Debbie Harry, Ice-T, Fab 5 Freddy, and others share their passion for the anything-goes spirit of the club and its founder, Hilly Kristal.
Con Artist, directed by Michael Sladek. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. One of the biggest names in the East Village art scene of the '80s, "business artist" Mark Kostabi gleefully made a fortune signing and selling artworks painted by a revolving stable of hired hands. This punk-fueled docu-comedy looks back at Kostabi's ultimately self-destructive skewering of the celebrity art world, and gets as close as one can to a man who's been called "the black hole of irony."
Entre nos, directed and written by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza. (USA, Colombia) - World Premiere, Narrative. Adoring mother Mariana (talented codirector Paola Mendoza) has toted her two children from Colombia to New York to indulge her husband's whim. But when he abruptly abandons the family, she'll have to rely on her own imagination and courage-and that of her remarkable kids (breakthroughs Sebastian Villada and Laura Montana)-to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, directed and written by Damien Chazelle. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. First-time director Damien Chazelle infuses his black-and-white, vérité-style relationship drama with all that jazzy romance of an old-Hollywood musical. Backed by a grand, alternately rollicking and melancholy score, Guy and Madeline tracks a pair of young lovers in Boston after they separate, search for new romance, and perhaps find their way back to each other.
•
A Matter of Size (Sipur Gadol), directed by Erez Tadmor and Sharon Maymon, written by Danny Cohen-Solal and Maymon. (Israel) - World Premiere, Narrative. In this touching, lighthearted comedy, an overweight, underemployed chef and three close friends abandon their weight-loss group to pursue an activity for which girth is a virtue: sumo wrestling. While training, they discover the soul of sumo, realizing that-fat or thin-love and success will only come from being true to themselves. In Hebrew with English subtitles. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
My Last Five Girlfriends, directed and written by Julian Kemp. (UK) - World Premiere, Narrative. Based on the international best seller On Love by Alain de Botton, this delightful romantic comedy explores with delicious wit and whimsy just how modern urban relationships go wrong. Surveying the wreckage of his last five relationships, thirtysomething Duncan (Brendan Patricks) concludes that love is a battleground where only the fittest survive.
Off and Running, directed by Nicole Opper, written by Avery Klein-Cloud and Opper. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. With white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers-one mixed-race and one Korean-Brooklyn teen Avery grew up in a unique and loving household. Even so, she can't quell her curiosity about her biological African-American roots and decides to contact her birth mother. This choice propels Avery into her own complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she's always known.
Original, directed and written by Alexander Brøndsted and Antonio Tublén. (Denmark) - World Premiere, Narrative. In this fresh and colorful lovable loser tale, Henry has spent most of his life trying to blend in. When his seemingly normal life turns upside down, his friend convinces him to move to Spain and open a restaurant. But before he can break free of the mundane, he gets sidelined caring for his mentally unstable mother, running into a lost-soul feminist who does performance art in a strip club, and a big bag of steroids. In English, Swedish, Danish with English subtitles.
P-Star Rising, directed by Gabriel Noble. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. In the early '80s, Jesse Diaz was a rising star in the hip-hop world. Now a broke single father in Harlem with two children to support, Jesse finds a shot at redemption in his nine-year-old daughter Priscilla Star, a precocious and immensely talented rapper. Director Gabriel Noble follows four years of father-daughter ups and downs as they navigate the grit and the glamour of the music biz.
Playground, directed by Libby Spears. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Executive produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Steven Soderbergh, this astonishing doc travels to the dark heart of one of the world's most sinister industries-the child sex trade. Beginning her journey infiltrating brothels in South Korea and Thailand, director Libby Spears soon discovers that the United States is a major player in the human trafficking racket and turns her attention to the homeland. Featuring original artwork by Yoshitomo Nara.
The Swimsuit Issue (Allt flyter), directed by Måns Herngren, written by Jane Magnusson, Brian Cordray and Herngren. (Sweden) - International Premiere, Narrative. What begins as a joke turns into a new shot at glory for a group of over-the-hill athletes who decide to form Sweden's only all-male synchronized swimming team. The less they're taken seriously, the more determined they are to win the world championship in this fun, feel-good comedy about friendship and family. In Swedish with English subtitles. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
TiMER, directed and written by Jac Schaeffer. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. Finding true love is easier than ever thanks to a bio-technological implant called the TiMER, which counts down to the exact time people meet their soul mates. Love-starved Oona (Emma Caulfield, TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is pushing 30, but her TiMER hasn't even started counting down yet. What's worse, she's falling for a guy (John Patrick Amedori, Gossip Girl) who is set to meet his true love in four months. Newcomer Jac Schaeffer crafts a smart romantic comedy that leaves behind the burning question... would you want to know?
Which Way Home, directed by Rebecca Cammisa. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. In this unprecedented, revelatory doc, director Rebecca Cammisa (Sister Helen) follows three unaccompanied children on a harrowing odyssey away from their homes in Latin America and through Mexico with one mighty shepherding hope: to reach the United States, where they can either reunite with their own families who made the journey before them, or create new lives for themselves.
Tickets for the Festival will be $15.00 for evening and weekend screenings and $8.00 for daytime weekday and late night screenings
www.tribecafilm.com/festival
For North American audiences you can access the film guide online from your mobile device on www.tffmobile.com . Film information can also be accessed on your mobile device by texting* a film's information code to TRBCA (87222). Information codes can be found in the box next to each film and special event listing. (*standard text messaging rates apply).
Source: PR TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
American Casino, directed by Leslie Cockburn. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie Cockburn's debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiting defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard & Poor's and other high-level players in the subprime mortgage gamble and, on the flipside, visiting the working-class Americans who were the unwitting chips on the table.
Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB, directed by Mandy Stein. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Fueled by vintage performances by the likes of Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television, Bad Brains, and The Ramones, this doc charts the history and far-reaching influence of iconic downtown club CBGB and its fight for survival against the Bowery homeless shelter that sought to shut it down. Sonic Youth, Debbie Harry, Ice-T, Fab 5 Freddy, and others share their passion for the anything-goes spirit of the club and its founder, Hilly Kristal.
Con Artist, directed by Michael Sladek. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. One of the biggest names in the East Village art scene of the '80s, "business artist" Mark Kostabi gleefully made a fortune signing and selling artworks painted by a revolving stable of hired hands. This punk-fueled docu-comedy looks back at Kostabi's ultimately self-destructive skewering of the celebrity art world, and gets as close as one can to a man who's been called "the black hole of irony."
Entre nos, directed and written by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza. (USA, Colombia) - World Premiere, Narrative. Adoring mother Mariana (talented codirector Paola Mendoza) has toted her two children from Colombia to New York to indulge her husband's whim. But when he abruptly abandons the family, she'll have to rely on her own imagination and courage-and that of her remarkable kids (breakthroughs Sebastian Villada and Laura Montana)-to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, directed and written by Damien Chazelle. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. First-time director Damien Chazelle infuses his black-and-white, vérité-style relationship drama with all that jazzy romance of an old-Hollywood musical. Backed by a grand, alternately rollicking and melancholy score, Guy and Madeline tracks a pair of young lovers in Boston after they separate, search for new romance, and perhaps find their way back to each other.
•
A Matter of Size (Sipur Gadol), directed by Erez Tadmor and Sharon Maymon, written by Danny Cohen-Solal and Maymon. (Israel) - World Premiere, Narrative. In this touching, lighthearted comedy, an overweight, underemployed chef and three close friends abandon their weight-loss group to pursue an activity for which girth is a virtue: sumo wrestling. While training, they discover the soul of sumo, realizing that-fat or thin-love and success will only come from being true to themselves. In Hebrew with English subtitles. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
My Last Five Girlfriends, directed and written by Julian Kemp. (UK) - World Premiere, Narrative. Based on the international best seller On Love by Alain de Botton, this delightful romantic comedy explores with delicious wit and whimsy just how modern urban relationships go wrong. Surveying the wreckage of his last five relationships, thirtysomething Duncan (Brendan Patricks) concludes that love is a battleground where only the fittest survive.
Off and Running, directed by Nicole Opper, written by Avery Klein-Cloud and Opper. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. With white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers-one mixed-race and one Korean-Brooklyn teen Avery grew up in a unique and loving household. Even so, she can't quell her curiosity about her biological African-American roots and decides to contact her birth mother. This choice propels Avery into her own complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she's always known.
Original, directed and written by Alexander Brøndsted and Antonio Tublén. (Denmark) - World Premiere, Narrative. In this fresh and colorful lovable loser tale, Henry has spent most of his life trying to blend in. When his seemingly normal life turns upside down, his friend convinces him to move to Spain and open a restaurant. But before he can break free of the mundane, he gets sidelined caring for his mentally unstable mother, running into a lost-soul feminist who does performance art in a strip club, and a big bag of steroids. In English, Swedish, Danish with English subtitles.
P-Star Rising, directed by Gabriel Noble. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. In the early '80s, Jesse Diaz was a rising star in the hip-hop world. Now a broke single father in Harlem with two children to support, Jesse finds a shot at redemption in his nine-year-old daughter Priscilla Star, a precocious and immensely talented rapper. Director Gabriel Noble follows four years of father-daughter ups and downs as they navigate the grit and the glamour of the music biz.
Playground, directed by Libby Spears. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Executive produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Steven Soderbergh, this astonishing doc travels to the dark heart of one of the world's most sinister industries-the child sex trade. Beginning her journey infiltrating brothels in South Korea and Thailand, director Libby Spears soon discovers that the United States is a major player in the human trafficking racket and turns her attention to the homeland. Featuring original artwork by Yoshitomo Nara.
The Swimsuit Issue (Allt flyter), directed by Måns Herngren, written by Jane Magnusson, Brian Cordray and Herngren. (Sweden) - International Premiere, Narrative. What begins as a joke turns into a new shot at glory for a group of over-the-hill athletes who decide to form Sweden's only all-male synchronized swimming team. The less they're taken seriously, the more determined they are to win the world championship in this fun, feel-good comedy about friendship and family. In Swedish with English subtitles. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
TiMER, directed and written by Jac Schaeffer. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. Finding true love is easier than ever thanks to a bio-technological implant called the TiMER, which counts down to the exact time people meet their soul mates. Love-starved Oona (Emma Caulfield, TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is pushing 30, but her TiMER hasn't even started counting down yet. What's worse, she's falling for a guy (John Patrick Amedori, Gossip Girl) who is set to meet his true love in four months. Newcomer Jac Schaeffer crafts a smart romantic comedy that leaves behind the burning question... would you want to know?
Which Way Home, directed by Rebecca Cammisa. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. In this unprecedented, revelatory doc, director Rebecca Cammisa (Sister Helen) follows three unaccompanied children on a harrowing odyssey away from their homes in Latin America and through Mexico with one mighty shepherding hope: to reach the United States, where they can either reunite with their own families who made the journey before them, or create new lives for themselves.
Tickets for the Festival will be $15.00 for evening and weekend screenings and $8.00 for daytime weekday and late night screenings
www.tribecafilm.com/festival
For North American audiences you can access the film guide online from your mobile device on www.tffmobile.com . Film information can also be accessed on your mobile device by texting* a film's information code to TRBCA (87222). Information codes can be found in the box next to each film and special event listing. (*standard text messaging rates apply).
Source: PR TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
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