The Tribeca Film Festival in April is one of New York City’s two major film festivals. Tribeca is an all-around festival. It’s a major promotional stop for Spring features, but also respected for independents and documentaries. The Tribeca Film Festival very consciously explores the intersection of film and popular culture.
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16th Tribeca Film Festival 2017
The 16th Tribeca Film Festival 2017 runs Wednesday, April 19 to Sunday, April 30, 2017.
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The Tribeca Film Festival will open the 16th edition with the world premiere of the feature length documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. The premiere will be followed by a special concert featuring performances by Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more, taking opening night beyond the screen to honor the legendary music executive and producer.
The Tribeca Film Festival and The Atlantic have joined forces to recognize the best branded storytelling work of the past year with the second annual Tribeca X Award. The award honors the most dynamic and authentic story-driven work from artist-brand collaborations
Tickets
Advance selection ticket packages go on sale March 2. All advance selection packages can be purchased online at www.tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets, or by telephone at (646) 502-5296 or toll free at (866) 941-FEST (3378).
Also available for purchase now is The Hudson Pass, an all access pass to screenings and talks taking place at BMCC, Regal, Cinepolis Chelsea, and SVA as well as full access to all events at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios, which includes VR and immersive projects, special screenings with music performances, and access to the lounges.
Opening and closing night tickets go on sale March 21. Tickets for events at The Beacon Theatre and at Radio City Music Hall are available for purchase online only beginning March 21.
Packages and passes are now available for purchase on the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival App, on:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tribeca-2017/id1208189515?mt=8
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tff2017.android
Single tickets cost $21.00 for evening and weekend screenings, $12.00 for weekday matinee screenings, $40.00 for Tribeca Talks panels and special screenings, $30.00 for Tribeca TV, and $40.00 for Tribeca Immersive. Single ticket sales begin Tuesday, March 28 and can be purchased online, by telephone, or at the ticket outlet located at Cinepolis Chelsea (260 W. 23rd Street). The 2017 Festival will offer ticket discounts on general screenings and Tribeca Talks panels for students, seniors and select downtown Manhattan residents. Discounted tickets are available at Ticket Outlet locations only.
Latin Feature Films
The 2017 feature-film program includes films from 28 countries, including 78 World Premieres, six International Premieres, six North American Premieres, two U.S. Premieres, and six New York Premieres.
International Narrative Competition
Ten films compete for Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, and Best Actress
Nobody’s Watching (Nadie Nos Mira)
Directed by Julia Solomonoff, written by Julia Solomonoff, Christina Lazaridi.
(Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Spain) – World Premiere
After giving up a successful soap opera career in his native Argentina for a chance to make it in New York, Nico finds himself staying afloat with odd jobs bartending and babysitting. In a moving depiction of the vibrant city, Nobody’s Watching questions who is watching and how we adjust ourselves accordingly. With Guillermo Pfening, Rafael Ferro, Paola Baldion, Elena Roger, Cristina Morrison, Kerri Sohn, Marco Antonio Caponi. In English, Spanish with subtitles.
Sambá
Directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, written by Ettore D’Alessandro, Carolina Encarnacion.
(Dominican Republic) – World Premiere
Cisco has his back against the ropes. After spending 15 years in an American jail, he’s returned to the Dominican Republic yet is unable to get a job, a problem compounded by his mother’s ailing health and his younger brother’s delinquent habits. To make money, he’s resorted to illegal street fighting. But Cisco finds a possible salvation in Nichi, an Italian ex-boxer who sees dollar signs in Cisco’s gritty fighting skills. With Algenis Pérez Soto, Ettore D’Alessandro, Laura Gómez, Ricardo A. Toribio. In Spanish with subtitles.
Documentary Competition
Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing
A River Below
Directed by Mark Grieco. (Colombia, USA) – World Premiere.
Deep in the Amazon, a renowned marine biologist and a reality TV star are each working to save the indigenous pink river dolphin from being hunted to extinction. When a scandal erupts, ethical questions are raised as murky as the waters of the Amazon River. Mark Grieco’s (Marmato) surprising documentary digs into the ethics of activism in the modern media age. In English, Portuguese, Spanish with subtitles. Earth Day Screening
Spotlight Narrative Competition
This section focuses on marquee filmmakers and star performers.
Rock’n Roll
Directed by Guillaume Canet, written by Guillaume Canet, Rodolphe Lauga, Philippe Lefebvre.
(France) – International Premiere
Real-life couple Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard play themselves in this satirical comedy about a couple dealing with aging in the limelight. After Guillaume gets told by a co-star that he’s just not that cool anymore, he goes to increasingly extreme lengths to prove her wrong, putting his happy domestic life to the test. With Gilles Lellouche, Philippe Lefebvre, Camille Rowe, Yvan Attal. In French with subtitles.
Tribeca Talks
Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Academy Award-winning filmmaker (The Revenant, Birdman, Amores Perros), the first Mexican filmmaker to be nominated for Best Director and Best Producer Academy Awards, will talk about his work.
School of Visual Arts, SVA 1
Saturday, April 22 at 2:30pm.
Barbra Streisand with Robert Rodriguez
Widely recognized as an icon in multiple entertainment fields, Barbra Streisand has attained unprecedented achievements as a recording artist, actor, director, producer, concert performer, author and songwriter. Streisand has been awarded two Oscars®, five Emmys, ten Golden Globes, eight Grammys plus two special Grammys, a special Tony award in 1970, and two CableACE Awards – the only artist to receive honors in all of those fields of endeavor. She will converse on her unparalleled career and force field of creativity with Mexican-American filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.
BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Saturday, April 29 at 6pm
Virtual Arcade
23 projects from six countries, 17 of which are world premieres.
Alteration
(World Premiere) – France
Project Creator: Jérôme Blanquet
Key Collaborators: Yann Apperry, Bapstiste Chesnais, Julien Bercy, Irène Marinari, Gary Brocaud, Juliette Mesnager, Jean Chesneau
This is a poetic trip into the future: Alexandro volunteers for an experiment carried out to study dreams. He can’t imagine that he will be subjected to the intrusion of Elsa, a form of Artificial Intelligence who aims to digitize his subconscious in order to feed off it. She’s a vampire…bit by megabit.
Sergeant James
(North American Premiere) – France
Project Creator: Alexandre Perez
Key Collaborators: Avi Amar
It’s Leo’s bedtime, but he thinks there is something under his bed. Is it just the harmless imagination of a young boy, or something more sinister? Is it…you? From director Alexandre Perez, Sergeant James recaptures the innocence of youth, the wonder of the unknown, and the folly of fear, while hinting at a far creepier possibility.
Step to the Line
(New York Premiere) – USA
Project Creator: Ricardo Laganaro (Brazilian)
Key Collaborators: Defy Ventures/ Oculus VR for Good
Shot entirely on location in a California maximum security prison, Step to the Line is a documentary that aims to provoke a transformation in the spectator’s eyes about prisoners, the prison system, and even themselves. In this project, we see how release from incarceration can be just as jarring as intake and how parallel lives diverge when someone serves time.
Unrest
(World Premiere) – France/USA/UK
Project Creator: Jennifer Brea, Amaury La Burthe
Key Collaborators: Diana Barrett (Fledgling Fund), Arnaud Colinart (Ex Nihilo), Lindsey Dryden (Little By Little Films)
Unrest allows audiences to access the world of chronic illness and disability in an exploratory, user-led experience. Based on the documentary film of the same name, the project draws upon sensory meditations on pain, fatigue, and neurosensory symptoms, and allows the public a visceral personal experience of a hard-to-understand condition.
Shorts
Eighteen countries are represented, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Venezuela, and the United States.
Baraka
Directed by Néstor Ruiz Medina, written by Néstor Ruiz Medina, Juan Luis Cordero. (Spain) – US Premiere. In the months before the war in Iraq, two close brothers are forced to separate, soon meeting again when the war is in full swing, but neither is the same. In Arabic, English, Spanish with subtitles. Screening in Shorts: Last Exit.
Hair
Directed by John Turturro (Italian-American), written by Bobby Cannavale (Italian-Cuban-American) and John Turturro. (USA) – World Premiere. An unscripted dialogue between John Turturro and Bobby Cannavale about a man’s particularness about his hair. Screening in Shorts: New York – Group Therapy.
Viola, Franca
Directed by Marta Savina, written by Marta Savina, Andrea Brusa. (Italy) – World Premiere. It’s Sicily in 1965, and Franca is forced to marry her rapist to avoid becoming a pariah in her traditionalist community, but she rebels against the established custom and sets a precedent that alters the course of Italian history, paving the way for women’s rights. In Italian, Sicilian with subtitles. Screening in Shorts: Postcards.
Dive (Salta)
Directed by Marianne Amelinckx. (Venezuela) – World Premiere. Julia goes back to the pool and remembers that, sometimes, life challenges ourselves to keep going and make decisions. In Spanish with subtitles. Screening in Shorts: Postcards.
The Good Fight
Directed and written by Ben Holman, written by Ben Holman. (Brazil, U.K., USA) – World Premiere. Following a personal tragedy, Alan Duarte opens his own boxing gym to offer salvation and hope to others in the notorious gun violence- ridden favela in Rio de Janeiro where he was born and lives. In Portuguese with subtitles. Screening in Shorts: S.O.S.
N.O.W. Showcase
Independent, online creators invited to showcase their latest work
The Holdouts
Directed by Ramon Campos Iriarte (Colombia) – World Premiere.
The Western hemisphere’s oldest civil war is still going strong in the jungles of Colombia. The National Liberation Army (ELN) —a Marxist military organization— has been fighting for revolution since 1964, and with the FARC having declared a ceasefire, the ELN is today the last active guerrilla army in the Americas. In Spanish, English with subtitles.
Ramon Campos Iriarte is a producer and filmmaker with a photography and journalism background, and extensive experience working in the field. He started his career working on commercial television, and then specialized in documentary production, focusing on environmental and social subjects mainly in the Americas.
The Holdouts is screening as part of N.O.W. Showcase A at Regal-11 in Battery Park City, Thursday, April 20, 6:30pm
Tribeca Film Festival 2016
The Tribeca Film Festival 2016 is April 13-24. The Festival is at multiple venues. The Festival Hub is Spring Studios at 50 Varick Street.
2016 brings films from Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.
The Human Thing
“The Human Thing” is Cuban director Gerardo Chijona’s 2016 drama about a thief who steals the only manuscript of a writer’s upcoming book, then enters it in a contest against the very same writer.
Regal Cinemas Battery Park
Friday April 15 at 8pm
Tuesday April 19 at 9:30pm
Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea
Thursday April 21 at 9:45pm
Friday April 22 at 7pm
Alfonso Cuarón and Emmanuel Lubezki
Multiple Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón (“Y Tu Mamá También,” “Gravity”) and Emmanuel Lubezki (“Birman,” “The Revenant,” and “Gravity”) have a conversation.
SVA 1
Wednesday, April 20 at 6pm
Pelé: Birth of a Legend
“Pelé: Birth of a Legend” by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist is an U.S. biopic about the Brazilian greatest soccer player of all time. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Pelé himself.
Saturday April 23 at 3pm at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
The Bomb
The closing film is “the bomb.” It’s an immersive multimedia film installation by filmmaker Smriti Keshari and author Eric Schlosser. The space will be walled 360° by eight giant projection screens with a rock band, The Acid, performing live. The film is an immersive experience of nuclear testing and attacks followed by impressions of how nuclear weaponry remains a serious and unresolved threat to all humanity.
Photo courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival. For tickets or more information, visit www.tribecafilm.com/festival
This article was originally published on March 24, 2017