Films Cypher, about a black girl turned hit rapper, and A Strange Path, about the complicated relationship of a son and a father, were big winners at the Tribeca International Film Festival, a movie outpost independent and author, which ends on June 18. .
More than 200 features, shorts, animated, experimental and immersive programs have screened at Tribeca, New York’s largest film festival, held annually in Lower Manhattan since 2002.
The festival took place in two dimensions. The first was traditionally represented by public screenings in several cinemas with the presence of the creators of the strips, who answered questions from the public after the screenings. The second, related to the pandemic, invited fans to stream on their computers, tablets and iPhones. For the first time on such a scale, Tribeca has opened up the opportunity for “couch” viewing fans to get acquainted with the show’s schedule, of course, for a fee.
The other side of glory
“Cipher” won Best American Narrative Film, and the award went to director Chris Moukarbel, who isn’t new to the theme song. He has already made several music videos. Her first feature-length documentary, Me @ The Zoo, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Cipher, his acting debut, starred 27-year-old Tierra Wack. She first rose to prominence at the age of 15, when she stood on the streets in Philadelphia and sang rap verses for a YouTube channel with unusual expressiveness.
Tierra Wack Cipher Star. Credit: AP
Today, Wack is a celebrity in the latest hip-hop music subculture. She is admired by celebrities such as Erika Badu and Billie Eilish. But, as Moukarbel’s camera testifies, there is a downside to stardom. One fine evening, after a difficult performance, she notices someone watching. From then on, Tierra and her team are forced to constantly look around, suspecting they are being secretly videotaped. The aesthetic of a psychological thriller still doesn’t overwhelm the film’s artistic start, and a nugget’s talent guarantees that. Tierra clearly demonstrates with her strongly social incendiary recitatives that there is enough litter on the streets of American cities from which to sprout brilliant poems.
The Brazilian “Strange Path” wins many awards in New York – for the best international film, the best screenplay, cinematography and the interpretation of the main role by Carlos Francisco.
Aspiring filmmaker David returns to his native Brazil for the first time in 10 years, where he and his film have been invited to a film festival. But due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the festival is canceled and he has to live somewhere for a few days before flying out. David comes to Geraldo (Francisco), his father, whom he has not seen for many years. But he meets his descending son unexpectedly extremely hostile.
Tribeca Strange Path Film Festival
As festival selector Casey Baron notes, director Guto Parente makes ingenious use of the film’s hero’s experimental footage, layering it across the main narrative to highlight his mood swings and misadventures.
romance and horror
The smoking tiger motif in Korean culture may indicate the “humanity” of the animal. A Korean-American high school student living in Southern California is the heroine of the contemporary drama “Smoking Tigers”, which received two awards in the Tribeca’s Untold Stories competition – for best actress Chi-Yeon Yoo and for best screenplay in a playwright and directed by Seo Yeon Shelley Yo.
The heroine comes from a poor family, but, pushed by her ambitious parents, she is forced to compete with her classmates from elite families obsessed with the idea of entering the best universities.
“Smoking Tigers” also received an honorable mention from the Nora Ephron Award jury, an American director and playwright known for her romantic comedies. The award itself went to rookie director Gabriella Moses for Boca Chica, filmed in the Dominican Republic. Desi, 12, sings in the local choir, but her ambitions are much bigger. She left her neighborhood of Boca Chica and found success as a singer in New York. Relations with loved ones back home remain strained, leading to a resounding scandal.
“A Night with Adela”. Tribeca Film Festival
On the border between “angry” social cinema and naturalistic horror, rookie director Hugo Ruiz wavers in the dark opus One Night With Adela. Ruiz won Best New Feature Film Director. Garbage truck driver Adela is offended by the world, but first by her parents. She is willing to resort to violence, and her plan for revenge is inventive and cruel.
The Kenyan ethnographic film “Between the Rains” directed by Andrew Brown and Moses Turanier was named best documentary film. The jury noted the grace and love of the young heroes, inhabitants of a remote African village. Brown is also recognized as the best cinematographer in the category of world documentaries, which firmly adheres to the method of cinema believe.
“Between the Rains” Tribeca Film Festival
Prizes were also awarded in other categories – short films, audio programs, immersive programs and video games.
“We are very proud of the festival’s selection of such a diverse selection of films this year,” festival director Kara Cusumano said in a statement. “Our winners and their films are a strong testament to the vitality of different genres and platforms affirming themselves in the most powerful and inspiring ways.”
Laughter as therapy
The interest of American documentarians for the dramatic events in Ukraine is perceptible. Special Jury Mention of the Tribeca Documentary Competition awarded to New York filmmaker David Gutnick
“Rule of two walls”. (Two Walls Rule). Coming from a family of Ukrainian immigrants, the director traveled to the homeland of his ancestors to show firsthand how the younger generation of artists are resisting barbaric aggression.
“War Comedy”. Tribeca Film Festival
The challenge of war is eloquently illustrated by the characters of the American documentary Comedy of War: Laughter in Ukraine, directed by Christopher Walters. A group of young stand-up comedians travel through war-torn Ukraine and gather halls full of spectators who, in the words of one of the performers, are ready to laugh not to cry. The images of their performances confirm that humor and laughter are the best therapy against depression and discouragement.
Another trip to war-torn Ukraine is captured in Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story by American director Nate Pommer, which received a Special Jury Mention for the Albert Maysles Award for Emerging Documentary Director. Charismatic and frenetic leader Eugene Goodz and his legendary rock band, one might say, have become the epitome of muses who cannot be silent in a terrible time of war.
The 30-minute short Captains of Ukraine was directed by Matt Danzigo, an American filmmaker and reporter with BBC and NBC experience. The players of the Ukrainian football team are faced with a difficult choice: continue to practice professional sport or take up arms and go to the front?
There were no Russian films on the festival program this time around. In the fantasy thriller “ISS”. (ISS), featured in the Spotlight Narrative section, stars two Russian-born actors, Costa Ronin and Masha Mashkova. It was directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who is listed in the catalog as a Brazilian-American.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite and Masha Mashkova. Photo: Oleg Sulkin
Supplies have arrived at the International Space Station, and now here in orbit, three American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts are on science watch. The status quo is supported by expressions of mutual sympathy, friendship and even love. But the idyll ends when disturbing information arrives from Earth. Something tragic has happened in the world, and the inhabitants of the station stare in horror through the windows at the once blue planet, engulfed in a red glow. Conservatives in Russia and America pass the same secret instruction to “their” envoys in orbit – to gain full control of the station at all costs.
The Tribeca Festival was founded in late 2001 by actor Robert De Niro and fellow producers Jane Rosenthal and her husband Craig Hathcoff as the New York creative community’s response to the September 11 attacks. The founders of the festival saw it as a way to revive and diversify the life of the metropolis. Today, the Tribeca Festival has become an integral part of its cultural landscape.
Read the Ukraine War News Latest Today on The Eastern Herald.
