Wed 16 Apr 2008
Being tapped to screen your film at one of the country’s top film festivals. That has to be every filmmaker’s dream. The Tribeca Film Festival 2008 runs April 23rd to May 3rd and, newcomer that it may be, after only seven years on the scene, clearly Tribeca has become one of the best places for a filmmaker’s work to be seen. The Digital Filmmaker spoke with a half dozen fortunate filmmakers whose documentaries and animations are among the many kinds of films selected this year. We particularly wanted to know what they hope or expect being included will mean for their film’s future. Call it a look not at the films themselves, but at the filmmaker’s experience. Some filmmakers have been to Tribeca before and are returning with new work. Some are experiencing the festival for the first time. All echo the sentiment of Carlos Carcas, a first timer who is coming all the way from Spain to screen his film “Old Man Bebo”at the festival.
“Just being a part of the Tribeca Film Festival in itself is an honor. As a filmmaker, it’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase one’s work in a prestigious event. When I heard the film had been accepted to compete in Tribeca, I was in a state of shock and euphoria. I always dreamed about participating in Tribeca, and to go with this film is already a prize.”
For information on the festival and its film offerings the festival’s website is at www.tribecafilmfestival.org .
For what the filmmakers have to say, please read on.
Nina Paley “Sita Sings The Blues”
Nina Paley is a returning filmmaker. Two years ago she had a short at Tribeca. One thing she hopes Tribeca will do for “Sita Sings the Blues,” a feature length, animated “breakup film” which receives its North American premiere at Tribeca, is for other festival directors to become aware of it, seeing or hearing of it there. As she explains, it’s a whole lot easier if you know other festival directors are aware of, and also already interested in your work than if you just submit.
“Sita”, which is in what she calls its festival year, screened earlier at the Berlin Film Fesitval, where it had its World Premiere, and “good things came out of Berlin.” Because of Berlin, she was invited to “a whole bunch of other festivals.” Her hope is Tribeca will do the same. And it costs a lot less, she has learned, if they invite you. There are expenses to submitting, for duplication, postage, and so on. These are smaller if festivals ask you to attend.
Paley particularly likes that Tribeca is in New York, where she lives and where she is happy all of her friends can finally see it, in a theater, with other people, in the dark. The way it should be. Being in New York also makes it easier to manage all the work that goes into presenting it. And, she confides, there are a million things to do. As with many filmmakers, money is tight. Trying to get “Sita” out into the world with no money, she can’t, for example, afford p.r. Many a filmmaker will sympathize with that challenge. At least in New York she knows some people in the press. Honor that Tribeca is, she recognizes every great thing creates new problems. She is overwhelmed trying to make all the arrangements, including making sure all the people who helped her get tickets. A friend says of her “She’s like a wolf running through the woods,” trying to do them all.
Paley has a sales rep, but is still looking for a distributor, which she also hopes will materialize because of Tribeca. She knows “Sita” is a tough sell. A niche. It’s animated, but not for kids. Looking for her best deal, the hope is Tribeca will give it “a big push.” She will also tell you she has always made art. She makes the films she does “because I want to see it. When I started I wasn’t thinking about getting into the Tribeca Film Festival. I was just thinking about the film.”
Of course, being one of the filmmakers at a major festival, she is looking forward to seeing others’ work.
What would she say to aspiring filmmakers about themselves applying to Tribeca? Her advice is simple. “Send it in. Who knows how this works. It’s a mystery.” In her words, “Of course, I’ve had more rejections in my life than acceptance.” Basically, she’s saying, all you can do is not get in. And maybe, miracle of miracles, you will.
When the Digital Filmmaker asks Paley what she got out of Tribeca the last time she was there two years ago, she doesn’t hesitate a moment. With great enthusiasm she will tell you, “They gave me a great bag of swag.” What was in it? “Final Cut Pro!” What else was in there? “Lip balm. Sunglasses. A nice bag. Who cares!” Not when the freebie bag has Final Cut Pro!
Alas, the swag bag laws have tightened. Since last she was at Tribeca there’s been a swag bag crackdown, so she doesn’t expect that again.
But a decent distribution deal would be nice.
Robert Drew “A President to Remember”
Famed documentarian Robert Drew brings an intimate look at President John Kennedy to Tribeca in his “A President to Remember.” He has been to many a festival and to Tribeca before. “What this festival and other successful festivals do… Tribeca more than most,” he tells us, “it creates a two week thriving film community. It energizes people. Broadens your viewpoints.”
Like Paley, he is aware when Tribeca selects a film then many of the other major festivals around the world want you to come. They issue invitations. So it has a multiplier effect. The festivals he cares about are the ones that feature documentaries or are all docs. Tribeca is a broad picture. Hollywood is a part of it, but documentaries are given top billing. He feels well treated there. His film gets reviewed at the head of the list.
Furthermore, he has observed, people make a festival. Good people are the secret. This particular group that works behind the scenes at Tribeca, people you never hear about, “is amazing.” A smart bunch. Some might ask, for example, why another Kennedy film. With them, he didn’t have to explain anything. They knew this is a big year for presidential politics.
The last film he had at Tribeca was of his WWII experience. Unbeknownst to him, while it was screening at the Amsterdam festival, one of Tribeca’s top people was seeing it there and when he got back to the United States, before he could call them, she called him. To Drew, that means the folks who run Tribeca are enterprising. Then he has nothing but praise for the way they handled it. They billed it prominently. Gave it good projection. Got a good audience there.
For “A President to Remember,” this year’s entry, Drew explains, this film is meant for people who didn’t experience JFK directly. He is hoping people will realize once we had a history of great presidents. Which, in his opinion, the current administration doesn’t reflect. What Tribeca is doing for him. First, they selected it. Out of the hundreds of films that are submitted, it is “good for the film that it was selected. Good that then they will show it four or five times with excellent projection, good p.r. Hopefully, it will draw crowds.” More importantly, being in the festival “would then accomplish the purpose of the film, which is to remind people of a great president” who held office at a time when we respected and admired the man in the White House. He thinks the film has a job to do. And this festival will help it do that.
We wanted to know the importance of this festival to him when he’s been in so many. And had so many successes. “Yes, I still get excited.” The film he’s working on is always the most important. And Tribeca is “an important boost.”
Dori Bernstein we reached in post-production, putting the finishing touches on her entry “Gotta Dance.” Two years ago, she was at Tribeca with “Show Business: The Road to Broadway, ” where it premiered, and it was “huge, fantastic, the perfect place to launch the film.” Tribeca launched it “on such a high level” and gave them an opening which attracted distributor attention and press attention. They were given a red carpet spotlight premiere. She calls that “a magical night.” The film dealt with Broadway, and as Tribeca is in New York, the Broadway community came. What happened to them at Tribeca was “very valuable to catapulting the film. As a result, we did get theatrical distribution release. It played all around the country. Now it’s out on DVD.”
Also an incredible experience is what Bernstein says was the personal handling. “Tribeca took such good care of us and the film. Even after the festival was over. They continued to be very supportive of their filmmakers.” Bernstein says the festival put word of their film in their online newsletter. Sent email blasts when it was released, telling people where it was playing. Helped to publicize it throughout its life.
Now she returns with “Gotta Dance.” “Gotta Dance” is a world premiere. She is ecstatic that she got in. Especially after only sending in a rough cut. She felt from Day One that Tribeca was the perfect place for her latest film. It was her dream to get in. But she is well aware, “This is a tough one to get into. At the end of the day, either it fits what they need or it doesn’t, even if you’ve been in before.” But she also knows the festival had confidence in her — seeing just a rough cut — “that it would turn out well and be finished on time.”
She wanted to and is thrilled to be at Tribeca, not only because it is such a spectacular festival, but also “because everyone is here.” Meaning everyone in the film is in New York area. Her senior hip hop dancers and the New Jersey Nets, “which is what makes the screening so special. The lights will come up at the end and the cast of the movie is going to be there.” Up on stage. What a moment. Not only will they get to see the film while the audience does, but the audience will get to see her stars.
Her dream is for every distributor to see the film, fall in love with it and want it desperately.
Tribeca makes that possible.
Douglas Tirola “An Omar Broadway Film”
Douglas Tirola is new as a filmmaker to Tribeca, but not new to Tribeca itself. He’s been before, wearing a different hat. Taking pitches in the All Access program, not screening his own film. This is the first doc he’s directed.
For this particular film, “this was THE festival we wanted to go to.” Tirola always pictured it being at Tribeca. For a few reasons. One of which is that “An Omar Broadway Film” takes place almost entirely in Newark and East Orange, right across the river.
Another because, after being involved for six years with the All Access program, he feels a relationship with the festival. “I think they do a great job. They make you feel they are making a long-term commitment to you.” He feels they really want the movie to go where it can go — beyond the festival circuit. Tirola describes a kindness, feeling treated like family, with all the “support for us and for the film.” He thinks that’s unique. He’s been in other festivals. It’s not always that way. “Since the movie was accepted the level of and amount of support from different people at the festival is extraordinary.”
The Digital Filmmaker talked to Tirola the morning after a pre-Tribeca event. What he found remarkable was that questions from the various festival workers went beyond their immediate area of responsibility. Someone in p.r. might ask about distribution and vice versa. People had actually seen the film. Dozens of films are in the festival and he could see they actually knew his movie. Had actually watched more than the first five minutes of his film (and the others). They could talk about the movie. And because they had actually seen it, Tirola feels they will be better prepared to support it.
His takeaway. Instead of solely being concerned with how the festival fares, they seem to care about what the festival can do for the film. Tirola believes the festival people genuinely care and want his movie to “find its home” not only at but after the festival. For him he will always feel “this connection to Tribeca.” For anything that needs being done, “There are six people helping me, far beyond what does happen at the festival itself.”
His expectations beyond the festival? He has a couple.
“We’re just like a lot of movies. We got it made far enough to submit to festivals and because it got accepted, now that it’s in, we went to final production.” Now that it’s in finished form, with that boost from the festival, obviously, he hopes for theatrical distribution. “The goal is to find a distributor who best understands the film and will get it out to an audience.” And here again, Tribeca is a help. Tirola hasn’t “been to all the festivals in the world, but I will say because Tribeca is in New York City, you get the New York industry people.” More of them are here than most other places that hold festivals. Then there is a further wrinkle. The uniqueness of Tribeca being in New York City, plus the support of the people behind the festival, means you get more diversity in the audience — a great mix of industry people, film devotees and just regular folks. People in the business get to see the film at screenings with regular folks, not just the crew who flew out to see the movie, and “being in New York, where the audience and the crowd is a little tougher, if the movie plays in that bit tougher room and a potential distributor sees the audience is on the side of the movie, that’s an advantage.” After all, Tirola is trying to show there is an audience out there for “An Omar Broadway Film.” Being at Tribeca make that happen.
“An Omar Broadway Film” is about, as Tirola puts it, “a guy who is in prison.” So he can’t be there. But another main character is his mother. A woman who lives in a modest house in East Orange, New Jersey — she gets to be there. Tirola says, “If for some reason this is the only premiere the movie ever has, it’s important for us that the mom be there and it be special.” And Tribeca helps make it special, even going so far as to help them find a place after the screening to have a party.
At the end of the day, “It’s a documentary. This is probably the biggest opening and biggest stage it will have.”
Andy Abrahams Wilson “Under Our Skin”
Andy Abraham Wilson is a first timer. Tribeca is the place where he’s launching his doc, “Under Our Skin” and he calls it “the best venue for this film.” Partly that’s because of the subject matter. “Under Our Skin” is about the Lyme Disease epidemic. And New York and the Tri-state area were a hot spot epidemic area. Hence, a perfect place to premiere.
He hasn’t been there yet, but already he feels what the other filmmakers describe, under the heading, “treating us well and they really care.”
Wilson, of course, hopes for sold out crowds. He’s excited about getting this film out to the public. He’s also excited also being asked to be on a panel, Behind the Scenes. Only three filmmakers will be on that panel and he’s the only non-fiction filmmaker.
Being on a panel can only help. As any filmmaker knows, going to a festival is all about visibility and awareness. Wilson takes it further. Creating awareness and buzz about the film is important. “All filmmakers want to create awareness and buzz about their film.” But he also wants to “create buzz and awareness about the issue. The Lyme Disease epidemic.” His sister had it. He thought she was malingering. This film, he quips is “ penance for the way he treated her.” More earnestly, he had a friend who got sick, then sicker and sicker, with a mysterious illness. Eventually she was seriously ill. He was very concerned. She was very concerned. Many wrong diagnoses followed, until, finally, the diagnosis of Lyme Disease. So the film is as much about the issue. And the issue is personal.
So, it seems, even for a newcomer, is the relationship to Tribeca.
“Everyone wants their film to do well, “ he reminds us. “Tribeca is a big festival. Lots of people are coordinating. It feels like they our holding our hands.” Compared to other festivals, “they seem to have an investment… an engagement with the film.”
“It feels like they are holding our hands.” Wilson has been to other festivals. He doesn’t think all others get that treatment. “Under Our Skin” has a prime screening time. He, too, cites the newsletter, tracking the film after its play.
And, of course, there’s that panel discussion.
Eileen Douglas is a broadcast journalist turned independent documentary filmmaker. Former 1010 WINS New York anchor/reporter and correspondent for “ABC-TV’s Lifetime Magazine,” she is the author of “Rachel and the Upside Down Heart,” and co-producer of the films “My Grandfather’s House” and “Luboml:My Heart Remembers.” She can be reached at www.douglas-steinman.com.