Mojean Aria as Joe Franek in THE SUITCASE. Photo credit: Jon Keng.[/caption]
The Suitcase directed by Abi Damaris Corbin is a short film inspired by the FBI investigation of one of the 9/11 hijackers and ringleader Muhammed Atta’s suitcases left at Logan International Airport. The film will premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 22nd.
Stuck in the minutia of life Joe Franek, a Boston-bred baggage handler, fears he’ll never amount to anything. Being a pilot is his goal, but the dream seems far off as financial pressures mount.
When tasked with transferring an incoming bag, Franek cracks and steals from the case owned by Mohammad Atta and destined for American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11th, 2001. The suitcase misses Flight 11, forcing Franek to re-tag it for later departure.
Franek’s world is turned upside down when Flight 11 crashes into the World Trade Center. All air traffic is grounded, and the chaotic airport is locked down. Tortured by his careless actions, Franek becomes obsessed with tracking down the bag he delayed. Risking his job and sacrificing his security, Franek becomes a suspect, but his act of courage turns him into an unlikely hero and gives him the legacy for which he longed.
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival brings together visionaries across industries and diverse audiences to celebrate the power of storytelling. A platform for independent filmmaking, creative expression and immersive entertainment, Tribeca supports emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning filmmakers, curates innovative and interactive experiences, and introduces new technology and ideas through panels, premieres, exhibitions, and live performances.
Founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center, Tribeca has evolved from an annual event to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan to a gathering place for filmmakers, artists, innovators, and the global creative community. Through programs that embrace storytelling in all of its expansive forms—film, TV, online work, VR/AR, and music—TFF reimagines the cinematic experience and explores how art can unite communities.
Tribeca Film Festival started in 2002 and takes place in New York, NY, USA
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Tribeca 2017: THE SUITCASE Inspired by FBI Investigation of 9/11 Ringleader Muhammed Atta’s Suitcases | Trailer
[caption id="attachment_21991" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Mojean Aria as Joe Franek in THE SUITCASE. Photo credit: Jon Keng.[/caption]
The Suitcase directed by Abi Damaris Corbin is a short film inspired by the FBI investigation of one of the 9/11 hijackers and ringleader Muhammed Atta’s suitcases left at Logan International Airport. The film will premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 22nd.
Stuck in the minutia of life Joe Franek, a Boston-bred baggage handler, fears he’ll never amount to anything. Being a pilot is his goal, but the dream seems far off as financial pressures mount.
When tasked with transferring an incoming bag, Franek cracks and steals from the case owned by Mohammad Atta and destined for American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11th, 2001. The suitcase misses Flight 11, forcing Franek to re-tag it for later departure.
Franek’s world is turned upside down when Flight 11 crashes into the World Trade Center. All air traffic is grounded, and the chaotic airport is locked down. Tortured by his careless actions, Franek becomes obsessed with tracking down the bag he delayed. Risking his job and sacrificing his security, Franek becomes a suspect, but his act of courage turns him into an unlikely hero and gives him the legacy for which he longed.
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Tribeca 2017: CLIVE DAVIS: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES Kicks Off Fest and will Debut on Apple Music
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CLIVE DAVIS: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES[/caption]
The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival officially kicked off last night with the World Premiere of the documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.
The screening was followed by a special concert featuring performances by Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Dionne Warwick, Carly Simon and Barry Manilow.
Based on Davis’ 2013 bestselling autobiography, CLIVE DAVIS: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is a riveting profile of the legendary music man, who is a five-time Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The film chronicles the historic influence of “The Man with the Golden Ears,” who rose from humble beginnings, and in a compelling journey, became one of the music industry’s most iconic figures. Davis’ career spans a remarkable five-decade career, providing an incredible tour of the most sensational music of the cultural revolution, from the ’60s to the rise of hip-hop. Davis has signed, influenced and driven the careers of many of the most important music artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries including Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Santana, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Alicia Keys, Sean “Puffy” Combs, and a great many more who attest to Davis as, in Aretha Franklin’s words, “the greatest record man of all time.” This amazing film is definitive, fascinating and ceaselessly entertaining proof.
Just before the premiere Apple announced that film is headed exclusively to Apple Music.
“Apple is a global innovator that has revolutionized the distribution of music,” said Davis. “It is a touching honor to share the music and unique stories that have shaped my career with millions of Apple Music subscribers around the world. I am overjoyed to work with them to continue this incredible journey!”
Davis added: “It is an incredible milestone to have a film about my life premier on opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival in an iconic venue such as Radio City Music Hall. It will be a moving celebration of music and artistry that hopefully will touch everyone.”
@CliveDavis thank you my friend for a wonderful evening The sound track of our lives @RadioCity @Tribeca Clive you inspire our imagination! pic.twitter.com/GKNOXLh1UK
— Isiah Thomas (@iamisiahthomas) April 20, 2017
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Tribeca 2017: Watch a Clip from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s THE ENDLESS
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Justin Benson as Justin and Aaron Moorhead as Aaron in THE ENDLESS. Photographer: William Tanner Sampson.[/caption]
Here is a clip from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s The Endless, which will make its World Premiere this Friday April 21st at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
The film directed byJustin Benson andAaron Moorhead also stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, along with Tate Ellington, James Jordan, Shane Brady and Kira Powell.
THE ENDLESS is the story of two brothers who return to the deal cult from which they fled a decade ago, to find that there might be some truth to the group’s otherworldly beliefs.
Tribeca Film FestivalScreenings:
Friday, April 21st | 9:00 PM | Cinepolis Chelsea -07 – World Premiere
Saturday, April 22nd | 10:00 PM | Cinepolis Chelsea-09
Saturday, April 22nd | 1:45 PM | Cinepolis-01 – P&I
Sunday, April 23rd | 7:45 PM | Cinepolis Chelsea-01
Tuesday, April 25th | 1:45 PM | Cinepolis-01 – P&I
Wednesday, April 26th | 8:45 PM | Cinepolis-04
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THE LAST GOODBYE, First Holocaust Survivor Testimony in Room-Scale VR to World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
Billed as the first-ever Holocaust survivor testimony in room-scale VR, THE LAST GOODBYE will world premiere on Friday, April 21 at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
In The Last Goodbye, powerful personal testimony of the Holocaust is preserved for the first time in poignant, room-scale VR, as survivor Pinchas Gutter takes audiences with him on his final visit to Majdanek, the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp where his parents and sister were murdered during World War II.
“Today when I see suffering of genocide victims and refugees, I feel their pain. I want my testimony to speak to the world to help avoid that pain. If my testimony can be a warning to the world, it would make my sharing of my own pain worthwhile,” Gutter said.
The photoreal experience presents an entirely new way of capturing truth for the future, encouraging viewers to explore the spaces depicted. USC Shoah Foundation will archive Gutter’s testimony in support of their mission to use testimony as a compelling voice for education and action.
“Just as USC Shoah Foundation forged new frontiers by collecting the world’s largest searchable archive of video testimony from genocide survivors, so too are we proud to be a part of this pioneering project with HERE BE DRAGONS, MPC VR and OTOY Inc.,” USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director, Stephen Smith said. “Every generation needs to bear witness to these atrocities, but our tools for learning and preservation change. We felt that doing the first Holocaust survivor testimony in roomscale VR, for education and preservation purposes, would engage our audience in understanding that the Nazi concentration camp system was highly developed where the SS authorities could kill targeted groups of real or perceived enemies of Nazi Germany. The consequences of such human behavior continue, and the best way to understand it and prevent it from happening again it is to gaze an unflinching eye upon it.”
In late 2016, the team traveled with Gutter to Poland to capture hours of 3D video and tens of thousands of photos on site, to create an experience that enables viewers to virtually walk with Gutter as he revisits the railway car, gas chamber, shower room and barracks of Majdanek. The groundbreaking collaboration of the industry’s top talent integrated a capture pipeline created by OTOY with HERE BE DRAGONS’ 3D video testimony, and brought to life with dozens of photogrammetry artists and engineers from MPC.
Tim Dillon, Head of VR & Immersive Content at MPC said, “Our ambition has been to create entirely an entirely new grammar for what’s possible within a narrative and room scale mix, in a documentary format. We’ve faithfully recreated the rooms of the Majdanek camp so you can inhabit them with Pinchas, you can feel his story by being there with him, eye to eye.”
“It was important that we go beyond spherical 360 video for this particular piece and allow viewers to explore Majdanek with real agency,” said Patrick Milling Smith, president and co-founder, HERE BE DRAGONS. “This freedom of movement contributes to an even more powerful sense of presence while heightening the emotional impact.”
To transport the viewers to Majdanek, the experience will be screened within a custom installation created by acclaimed scenic and production designer, David Korins.
“The ultimate goal of the experience was to build-in a contemplative pulse that people could naturally attach to their own personal landscape; to connect, not only with the atrocity of concentration camps, but grasp how inhumane man can be against man when hate is paramount and emerge as a more enlightened individual.” said Korins.
THE LAST GOODBYE was co-created by award-winning filmmaker Gabo Arora and Ari Palitz, produced by Stephen Smith, Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, and co-produced by USC Shoah Foundation, HERE BE DRAGONS, MPC VR and OTOY. An original soundtrack was helmed by audio director Dražen Bošnjak of Q Department. Spatial sound powered by Mach1. 3D stereo stitching by 3D paint\FX.
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Tribeca 2017: 17-Year-Old Daje Shelton Navigates Inner City America in FOR AHKEEM | Trailer
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For Ahkeem[/caption]
For Ahkeem is described as the moving portrait of 17-year-old Daje Shelton, a Black girl in North St. Louis, as she navigates the many challenges of growing up in inner city America with one goal: to graduate high school.
The documentary film from award-winning directors Jeremy S. Levine and Landon Van Soest, had its World Premiere earlier this year at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, and will have its North American Premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
Filmed over a three year period, we watch as Daje struggles against countless obstacles to obtain her high school diploma, her only hope of a better future, while navigating life as a teenager in America. The camera quietly follows her as she experiences her first love and explores a challenging new role as a teen mother. Despite the daily struggle to maintain focus in school and graduate, Daje and her family show the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.
People been labeling me a bad kid all my life. You don’t have to really do nothing, people just expect it. So you start to expect it of yourself.” – Daje Shelton
For Ahkeem follows Black teenager Daje Shelton as she comes of age in a rough part of St. Louis. Daje has a fiery and charismatic personality, loves to sing, and hopes to become a comedian or a journalist one day. All this despite never quite believing she’d live to see eighteen.
After a school fight gets Daje expelled and sent to a court-supervised high school, her hopes of being accepted to a good college are dashed. Her mother Tammy, who was also expelled from high school, reminds Daje of how important it is for her to stay the course and graduate..
“I don’t want you to get comfortable thinking this neighborhood and the things around here is the way of life, cus it’s not,” says Tammy.
“There are so many bigger and better things out there, you wouldn’t even believe it.”
We’re with Daje for over two years as she strives to turn things around and maintain focus on school, which becomes even more challenging after suddenly losing a friend to gun violence. She falls in love with Antonio, a charismatic classmate who can identify with the trauma Daje is feeling. Struggling with schoolwork though, Antonio drops out and starts getting into trouble on the streets. Later, Daje learns she is pregnant with a son and wrestles with the heartbreaking reality of raising a Black boy in America today.
At the start of Daje’s senior year, an unarmed Black teen is killed by a police officer in nearby Ferguson, seizing the national spotlight. The incident further awakens Daje to her vulnerable position in the world, reinvigorating her mission to graduate from high school and make a better life for herself and her newborn son, baby Ahkeem.
Through Daje’s intimate coming of age story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.
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Tribeca 2017: Poster + Watch Exclusive Clip from Elina Psykou’s Dark Coming-of-Age Drama SON OF SOFIA
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The family (Thanasis Papageorgiou, Valery Tscheplanow, Victor Khomut) watches TV in SON OF SOFIA. Photo credit: Dionysis Eftimiopoulos.[/caption]
Here is the poster and an exclusive video clip from Elina Psykou’s Son of Sofia, a dark, yet tender coming-of-age fairytale, that will world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
Although the clip doesn’t reveal too much of the storyline, it does provide a glimpse into the mother-son dynamic that is explored in the film
After her celebrated debut, The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas, Elina Psykou returns with Son of Sofia, a dark, yet tender coming-of-age fairytale that strikes a masterful balance between realism and dreams, much like its young lead.
The story revolves around 11-year-old Misha, who flies from Russia to Athens in the summer of 2004, to join his mother, Sofia, after having spent a long time apart. What he doesn’t know is that there is a father waiting for him there. While Greece is living the Olympic dream, Misha will get violently catapulted into the adult world, riding on the dark side of his favorite fairy tales.
Exclusive Clip
Trailer
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Tribeca 2017: National Geographic to Release Coal Mining Documentary FROM THE ASHES | Trailer
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Deborah Graham at her home in Salisbury, North Carolina. Film still from FROM THE ASHES. Credit: Jonathan Furmanski.[/caption]
From the Ashes, a feature documentary that explores one of the country’s most contentious topics — coal and the mining industry, has been acquired by the National Geographic for release in the US.
Distributed under the National Geographic Documentary Films banner, From the Ashes will have its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, followed by a limited theatrical release this summer and will air globally on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages later in 2017.
Produced by the Academy Award- and Emmy-winning production company RadicalMedia, directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio, produced by Sidney Beaumont, and executive produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger — as well as Jon Kamen, Katherine Oliver and Justin Wilkes, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies — From the Ashes captures Americans in communities across the country as they wrestle with the legacy of the coal industry, and what its future should be under the Trump administration.
From Appalachia to the West’s Powder River Basin, the film goes beyond the rhetoric of the “war on coal” to present compelling and often-heartbreaking stories about what is at stake for our economy, health and climate. The film invites audiences to learn more about an industry on the edge and what it means for their lives.
“For over a century, mining and energy companies have been privatizing coal’s profits while socializing its costs. Coal plant pollution kills 7,500 Americans a year and causes many more serious illnesses,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and co-author of the new book “Climate of Hope.” “From the Ashes shows the risks we face as a nation if we continue to rely on coal and examines how Americans in local communities, including in coal country, are helping to lead the transition toward cleaner air and stronger economies.”
From the Ashes builds on Bloomberg’s environmental philanthropic work. Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed over $100 million to move the U.S. away from coal and toward clean energy through its Clean Energy Initiative and Beyond Coal efforts. As a UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cities and Climate Change, and in partnership with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Bloomberg convened more than 500 global cities at the first-ever Climate Summit for Local Leaders at Paris City Hall during COP21. Beyond Coal, which aims to secure the retirement of half the nation’s coal fleet, has already led to the closure or phasing out of 250 coal-fired power plants and helped to prevent more than 5,550 premature deaths per year. Additionally, Bloomberg Philanthropies supports sustainability in cities around the globe through C40, a network of more than 90 global megacities, and other grants.
“Using media and technology to inform, connect and prompt action is in the DNA of Bloomberg and we’re excited to harness the power of storytelling to reach new audiences and inspire change at such a critical time in our history,” shared Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Katherine Oliver, who also serves as executive producer.
The world premiere of From the Ashes will take place at the Festival Hub at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2017, at 6 p.m. ET. Before the film festival screening there will be a special introduction by Bloomberg, a former three-term mayor of New York City. Immediately following the premiere, there will be a conversation with the director of the film, Bonfiglio, and other special guests to discuss the state of the American coal industry.
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Tribeca 2017: Watch Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell Document Their Relationship in Trailers for FLAMES
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Actors Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell make love in the bathroom. Film still from FLAMES. Photo by Ashley Connor.[/caption]
Here are the new trailers – red band and green band – for FLAMES directed by and featuring real-life couple Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell. Filmed over five years, FLAMES follows the couple from the white-hot passion of first love to the heartbreak of the bitter end.
Flames will World Premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, April 20.
High on their intense connection, the pair of artists document their relationship’s every beat, from their adventurous sex life, to their performance art collaborations, to a spur-of-the-moment getaway to the Maldives. But when the romantic vacation doesn’t exactly go as planned, the now-former couple are left to decide what to do with their film-in-progress, and for these two filmmakers, the end of the relationship isn’t the end of the story.
As they continue filming, reconstructing what happened and where it all went wrong, lines begin to blur between what was real and what was “the film”—if there’s even a difference anymore. Equal parts performance piece and penetrating rumination on the way some relationships are never finished even after they end, FLAMES is an extraordinary docu-art hybrid- a raw nerve of a film that finds within its unique idiosyncrasies and eccentricities a universally affecting manifesto of heartbreak.
The Couple: Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell
Said to be ushering in a “new grammar of narrative” by The New Yorker, Josephine Decker aims to spark curiosity and wonder in audiences while delving into the ways we classify ourselves and others. Part of Time Warner’s 150 incubator, a recent Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab Fellow and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Josephine Decker premiered her first two narrative features, BUTTER ON THE LATCH and THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY, at the Berlinale Forum 2014. The films were listed #2 and #10 on The New Yorker’s Top Ten List of 2014, played about a hundred festivals around the world (including Torino, London BFI, BAM Cinemafest), won Sarasota Film Festival’s Independent Visions Award, Tangerine Entertainment’s prize for a rising female director and many other awards. Her third narrative feature, starring Molly Parker and Miranda July, is currently in post-production, and this fall, she incubated a dance-theater-film hybrid at Princeton University with butoh choreographer Vangeline. Interested in melding unconventional movement and dance into narrative film, Josephine spent a year in Pig Iron Theater’s Advanced Performance Training to learn theater-based techniques of collaborative writing. She is using that training to create Virtual Reality narratives, including one currently with Wolf Cinema in Berlin and another developed by Kaleidoscope VR, DevLab and The Sundance Institute. Zefrey Throwell is a NYC based artist who uses the mediums of film, performance, photography and painting to orchestrate his inquisitive perspective. 1000 car horn symphonies, a weeklong strip poker critique of modern economics, a massive food fight- Throwell’s projects have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, NPR, NBC, Artforum, Art in America, Artinfo and Modern Painters. Throwell has work in The Museum of Modern Art and other major collections. His films have shown at the Cannes Film Festival and other festivals around the world. He is currently directing three feature films and organizing the longest choir in history- a 10,000 opera singer project that stretches over the alps from Italy to Germany, as well as a 10 cruise ship symphony surrounding Miami Beach. Throwell’s latest feature film “Flames” will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2017.Red Band Trailer
Green Band Trailer
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Alex Gibney’s NO STONE UNTURNED Pulled from Tribeca Film Festival
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NO STONE UNTURNED – Alex Gibney[/caption]
The producers of Academy Award-winningAlex Gibney’s No Stone Unturned has withdrawn the film from the upcoming 2017 Tribeca Film Festival citing outstanding legal issues. The film was to have its World Premiere on Sunday April 23.
The documentary takes a look back to 1994, in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland where six men were gunned down and five wounded in a pub while watching a World Cup soccer match. With a police investigation that was perfunctory at best, the case remained unsolved. In this film, Gibney reopens the original case to investigate why no culprit was ever brought to justice.
In a statement, the festival said, “We were notified today from the producers of Alex Gibney’s No Stone Unturned that there are outstanding legal issues surrounding the film and they will need to withdraw the documentary from the Festival. We are very disappointed that audiences will not be able to see the film at Tribeca and we know Alex is equally disappointed that his film will not have its world premiere at the Festival.”
The festival has removed the film from the website and refunded the customers who have purchased tickets.
The producer Trevor Birney, Fine Point Films said in a statement, “We are bitterly disappointed that as a result of ongoing legal issues relating to the subject matter of the film, No Stone Unturned (Director: Alex Gibney) is not yet ready to be screened at Tribeca 2017. No one will feel this disappointment more than the families at the centre of the film, whose quest for justice has been both inspiring and unstinting these last 23 years. It is our deepest hope that these sensitive issues can be resolved as soon as possible so that we can share this important film with the world.”
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TRIBECA 2017: Kino Lorber to Release TOM OF FINLAND Biopic in the US
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Tom of Finland[/caption]
TOM OF FINLAND, Dome Karukoski’s biopic about the life and work of Finnish artist and gay icon Touko Laaksonen, best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for release in the US.
Dome Karukoski’s Tom Of Finland is set to have its North American premiere at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival, after a world premiere at the Goteborg Film Festival in February. It’s also in high demand among LGBTQ U.S. festivals. The film’s world premiere was followed by a release in its home territory, whereTom Of Finland has taken close to $1m at the local box office.
A trailblazing figure in post-World War II erotic art, Touko Laaksonen drew thousands of fantasy-filled, homoerotic images of intensely masculine (and muscular) men, often liberated from the moral codes of their times. Quickly spreading throughout the world, these images went on to play a significant role in the transnational gay liberation movement that continues to make strides to this day, also becoming iconic symbols for generations of LGBT people worldwide.
Director Dome Karukoski is an acclaimed Finnish filmmaker with six features to his credit including The Grump (2014), Heart Of A Lion (2013) and Lapland Odyssey (2010).
The film was produced by Finnish production outfit Helsinki Film, with a screenplay by Aleksi Bardy. The cast includes Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Jessica Grabowsky, Taisto Oksanen, Seumas Sargent, Jakob Oftebro and Niklas Hogner.
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2017 Tribeca Film Festival Announces Jury – Zachary Quinto, Christina Ricci, Ruth Wilson, and More
The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival announced its jurors – comprised of a group of critically acclaimed filmmakers, award-winning actors working across film, television, and stage, accomplished producers, and cultural leaders. The winning films, filmmakers, actors, and storytellers in each category will be announced at the Tribeca Film Festival Awards ceremony hosted by Michael Rapaport on Thursday, April 27 . The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 19 –30.
The nine Tribeca juries for the film and immersive storytelling categories will award cash and prizes. Ten of the winners will also receive a work of original art by a renowned contemporary artist as part of the Tribeca Film Festival Artists Awards program, sponsored by CHANEL.
“This year’s jury reflects the diverse artistry represented in our Festival program, which has evolved over the past 15 years to showcase the breadth of storytelling across all mediums,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder, Tribeca Film Festival, and Executive Chair, Tribeca Enterprises. “Selecting winners in each category is no easy task, and we look forward to the thoughtful perspective and spirited debate our jurors will bring to the job.”
In addition to the main competition juries, the Festival also announced the all-female jury for the 2017 Nora Ephron Prize, which was founded four years ago to honor a woman filmmaker whose work embodies the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer Nora Ephron. Tribeca previously announced five jurors for the second annual Tribeca X Award, which celebrates branded storytelling at the intersection of advertising and entertainment.
Following is a list of all 2017 Festival jurors and their respective categories.
Feature Film Competition Categories
The jurors for the 2017 US Narrative Competition section are: Josh Lucas: Actor Josh Lucas is best known for his roles in the films A Beautiful Mind, Sweet Home Alabama, Poseidon, and Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, as well as on stage in “The Glass Menagerie” and “Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell.” He can currently be seen in Netflix’s The Most Hated Woman In America. Lucas is based in NYC. Melanie Lynskey: New Zealand born Melanie Lynskey’s first role came in 1994 with her award winning performance in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures opposite Kate Winslet. Since then, she has amassed a number of credits both in features and television. Her credits include Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant, Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass, Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. Denis O’Hare: Denis O’Hare is a Tony Award winning and Emmy-nominated actor. Screen credits include Charlie Wilson’s War, Milk, Dallas Buyers Club, and American Horror Story. Alex Orlovsky: Alex Orlovsky has been working as a producer for 15 years. In that time, he has produced The Discovery, The Wolfpack, I Origins, The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine, and Half Nelson, among others. Orlovsky’s films have been nominated for Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, and Gotham Awards, and have played in a number of major film festivals including Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and Venice. Stephanie Zacharek: Stephanie Zacharek is the film critic for Time magazine. She was previously chief film critic for the Village Voice and Salon.com, and was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in criticism. The jurors for the 2017 International Narrative Competition section are: Willem Dafoe: Two-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe is one of today’s most highly accomplished and versatile American film actors. He has performed in over 100 films in Hollywood and abroad. Peter Fonda: Peter Fonda is an award-winning actor who co-wrote, produced, and starred in the iconic film Easy Rider. Since his legendary role, he has continued to deliver impressive performances seen in films such as Ulee’s Gold, The Tempest, 3:10 to Yuma, and Ghost Rider. Tavi Gevinson: Tavi Gevinson is an actress, writer, and the editor-in-chief of “Rookie”, a website for teenage girls which she founded in 2011. She can soon be seen opposite Michael Cera and Abbi Jacobson in the upcoming film Person To Person, which follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day. Alessandro Nivola: Alessandro Nivola is a Tony Award nominated film and stage actor and television producer. Film credits include American Hustle, Junebug, Coco Before Chanel, A Most Violent Year, and Selma. Ruth Wilson: Two-time Olivier Award-winner, Golden Globe winner and Tony Award nominated actress Ruth Wilson has paved her way in theatre, television and film. Best known for her portrayal of the character Alison in The Affair and of Alice in Luther, and for her work on the London stage, Wilson has become one of Britain’s most lauded young actresses. The jurors for the 2017 World Documentary Competition section are: R.J. Cutler: R.J. Cutler is an award-winning director and producer. His work includes the feature film If I Stay, the documentaries Listen to Me Marlon, The World According to Dick Cheney, The September Issue, A Perfect Candidate, and The War Room, and the television series Nashville, American High, Freshman Diaries, Black/White, and 30 Days. Alma Har’el: Alma Har’el’s award winning, visionary work plunges deep into the heart of imagination and produces genre-redefining and fearless work that artistically blurs the line between documentary and fiction. In 2016, Har’el founded Free The Bid, an initiative designed to fight gender bias in the advertisement industry. Barbara Kopple: Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker. She has produced and directed over 35 films, and counting. Anne Thompson: Anne Thompson is Editor at Large at Indiewire, founder of Thompson on Hollywood, author of “The $11 Billion Year” and cohost of the weekly Screen Talk podcast. David Wilson: David Wilson is a filmmaker and co-founder of the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri. The jurors for the 2017 Best New Narrative Director Competition are: Bryan Buckley: Bryan Buckley is the director of the films Asad, The Bronze, and upcoming release, Dabka. He is known for his extensive commercial work, directing more than 50 Super Bowl spots. Clea Duvall: Clea DuVall is an actress and filmmaker. She currently stars in the Emmy award winning HBO series Veep, and recurs in AMC’s Better Call Saul. She starred in many award winning films including Argo, Passengers, Zodiac, Girl, Interrupted, and the cult favorites But I’m A Cheerleader and The Faculty. Michael Pitt: Michael Pitt is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. Credits include Boardwalk Empire, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Dreamers, I Origins, Funny Games, and Last Days. His most recent role was Kuze in Ghost in the Shell. In 2015, Michael Pitt made his directorial debut with The Driver. The jurors for the 2017 Albert Maysles Award (Best New Documentary Director Award) are: Amy Berg: Amy Berg is a critically acclaimed, Emmy-award winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker whose company, Disarming Films, writes and produces docuseries for television and long-form documentaries focusing on social justice. Alice Eve: Alice Eve is an acclaimed British actress known for her roles in Star Trek into Darkness and Before We Go opposite Chris Evans. She can soon be seen in upcoming feature Please Stand By opposite Dakota Fanning and Toni Collette and Replicas opposite Keanu Reeves. Marilyn Ness: Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy®, DuPont, and Peabody Award-winning documentary producer and director best known for her work producing Cameraperson, Trapped, E-Team, and 1971 (Tribeca Film Festival 2014). Zachary Quinto: Zachary Quinto is a film, stage and television actor as well as a producer. His credits include Star Trek, Snowden, The Glass Menagerie, Heroes and two seasons of American Horror Story. In 2008, he began his production company Before the Door Pictures, which has gone on to produce such films as Margin Call, All Is Lost, Banshee Chapter, Breakup At a Wedding, A Most Violent Year, and the upcoming film Aardvark. Shaul Schwarz: Shaul Schwarz is a conflict photojournalist turned filmmaker. He’s the director of the feature documentaries Narco Cultura (2013) and Trophy (2017).Short Film Competition Categories
The jurors for the 2017 Narrative Short Film Competition are: Udi Aloni: Udi Aloni is a filmmaker and writer whose works frequently explore the interrelationships between art, theory, and activism. His most recent film, Junction 48, won the Best International Narrative Feature award at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Berlinale, among other awards. Brennan Brown: Brennan Brown can be currently seen as Robert Childan on the hit Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, as Dr. Sam Abrams on Chicago Med, and Edward Biben on Mozart in the Jungle. A graduate of Yale School of Drama, his many film credits include I Love You Phillip Morris, Focus, and State of Play. Gilbert Gottfried: As a famed comic’s comic, Gilbert Gottfried puts aside political correctness for his live performance and fires an onslaught of jokes that know no boundaries. Credits include: a cast member on SNL, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Cosby Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Howard Stern Show, and Aladdin, as the voice of the wise cracking parrot Iago. Amy Heckerling: Amy Heckerling came from the Bronx and wrote Clueless. Sheila Nevins: Sheila Nevins is President, HBO Documentary Films. She has been responsible for overseeing the development and production of more than 1,000 documentaries for HBO, HBO2, and Cinemax. As an executive producer or producer, she has received 32 Primetime Emmy® Awards, 7 News and Documentary Emmys®, and 42 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically-acclaimed documentaries have gone on to win 26 Academy Awards®. Mark O’Brien: Mark O’Brien is an award-winning actor and filmmaker, best known for his roles in the Academy-Award nominated film Arrival and the AMC series Halt & Catch Fire. He can next be seen in the upcoming Sony/Amazon series The Last Tycoon, and a number of feature films including Kin, State Like Sleep, and Parallel. ·Jesse Plemons: Jesse Plemons is an actor. Credits include: Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Fargo, Black Mass, Bridge of Spies, The Master, and Other People. He will next appear in American Made, Hostiles, Black Mirror, and The Discovery. The jurors for the 2017 Documentary and Student Visionary Competitions are: Priyanka Chopra: Priyanka Chopra is a multifaceted personality and one of the most recognized and applauded talents in the world. With more than 50 film credits, Priyanka currently stars in ABC’s hit show Quantico and can be seen in the upcoming Baywatch movie, premiering on May 26th. Olivia Thirlby: A native New Yorker, Olivia Thirlby is best known for her work in features such as Juno, United 93, The Wackness, 2012 Tribeca film Being Flynn, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Between Us, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, and the Amazon/David E. Kelly series Goliath. Ryan Eggold: Ryan Eggold is an actor, writer, director, producer, and composer. He currently stars as the male lead in NBC’s The Blacklist: Redemption, the spinoff from the thriller drama, The Blacklist in which he also stars. Ryan has starred in various acclaimed film, TV, and theatre projects, and is also an accomplished musician, singer, and playwright. Brendan Fraser: Brendan Fraser is an award-winning actor. Credits include the Mummy franchise, The Quiet American, and Crash. He recently starred in the third season of Showtime’s award-winning TV show, The Affair. Ileen Gallagher: Ileen Gallagher produces memorable experiences and destinations, in projects ranging from new museums, corporate attractions, and citywide film/media celebrations to exhibitions, special events, the organization of archives, and beyond.Storyscapes
The jurors for the 2017 Storyscapes Competition are: Lily Baldwin: Lily Baldwin is an NYC/LA-based filmmaker and dancer, whose directing work has appeared at SXSW, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the V&A Museum London, Art Basel Miami, ShortsHD, Filmmaker Magazine, NOWNESS, Fandor, and BitTorrent. Charlotte Cook: Charlotte Cook is a Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Field of Vision, and a programmer at CPH:DOX. Julia Kaganskiy: Julia Kaganskiy is the founding Director of NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, design and technology. Michael Premo: Michael Premo is an artist, journalist, and filmmaker. Sarah Wolozin: Sarah Wolozin is director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab.Nora Ephron Prize
The jurors for the 2017 Nora Ephron Prize are: Dianna Agron: Dianna Agron was last seen in Luc Besson’s The Family opposite Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer. She will next be seen Sony Pictures Classics Novitiate which recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Agron is previously known for her roles on Glee and the feature film I Am Number Four. Joy Bryant: Award-winning actress Joy Bryant is best known as the star of NBC’s Parenthood. A former model, Bryant most recently portrayed civil rights activist Eleanor Holmes Norton in the Amazon series Good Girls Revolt and has a memorable cameo in the final season of HBO’s Girls. Diane Lane: Diane Lane has been hailed as Best Actress by the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics, and received Academy Award®, Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominations for her career work-to-date. Her next film, Paris Can Wait, directed by Eleanor Coppola will be released on May 12. Zoe Lister-Jones: Zoe Lister-Jones is an actor, writer, producer and director, currently starring on CBS’ Life in Pieces and in the indie comedy Band Aid, in which she also makes her directorial debut. Christina Ricci: Christina Ricci can currently be seen in the Amazon original series Z: The Beginning of Everything, in which she plays Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.
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AT&T to Award $1 Million Grant to Underrepresented Filmmaker at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival
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AT&T and Tribeca are teaming up to launch a new film initiative, AT&T Presents: Untold Stories. An Inclusive Film Program in Collaboration with Tribeca. AT&T will provide funding of up to $1 million for 1 talented filmmaker to create his or her film, and Tribeca will provide mentorship from seasoned industry professionals. AT&T plans to distribute the winning film across several of its video platforms, including DIRECTV NOW, AT&T’s streaming over-the-top service.
The new film initiative is a multi-year, multi-tier alliance between AT&T and Tribeca along with the year-round nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute. It will debut at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, which begins on April 19 in New York City. AT&T will serve as the presenting sponsor of the Festival for the fourth straight year.
“AT&T Presents: Untold Stories is about pushing the boundaries of storytelling, connecting our customers to new and exclusive content and celebrating diversity,” said Fiona Carter, AT&T Chief Brand Officer. “At AT&T, we’re passionate about innovation, culture and community – the same values that drive the Tribeca Film Festival. By launching this program with Tribeca, we are helping to give underrepresented filmmakers in the industry opportunities they have not had before.”
“As a champion of supporting underrepresented filmmakers for over a decade, Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute are proud to collaborate with AT&T on AT&T Presents: Untold Stories, a significant and essential program that goes beyond the generous funding,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder and Executive Chair of the Tribeca Film Festival and co-founder and co-chair of the Tribeca Film Institute. “To be able to say to a filmmaker that we are not only going to help get your important story made, but we will provide the mentoring, guidance and guaranteed distribution so it will get seen, is an incredible feeling.”
“We are excited to collaborate with AT&T on this timely and critical new initiative, AT&T Presents: Untold Stories,” said Amy Hobby, Executive Director of Tribeca Film Institute. “This program fits squarely within our year-round work at TFI – to bring stories from underrepresented filmmakers to audiences around the world – and we look forward to providing guidance to all of the talented pitch participants to help fully realize these amazing projects.”
AT&T Presents: Untold Stories kicks off April 18 with a live pitch event in New York City. Five talented and diverse filmmakers (listed below), curated by Tribeca Film Institute, will present their story ideas, budgets and film scripts to a Greenlight committee, including Fiona Carter (AT&T Chief Brand Officer), Jeffrey Wright (Actor), Anthony Mackie (Actor), Josh Deutsch (Chairman and CEO, Downtown Records), Lee Daniels (Film Producer), Len Amato (President, HBO Films) and Frida Torresblanco (Film Producer).
Tribeca will livestream the pitch event on its Facebook page for fans to follow along. The Greenlight committee will then narrow the selection to 1 filmmaker who will receive the $1 million grant. The chosen filmmaker will be announced later that day at a luncheon that celebrates inclusivity in storytelling.
The winning filmmaker will then create his or her film project, using the $1 million grant to help produce the film. In addition to the $1 million, AT&T and Tribeca will help with awards submissions, qualifying screenings, advertisements and promotion of the film. The finished film will premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and will run across several of AT&T’s video platforms, including DIRECTV NOW. AT&T will provide to the other 4 participating filmmakers a grant of $10,000 each to help achieve their respective film goals.
AT&T will host several events at this year’s Festival:
April 19 – AT&T Presents TFI Network: a part of the Tribeca Film Festival and the AT&T Untold Stories Program. Day 1 of this three-day networking event for Tribeca Film Institute grantees and other selected filmmakers will include various panels and presentations from some of the industry’s most iconic filmmakers and experts.
AT&T Presents: Untold Stories will be the focus of 1 of the panel discussions. The $1 million grant recipient will sit on the panel, along with AT&T Chief Brand Officer Fiona Carter.
April 26 – AT&T’s DIRECTV Premiere of the film, The Exception, will begin with a red carpet event. Directly following the premiere, attendees will be joined by the film’s cast at an after party.
The Exception, directed by David Leveaux, is a World War II drama about a German officer who begins a dangerous affair with a young Dutch-Jewish woman.
April 28 – AT&T’s Free Film Friday awards fans the opportunity to see exclusive film screenings for free.
Additionally, AT&T Presents: Untold Stories is the focus of this year’s official Tribeca Film Festival trailer that will be shown before every film during the Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1VKNgFuBoE
AT&T Presents: Untold Stories’ Selected Projects and Filmmakers
Forever Even Longer. Written and Directed by Andrew Perez Duarte, Produced by Navid Khonsari and Vassiliki Khonsari Film Summary: After the death of his estranged gay son, an elderly, small-town Mexican man must travel to the U.S. to meet his heartbroken granddaughter and his resentful son-in-law and confront his own prejudice. In this authentic drama that celebrates the laugh-at-life moments, Forever, Even Longer tells the universal story of intolerance and forgiveness—even after it seems too late. Bio: Perez-Duarte is a director, writer and creative producer – at iNK Stories his work includes the highly acclaimed 1979 Revolution (Sundance, SXSW, BAFTA), award-winning short Galeana No. 8, and upcoming VR experiences Blindfold, and The Helmets. Raised in Mexico, Perez-Duarte graduated from SCAD Film and contributes as a Ghetto Film School Mentor. The Hand of God. Written and Directed by Lissette Feliciano, Produced by Pricilla Anany Film Summary: Elon Edson is the greatest footballer in the world. On the eve of receiving a lifetime achievement award, he recounts belief in miracles which carried him from his mother’s death at the hands of terrorism through his perilous escape from Nigeria to Europe. Bio: Lissette Feliciano is a writer, director and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors and has a penchant for social impact narratives. Her work often includes magical realism, the moniker of idols Gael Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende. Her most recent short film With Children premiered at Cinequest 2017 and depicts a single mother’s struggle with wage inequality in the 1970’s. I’m Not Down. Written and Directed by A. Sayeeda Moreno, Produced by Derek Nguyen and Monique Gabriela Curnen Film Summary: When a middle-aged, black punk rock single dad is served an eviction notice by the greedy new landlord of his New York City tenement building, he has to fight for his way of life and save the livelihood of his family, the building’s tenants, and the character of a neighborhood that’s being threatened to vanish forever. Bio: A. Sayeeda Moreno is a proud native New Yorker. Her Futurestates.tv short, White, premiered at SXSW and screened at Tribeca and BAMcinemaFest. The feature-length script won the San Francisco Film Society Hearst Screenwriting Award. Her short, Sin Salida, aired on HBO. She earned her MFA in Film from NYU. Nigerian Prince. Written and Directed by Faraday Okoro, Produced by Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete Film Summary: After being sent to Nigeria against his will, a stubborn Nigerian-American teenager joins forces with an internet scammer, in order to return to the United States. Bio: Faraday is a New York City based Nigerian-American filmmaker. He attended Howard University and NYU Graduate Film School. Faraday’s films have screened in numerous film festivals worldwide, including Tribeca, LA Film Festival, and the Palm Springs International Shortsfest. In 2016, Faraday was included in MovieMaker Magazine’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch. The Short History of the Long Road. Written and Directed by Ani Simon-Kennedy, Produced by Darren Dean and Kishori Rajan Film Summary: Teenage Nola grew up living out of a van with her charismatic father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When Clint suddenly dies, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone. She’ll need to take the wheel for the first time – learning to own her grief, her past and her new destination. Bio: Ani Simon-Kennedy is a New York-based filmmaker from Paris. Through her production company Bicephaly Pictures (co-founded with cinematographer Cailin Yatsko), she’s directed videos for Condé Nast, Vice and Intel. An alum of Film Independent, IFP Film Week and Through Her Lens, she wrote and directed her first feature film Days of Gray in Iceland.AT&T Presents: Untold Stories’ Greenlight Committee
Fiona Carter is Chief Brand Officer for AT&T, a global leader in the rapidly converging telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) space. She oversees global brand marketing, advertising, media and sponsorships, as well as the integration of brand leadership into the company’s business strategies. She’s also a passionate advocate for female equality and strives to make a difference for women not only in the workplace, but all aspects of life. Anthony Mackie is currently one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors, known for his roles in Oscar-winning films The Hurt Locker and Million Dollar Baby, as well as recurring character ‘The Falcon’ in the Marvel universe films. Lee Daniels is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who is best known for directing the feature films Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, and The Paperboy, in addition to producing Monster’s Ball. In 2015, Daniels expanded his influence into the world of television by co-creating the Fox network’s mega hit series Empire and is currently working on his latest series, STAR, which was recently picked up by Fox for a second season. Josh Deutsch is the Chairman and CEO of Downtown Records, Immortal Music Publishing, and Downtown Events. As CEO, Deutsch oversees the operations and creative direction of all three companies and plays an active role in the recorded music, music publishing, and live events businesses. Prior to his current position, Deutsch founded Downtown Music LLC in 2006 and acted as its Chairman and CEO, overseeing the company’s recorded music, publishing, licensing, online and studio business units. Len Amato is President of HBO Films, responsible for all original movies made for the network. He started his career in New York at Tribeca Productions and was President of Spring Creek Productions prior to coming to HBO. Frida Torresblanco is the award winning producer of Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro and the winner of three Oscars, Magic, and the upcoming Disobedience, starring Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola, directed by Sebastian Lelio, and produced through her new film production company Braven Films. Jeffrey Wright is a Tony, Emmy, AFI and Golden Globe Award-winning actor. He has enjoyed an illustrious career that has spanned the worlds of theatre, film and television. Wright can be seen playing Bernard Lowe, in HBO’s Westworld. Wright has also recently played Harvard Law professor, Charles Ogletree in HBO’s Confirmation, as well as Dr. Valentin Narcisse in HBO’s critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire.