Spike Lee, Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro & Uma Thurman Kick off 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
The TriBeca Film Festival starts tomorrow and will run for the next 12 days. Founded in 2002 to help revitalize Downtown Manhattan after 9/11, the Festival is now in its’ seventh year.
This morning Robert De Niro, Spike Lee and Uma Thurman held a press conference to kick off the festival. They were confident that in the times of economic crisis “people need movies.” Spike Lee mentioned that besides McDonalds and Wallmart, the film industry is the only one making money these days.
Here at SMAC we are looking forward to several films dealing with the arts. While we are sure they will not break box office records, the following films are on our radar:
Variety
A restored 1984 feature directed by Bette Gordon. This indie narrative about voyeurism from a female perspective, a young woman (Sandy McLeod) works as a ticket taker in a porn theater, and her curiosity leads her to shadow a male patron. This film features an unparalleled collaborative team of downtown artists from the early 1980s, including composer John Lurie, cinematographer Tom DeCillo, writer Kathy Acker, photographer Nan Goldin, and the late Spalding Gray.
Blank City
Celine Danhier’s kinetic doc mirrors the urgent, anything-goes energy of her subject: the DIY independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late-’70s downtown New York. New interviews with a dizzying array of artists including Amos Poe, Bette Gordon, Debbie Harry, Eric Mitchell, Jim Jarmusch, Lydia Lunch, Steve Buscemi, John Lurie, and Nick Zedd-flow into clips from landmark No Wave films, and the still-thrilling music of the era floods the soundtrack.
Con Artist
One of the biggest names in the East Village art scene of the ’80s, “business artist” Mark Kostabi gleefully made a fortune signing and selling artworks painted by a revolving stable of hired hands. This punk-fueled docu-comedy looks at Kostabi’s ultimately self-destructive skewering of the celebrity art world and his current obsession with getting back ontop.
FILM IST. a girl & a gun
Gustav Deutsch, the maestro of found footage filmmaking, excavates old movies from archives worldwide (including the Kinsey Institute) to weave together a stunning vision of the natural and mythological order of the universe, love between the sexes, and weapons of mass destruction.
Only When I Dance
A Brazilian documentary by Beadie Finzi. Two teenage ballet dancers from the working-class favelas of Rio are determined to dance their way to a better life, but to do so they must grow up against harsh prejudice, doubt, and some of the best dancers in the world. This inspiring doc trails their path to beat the odds and follow their dream of making it in the elite world of professional ballet.
By the way, feel free to use our images from this morning’s press conference. You can find them on our Flickr account. Please make sure you credit smac.us with a link back to us.
