FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY [March 13, 2008] – In the second of three feature film program announcements, the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by American Express, today released the line-up for its Discovery and Midnight sections. The Festival will take place April 23 – May 4, 2008 in Lower Manhattan.
 

This year’s Discovery section includes 30 films, with 18 World, 1 International, and 11 North American Premieres from up-and-coming narrative and documentary directors. The Midnight section, with five World Premieres, will present a select group of genre films from emerging artists, five out of seven of the filmmakers being first-time directors, whose works are innovative, edgy and in some cases, terrifying.
 

"With so many new voices and talent in filmmaking today, it is always a thrill to be able to find exciting new artists and introduce them to our audience in our Discovery section," said Peter Scarlet, Artistic Director of the Tribeca Film Festival.
 

"The Midnight section is a great chance to catch new talent working in a variety of genres," said David Kwok, Director of Programming. "Filmmakers have launched their careers by showing their debut works in this section, and I’m sure this year will be no exception."
 

The complete list of films selected for both Discovery and Midnight follows below:
 

DISCOVERY

The films in the Discovery section introduce our audience to emerging voices and fresh and engaging fiction and nonfiction stories. The section features inspirational documentaries focusing on such diverse subjects as a senior citizen hip-hop dance team; a former Sudanese child soldier turned internationally renowned activist and rapper; and America’s oldest bank robber. The exciting collection of narrative films in this section include stories about a young Turkish girl’s struggle between following her heart or obeying her parents; four Spanish mathematicians who must solve a problem in order to save their lives; and small town Texans who live in fear of a mysterious creature who inhabits their woods. This section’s films are striking and provocative works appealing to a wide range of tastes from avant-garde to more commercial fare.

• The 27 Club, directed and written by Erica Dunton. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. After the sudden loss of a bandmate, a distressed rock star hires a geeky grocery store clerk to drive him across the country. The vast American landscape—stunningly photographed—provides solace for this unlikely pair as they make their way to New York for the funeral.
• Ball Don’t Lie, directed by Brin Hill, written by Matt de la Peña and Hill.  (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. An urban coming-of-age story that follows Sticky, a talented streetballer (Grayson Boucher) who overcomes his troubled past through his passion for the game. Based on the popular novel, Ball Don’t Lie features Ludacris, Rosanna Arquette, and Nick Cannon. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
• Bitter & Twisted, directed and written by Christopher Weekes.  (Australia) - World Premiere, Narrative. This quirky, multidimensional drama of longing and loss starts with the death of a young man and flashes forward three years to assess the toll it took on his parents, brother, and ex-girlfriend. A vivid style and nuanced performances add unusual charm to this confident debut.
• Charly, directed and written by Isild Le Besco. (France) - North American Premiere, Narrative. Fourteen-year-old Nicolas leaves the elderly couple he lives with and heads for the sea but crosses paths with Charly, a tough girl who takes him into her mobile home, where an unusual domestic arrangement evolves. As in her brilliant directorial debut 1/2 Price (TFF ’04), Le Besco movingly depicts a world without adults. French with English subtitles.
• Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, directed by Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie, written by Elie. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Just outside the French Quarter of New Orleans is a lively, long-established neighborhood that most tourists never see. Enlightening and informative, Faubourg Tremé documents the enduring legacy of one of the country’s oldest African American communities. Executive produced by Stanley Nelson and Wynton Marsalis.
• Fermat's Room (La Habitación de Fermat), directed and written by Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña. (Spain) - North American Premiere, Narrative. The walls are closing in—literally—on four brainiac mathematicians with shadowy pasts in this muchotense debut. A sexy virtuoso, a hardheaded hottie, a doleful drunk, and a middle-aged merrymaker have all been brought together by the mysterious Fermat to solve their most profound equation yet: Why is someone trying to kill them?
• Fighter, directed and written by Natasha Arthy. (Denmark) - North American Premiere, Narrative. This high-energy martial arts drama chronicles a driven high school student caught between the expectations of her traditional Turkish family and her kung fu dreams. With slickly choreographed fight scenes, Fighter is an empowering story that culminates with an emotional punch. Danish, Turkish with English subtitles. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
• Fire Under the Snow, directed by Makoto Sasa. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso spent 33 years being tortured and starved in Chinese prisons. He watched his nation ruined and his countrymen jailed or killed. Despite this, Gyatso remains unbroken, keeping the flame of his spirit ablaze. Tibetan with English subtitles.
• Going On 13, directed and written by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Dawn Valadez. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Ariana, Isha, Rosie, and Esme are young girls who were followed for four years as they navigate the precarious path to womanhood and, in Valadez’ and Guevara-Flanagan’s expert hands, breathe new life into the coming-of-age story.
• Gotta Dance, directed by Dori Berinstein, written by Adam Zucker and Berinstein. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Festival vet Berinstein (ShowBusiness, TFF ’05) turns her camera on the amazing and inspirational story of the New Jersey NETSationals, the NBA’s first senior citizen hip-hop dance team. Against all odds, this energetic and dedicated group proves that even in their golden years, they’ve just Gotta Dance! Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
• Head Wind (Baad - e - Daboor), directed and written by Mohammad Rasoulof. (Iran) - North American Premiere, Documentary. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran does its best to restrict its citizens’ access to information and media from the rest of the world. This documentary by the award-winning director of Iron Island shows how Iranians demonstrate what we’d call "Yankee resourcefulness" to stymie their censors. Farsi with English subtitles.
• Marina of the Zabbaleen, directed and written by Engi Wassef. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. In the sandy villages outside Cairo, the Zabbaleen eke out a living recycling the flood of waste pouring out of the most populous area on the African continent. But one girl—six-year-old free spirit Marina—dreams of a better life. This poetic documentary tells her story. Arabic with English subtitles.
• Milky Way Liberation Front, directed and written by Yoon Seong-Ho. (South Korea) - North American Premiere, Narrative. Writer’s block may be the least of rookie filmmaker Ryu Young Jae’s problems. His girlfriend ditched him, his first feature production is falling apart, and things are looking like they’ll only get worse in this absurd adventure from one of South Korea’s edgiest young filmmakers. Korean with English subtitles.
• Paraiso Travel, directed and written by Simon Brand. (USA) - International Premiere, Narrative.  In this recent hit at the Colombian box office, a lovesick young man (Aldemar Correa) follows his seductive girlfriend as they illegally travel from Medellín to New York. When they are separated in Queens, he begins a desperate search to find her. Featuring John Leguizamo and Ana de la Reguera (Nacho Libre). English, Spanish with English subtitles.
• Playing for Change: Peace Through Music, directed by Jonathan Walls and Mark Johnson. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. True devotees of music's uniting power, Johnson and Walls hauled recording equipment around the world in search of great music and inspiration. The result is a rousing tribute to both music and the adventurous spirit. English, Spanish, Tibetan, Zulu with English subtitles.
• A Powerful Noise, directed by Tom Cappello. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Bookended by call-to-action quotes from Margaret Mead and Mahatma Gandhi, this inspiring documentary follows three extraordinary women—in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mali, and Vietnam—as they lead day-to-day battles against ignorance, poverty, oppression, and ethnic strife. Bambara, Bosnian, Vietnamese with English subtitles.
• Run For Your Life, directed by Judd Ehrlich. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Without one eccentric first-generation Jewish immigrant from Transylvania, the New York City Marathon simply wouldn’t exist. Ehrlich’s fun, loving, and inspirational tribute to the late Fred Lebow shows how one man’s imagination, determination, and love for running created one of the world’s most popular sporting events. Part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
• Seven Days Sunday (Sieben Tage Sonntag), directed and written by Niels Laupert. (USA) - North American Premiere, Narrative. Teenage dropouts Adam and Tommek pass their days hanging out and drinking in their grim housing complex, but as grinding boredom combines with Adam’s need to prove himself and Tommek’s penchant for petty crime, the two make a bet that plunges them into shocking and sudden violence. Based on actual events. German with English subtitles.
• Simple Things (Prostye veshchi), directed and written by Aleksei Popogrebsky. (Russia) - North American Premiere, Narrative. This artfully nuanced, occasionally playful story of an anesthetist, whose daughter runs away just as he hits a rough patch with his mistress and his wife announces that she’s unexpectedly pregnant, has been widely regarded as one of the best Russian films of the past year. Russian with English subtitles.
• Sita Sings the Blues, directed and written by Nina Paley. (USA) - North American Premiere, Narrative. Using a variety of colorful animation techniques, writer-director Nina Paley wittily interweaves the story of Sita, the leading lady of the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with the story of a modern American woman struggling to keep her marriage afloat.
• A Story of the Red Hills (Lal Pahare'r Katha), directed and written by Remo. (India) - North American Premiere, Narrative. The story of a disheartened dancer and a disabled boy—both of whose lives are transformed by the magic and power of Chhou, a traditional Bengali dance of great spectacle and color—is recounted movingly, if improbably, by a renowned Bollywood choreographer. Bengali with English subtitles.
• Tennessee, directed by Aaron Woodley, written by Russell Schaumburg. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. In this intimate road movie two brothers travel to the hometown they fled as teenagers to find their estranged father. When they are joined by a spirited woman (Mariah Carey) running from her abusive husband, they begin to grow closer, and the truth of their journey comes to light.
• This Is Not a Robbery, directed and written by Lucas Jansen, Adam Kurland. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. One morning, J.L. "Red" Rountree woke, ate breakfast, went for a drive, and robbed a bank. He was 87. This is the unusual story of how this devoted family man and law-abiding senior citizen became one of the country’s most notorious serial bank robbers.
• Under Our Skin, directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Arguably the most overlooked and misdiagnosed ailment currently verging on epidemic throughout the United States, Lyme disease and the shocking controversies surrounding its identification and treatment are the focus of this provocative and often terrifying documentary.
• Waiting For Hockney, directed by Julie Checkoway. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. At 38-years-old, aspiring artist Billy Pappas is the ultimate dreamer. Checkoway chronicles the 10 years Pappas spent meticulously drawing his masterpiece in his parents' attic—and the success or failure he believes hinges on his ability to show his work to his idol, artist David Hockney.
• War Child, directed by C. Karim Chrobog. (USA) - North American Premiere, Documentary. Emmanuel Jal spent his childhood as a soldier in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. Now this rising hip-hop star is using his music to raise awareness about his homeland’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. Dinka, English, Nuer with English subtitles.
• The Wild Man of the Navidad, directed and written by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks. (USA) - World Premiere, Narrative. Based on real-life journals, this intelligent retelling of an old urban legend, shot in a ’70s-style B movie aesthetic, focuses on a Texas community terrified by a mysterious creature inhabiting the nearby woods.
• Worlds Apart (To Verdener), directed by: Niels Arden Oplev, written by: Steen Bille and Oplev. (Denmark) - North American Premiere, Narrative. The world of a dutiful daughter who’s a Jehovah’s Witness unravels when she falls for a nonbeliever. She is torn between her conscience, faith, and passion—and forced to make a choice between a love and a family that are worlds apart. Based on a true story. Danish with English subtitles.
• Yonkers Joe, directed and written by Robert Celestino. (USA) - World Premiere. A small-time con man’s search for the perfect scam is disrupted by unexpected family challenges. This heartwarming drama features memorable performances by Chazz Palminteri and Christine Lahti.
• Zoned In, directed by Daniela Zanzotto. (USA, UK) - World Premiere, Documentary. Filmed over the course of nine years, this documentary traces the remarkable journey of 16-year-old Daniel from a Bronx high school to an Ivy League university while simultaneously exploring the role of race and class in the American education system.
   

MIDNIGHT

Making for fun and memorable viewing day or night, the eclectic titles in the Midnight section offer everything from campy laughs to smart thrills. From Tasmanian cannibals to small-town suicide rings, a pan-sexual rock & roll party to psychopathic farmers, this collection of films may be shocking, or creepy, but they’re always fun.

• The Auteur, directed and written by James Westby. (USA) - World Premiere Narrative. With a body of work that includes Five Easy Nieces and My Left Nut, Italian auteur Arturo Domingo is the foremost artist among pornographic filmmakers. In this hilarious spoof, Domingo hopes to revive his sagging career by reuniting with his former lead actor and making his greatest triumph yet.
• The Cottage, directed and written by Paul Andrew Williams. (UK) - International Premiere Narrative. A kidnapping plot goes horribly awry when two brothers and their potty-mouthed hostage stumble into the wrong farmhouse in this gory horror-comedy.
• Dying Breed, directed by Jody Dwyer, written by Michael Boughen, Rod Morris, and Dwyer. (Australia). - World Premiere Narrative. Inspired by the legends of a 19th-century cannibal and an extinct tiger, this brutal horror-thriller centers on four friends who find out that something—or someone—murderous lurks in the rain-slogged Australian bush.
• From Within, directed by Phedon Papamichael, written by Brad Keene. (USA) - World Premiere Narrative. Evil comes from within in this smart, supernatural thriller, set in a small extremist evangelical town that is mysteriously afflicted with serial suicides. Up-and-coming cast includes Elizabeth Rice, Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Laura Allen (Dirt), and Rumer Willis.
• Killer Movie, directed and written by Jeff Fisher. (USA) - World Premiere Narrative. A reality TV director copes with a spoiled celebutante and a show gone haywire when a masked killer starts bumping off the crew in this slasher-movie satire from a director who did time working on The Simple Life.
• SqueezeBox!, directed by Zach Shaffer and Steve Saporito. (USA) - World Premiere Documentary. Like the weekly pansexual party it pays tribute to, SqueezeBox! immortalizes the no-holds-barred, anything-goes attitude that its denizens embodied. The legendary club where the Toilet Boys and Hedwig were born gets the ultimate rock-and-roll tribute where all are welcome.
   

Contacts for all these feature-length films can be viewed in the media section of the Tribeca Film Festival website: www.tribecafilmfestival.org.
 
Festival films screen in ten sections: World Narrative Competition, World Documentary Competition, Encounters, Discovery, Midnight, Spotlight, Showcase, Restored/Rediscovered, Galas and Special Events. Spotlight, Showcase, Restored/Rediscovered and special events will be announced on March 17.
 

VENUES AND TICKETS

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival venues include: BMCC TribecaPAC, Pace University Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Drive-in at the North Cove, AMC Village VII, AMC 19th Street East, Village East Cinema, and Tishman Auditorium at The New School. AMC is the official theater partner for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
 
Tickets for the Festival will be $15.00 for evening and weekend screenings and $8.00 for daytime weekday and late night screenings. In addition, the Festival will offer panels and a few select screenings with panel discussions for $25.00.
 
Select Passes and Packages are now on sale and can be purchased online at www.tribecafilmfestival.org or by telephone, toll free, at (866) 941-FEST (3378). Single ticket sales begin for American Express Cardmembers on April 12, 2008, for downtown residents on April 18, 2008 and for the general public on April 19, 2008. Single tickets can be bought at the Main Box Office at 15 Laight Street, online and by telephone. The 2008 Festival will continue ticket discounts for evening and weekend screenings for students, seniors and select downtown Manhattan residents. Additional information and further details on the Festival can be found at www.tribecafilmfestival.org.
 

ABOUT TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL:

Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan through an annual celebration of film, music and culture. The Festival’s mission focuses on assisting filmmakers to reach the broadest possible audience, enabling the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promoting New York City as a major filmmaking center.
 

Since its founding, the Festival has attracted over two million attendees from the and abroad and has generated more than $425 million in economic activity for New York City.
 

ABOUT THE 2008 FESTIVAL SPONSORS:

As Founding Sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival, American Express is committed to supporting the Festival, offering benefits that enhance the festival-going experience, and bringing business and energy to Downtown Manhattan & New York City communities.
 

The Festival is pleased to announce the return of its Signature Sponsors: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, AMC Entertainment, Apple, Bloomberg, Brookfield Properties, Cadillac, Delta Air Lines, Empire State Development/I Love New York, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Montblanc, NBC4HD, RR Donnelley, The New York Times, Target, Telemundo 47, Vanity Fair, Verizon and Yahoo!.
 

The Tribeca Film Festival is also honored to welcome the following new Signature Sponsors: BMCC, IFC, iShares, LG Electronics and Snapple.
 

Film stills for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival are available at www.image.net. If you are not an image.net media user yet, please register using the following referral code: 2604.