BY JENNI MILLER |
The Official Tribeca Film Release Slate
Tribeca Film’s exciting new distribution initiative is kicking off April 21. Check out our first 12 releases, from Festivals past and present.
Good news! Even if you live outside the NYC area, this year you can still have a front-row seat at a selection of films curated by the Tribeca Film Festival programmers.
Tribeca Film, with founding partner American Express®, is launching on April 21 with 12 films that will be available for cable users on demand. This new distribution arm of Tribeca Enterprises gives cable subscribers the opportunity to see Tribeca Film Festival features with the click of a button—at an affordable cost—thanks to providers like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and a slew of others companies. Seven of these films will premiere at the same time in NYC at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival as on VOD, and five are popular films from the festival circuit. These 12 films will also roll out to theaters, DVD, hotels, airlines, and more.These first TF releases are a diverse selection of documentaries (BMX feature The Birth of Big Air, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia), comedies (Jay Baruchel vehicle The Trotsky), and dramas (BAFTA nominee sex & drugs & rock & roll).
Tribeca Film will also be offering four free films from ESPN online through VOD. Hellfighters focuses on one of the only high school football teams in New York City, the Harlem Hellfighters, and their third season. The documentary Muhammad and Larry is the story of one of the biggest fights in boxing, the 1980 fight between 38-year-old Muhammad Ali and 30-year-old Larry Holmes. Directed by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, this film captures the lead-up to the fight and the end of Ali's reign as the best boxer in the world. Through the Fire is the story of Brooklyn high schooler Sebastian Telfair, a talented basketball player who must decide between a career in the NBA and college.
Don't miss this exciting new slate, coming to your living room!
Follow Tribeca on Facebook.
Follow Tribeca on Twitter.
Films Premiering on VOD and the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
The Birth of Big Air
Directed by Jeff Tremaine
(USA)—World Premiere
This exhilarating documentary follows the career of BMX biker Mat Hoffman, who began wowing fellow extreme sports enthusiasts and pros alike with his prowess when he was barely out of puberty. Big Air intersperses breathtaking clips of Hoffman performing tricks on his bike, like riding a 20-foot-high half pipe ramp, with interviews with pro skater Tony Hawk, legendary daredevil Evel Knievel, Hoffman, his friends and family, executive producer and photographer Spike Jonze, and others to showcase one man's dedication to this unique sport.
Climate of Change
Directed by Brian Hill
(USA, UK)—North American Premiere
Tilda Swinton narrates this environmental documentary from the producers of An Inconvenient Truth. Get inspired to do something in your community by watching what other people in disparate locales around the world have done to effect change around them, whether it's 13-year-olds in India putting together grassroots recycling programs and protests, people in Papua New Guinea who have banned loggers from destroying their rainforests, or residents of Appalachia who are working together to stop strip-mining. The critically acclaimed international artist Nitin Sawhney composed the soundtrack.
The Infidel
Directed by Josh Appignanesi, written by David Baddiel
(UK)—International Premiere
Mahmud Nasir (played by comedian Omid Djalili) isn't the most observant Muslim, but that doesn't quell his shock when he finds out he was adopted from a Jewish mother, which makes him Jewish too. Not only that, his birth name was Solly Shimshillewitz! The news turns his and his family's lives upside down. What's a guy to do? Well, first he turns to a Jewish cab driver to try and learn about his heritage in this interfaith farce.
Metropia
Directed by Tarik Saleh, written by Fredrik Edin, Stig Larsson, and Tarik Saleh
(Sweden, Denmark, Norway)—New York Premiere
This surreal animated feature is about a dystopia where underground subways crisscross Europe. Roger (voiced by Vincent Gallo) tries to avoid the Metro because he finds it disturbing, and when he's underground, he begins to hear voices. Is he just paranoid, or is there something larger—much larger—going on? Perhaps Nina (Juliette Lewis), a model who appears in shampoo advertisements, can help him get some answers in this Kafka-esque world.
Road, Movie
Directed by Dev Benegal
(USA, India)—US Premiere
Vishnu's uncle needs his giant old Chevy transported across India, and that's just the excuse Vishnu needs to avoid being roped into working for his dad selling hair oils. Along the way, he picks up a young kid, a old wanderer, and a beautiful young woman, and together they discover a wonderful secret living in the back of the old truck: a mobile movie theater.
sex & drugs & rock & roll
Directed by Mat Whitecross
(UK)—North American Premiere
Andy Serkis earned a well-deserved BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of off-the-wall rocker Ian Dury. An outsider among outsiders, Dury didn't just struggle with the typical demons of fame, but also the memories of a painful childhood and a lifelong struggle with polio. The multiple techniques used in the film, such as animation, quick cuts, music performances, and even theatrical narration by Serkis, are as stylish and engaging as the late punk rocker. With Olivia Williams, Naomie Harris, Bill Milner, and Ray Winstone.
The Trotsky
Directed and written by Jacob Tierney
(Canada)—US Premiere
Everyone rebels in high school, but not usually like Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel, She's Out of My League). This Canadian mama's boy is convinced he's the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky (nee Bronstein) and emulates his namesake every step of the way, from being arrested trying to unionize his father's factory workers, meeting an older woman named Alexandra, and even trying to start a student uprising. Unite in laughter as Leon struggles to find himself amidst his political ideals.
Independent Feature Premieres
My Last Five Girlfriends
Directed and written by Julian Kemp
(UK)
Alain de Botton's On Love gets the big-screen treatment in this smart romantic comedy. Londoner Duncan (Brendan Patricks) takes a look back at, well, his five previous girlfriends and where their relationships went off the tracks—sometimes literally, because each one is shown as rides in a theme park based on Duncan's life. Dry British wit combines with surreal whimsy in this adaptation.
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Directed and written by David Russo
(USA)
Dory's a former computer programmer searching for meaning in the universe. After he gets fired, he ends up working as a janitor at a marketing research firm with a ragtag group of fellow misfits. Little do they know that the cookies they find in the trash are more than late-night treats; they're chemically enhanced snacks that start to have really strange effects on Dory and his friends' minds and bodies.
The Swimsuit Issue
Directed by Måns Herngren, written by Jane Magnusson, Brian Cordray and Herngren
(Sweden)
A bachelor party joke turns into something more when old friends find out they make a pretty darn good synchronized swimming team. As they work on their routine, and on convincing people they're for real, they dream of becoming world champs. In the vein of The Full Monty, this comedy about family and friends will make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
Directed by Julien Nitzberg
(USA)
Deep in the heart of Boone County, West Virginia, resides an infamous family named the Whites. The descendents of an Appalachian tap dancer named D. Ray White, the extended family enjoys prescription pills, robbery, shoot-outs, the occasional stabbing, and raising hell, much to the dismay of fellow Boone County residents. Join Nitzberg as he documents the White family hijinks. Hank Williams III also appears in the doc to talk about the Whites and the heir to D. Ray's dancing legacy, Jesco White. Executive produced by Jackass' Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine.
TiMER
Directed and written by Jac Schaeffer
(USA)
Wouldn't love be so much simpler if you knew when you'd meet your soul mate? Not necessarily, as the people in this futuristic romantic comedy find out. Biology and technology meet in an implant that counts down when users will meet the person they're meant to spend their lives with. Unfortunately, sometimes one's heart and one's TiMER don't agree, as Oona (Emma Caulfield), a 30-year-old whose TiMER hasn't gone off yet, finds out when she falls for a guy (John Patrick Amedori) whose TiMER will go off in four months.
These films will be available on April 21. Check back soon to learn how to find the films on your cable system.