Broadway Bound ...
BY CYNDI GREENING, PHOENIX, USA — We're heading for The Big Apple this week for the Tribeca Film Festival. I've been trying to expand the number of festivals I attend and blog about. While I love Sundance, it's only once a year AND there are a number of other good festivals out there. This will be my first Tribeca. Last week, we met with a producer/mentor who said Tribeca was "over-sponsored." I thought Sundance had to be the most over-sponsored festival in North America (I'm assuming Cannes holds the European title) so I'll be curious to see how the festivals compare.
Tribeca is sure to be quite different from Sundance. For starters, it's in a very populated city. Sundance cannibalizes a very small Utah town. There are more venues for Tribeca, more family films and family events. There aren't quite as many films. They're about the same duration, about the same price. Our current plan is to capture many Q&A sessions, to interview filmmakers AND review films we screen. The key goal is to take our blog readers to Tribeca in the same way we take them to Sundance. Hopefully, it will encourage indie filmmakers to look at all the festival possibilities for their films.
One of the most exciting things for me will be seeing ALEC HART (one of the FilmZambia crew members who also happens to be my son). Alec lives in New York and works at Subvoyant, a post production house. He works with MIKE LUCIANO, a former MCC student. I'll be able to catch up with JACOB FELIX also (another FilmZambia crew member) who is now interning wtih Jonathan Demme, director of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Pamela is going to do some research on a film project she's working on. We're both going to meet with distributors and broadcasters about the films. Should be an eventful week. Stay tuned for more reports.