Final Words On Tribeca Festival 2022
Well, this Festival definitely did not disappoint. This year seemed even busier than past years!
My last day at the festival was spent in the warm sun on the rooftop of Festival HQ (aka Spring Place), then onto BMCC theater for an absolutely packed house of the upcoming Showtime docu, "Supreme Team." It was a scene that built slowly with people continuously streaming into the theater even up to 40 minutes into the presentation? Why? Because this project, which consists of three parts with only part one being shown at Tribeca, was co-directed by the legendary Queens rapper Nas. So Queens came out in full effect not only to support the film but also to listen to a Q&A featuring Nas and his co-director Peter J. Scalettar.
Part one was powerful, tight, and exciting just like any documentary should be that chronicles the rise of legendary drug lords in a major city. Sadly, however, the Q&A was led by a Billboard editor who asked nothing about how the film was made, what challenges there were, how Nas and Scalettar came together, why Nas decided to co-direct rather than produce, and a whole host of additional questions that could have provided so much more weight to the cultural ones such as, "what was Queens like during that time?" which, indeed, the film already answers. Fortunately, this lack was balanced by "Prince" of Supreme Team actually calling in live from federal prison via Scalettar's mobile to thank everyone for attending and warning everyone within hearing distance to "stay free."
The night before at this very same theater, Spike Lee took a bow with cable news personality, Al Sharpton, for the film "Loudmouth" of which the latter is a documentary subject. EGOT John Legend, surprisingly, served as executive producer. I missed this because I was watching the Lena Waithe narrative "Beauty" which is a slow, slow-moving tale that one can't help but think is inspired by some idea of how Whitney Houston and Robin Crawford got together in the early days with a few family twists thrown in so as not to copy the exact story. Sadly, it never reaches a crescendo and ends in an odd manner. Sharon Stone actually shines in a small role, however. I decided to ask a few fellow attendees what they thought to which I received the answer of "Lena always kinda leaves you wanting more," and shrugging their shoulders. Interesting. LdC rating: 💄💄💄
I wanted to make it to "Dreaming Walls" after "Supreme Team," but had a conflict in theaters. The good news is that we can all catch this Scorsese exec produced docu on Amazon Prime in just a few weeks when it makes its debut on July 8, 2022.
In reflecting, a few things:
First, I did a poll with the We Make Movies membership to see what sentiment was about the name change from Tribeca Film Festival to simply Tribeca Film (this came from a discussion with my volunteer P.A. on the Film.io interview set, Regina Perrone). Here are the results!
Very telling.
I'm surprised that more wasn't made of the "Heat" reunion, and maybe a few other things, but other than this the Festival was absolutely stellar.
I'd like to see the industry figure out a way to accept all media equally. I heard far too many rumbles about young, rude press people; difficulty accessing certain events, difficulty accessing certain red carpets. Industry should be industry. Everyone, no matter what level, makes it all work so I hope that in the post-mortem more will be addressed around this area.
Though narratives like "Official Competition" were outstanding, the trend is just exploding in documentaries, and TF programming has helped cement this fact. I believe that documentaries are so popular now not only because we as human beings are fascinating but also because as we all look to figure out our purpose after a pandemic and examine social norms, somehow looking at the stories of other real human beings help us to clarity more of what we do want and less of what we do not. Good ones help us find new value not only in the subject but in ourselves and help us to renew ourselves and our faith in the human condition.
It's been my pleasure and honor to attend this, to cover it in numerous ways, and to experience it.
Can't wait for TF 2023.