Tribeca Film Festival Archives – Page 11 of 19

2019 Tribeca Film Festival: complete list of winners

May 4, 2019

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The following is a press release from the Tribeca Film Festival:

The 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, announced the winning filmmakers, storytellers, and actors in its competition categories at this year’s awards ceremony on May 2, 2019, at the Stella Artois Theatre at BMCC TPAC. The top honors went to Burning Cane for the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) for Best International Narrative Feature, and Scheme Birds for Best Documentary Feature. The Festival awarded $165,000 in cash prizes. The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival runs through May 5.

Rania Attieh won the Nora Ephron Award and a $25,000 prize for Initials S.G. (Iniciales S.G.). The award, created seven years ago, honors excellence in storytelling by a female writer or director embodying the spirit and boldness of the late filmmaker.

Tribeca honored innovation in storytelling with its Storyscapes Award, which went to The Key, created by Celine Tricart.

“I’m so proud to see our juries reward a group of winners that is truly representative of the diversity of story and accomplishment in craft at this year’s Festival. We are particularly excited for the many first-time filmmakers the jury chose to recognize, and feel like this year’s winners signal a bright future ahead for independent film,” said Festival Director Cara Cusumano.

Awards were given in the following feature film competition categories: Founders Award for Best Narrative, International Narrative, Documentary, New Narrative Director, The Albert Maysles New Documentary Director, and the Nora Ephron Award, honoring a woman writer or director. Short films were honored in the Narrative, Documentary, Student Visionary and Animation categories.

This year’s Festival included 113 feature-length films, 63 short films, and 33 immersive storytelling projects representing 44 countries.

Screenings of the award-winning films will take place throughout the final day of the Festival: Sunday, May 5, at various venues. Specific times and ticketing information are available at www.tribecafilm.com/festival.

The winners of the Audience Awards, powered by AT&T, which are determined by audience votes throughout the Festival via the Festival app, were announced on May 4.

In addition to cash awards and in-kind services provided by sponsors including AT&T, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, CHANEL, CNN Films, and PwC, a number of the winners were presented with original pieces of art created by contemporary artists: Jane Dickson, Shepard Fairey, Stephen Hannock, JR, Eddie Kang, Jeff Koons, Walter Robinson, Amy Sillman, Swoon, and Fred Tomaselli.

The winners, awards, and comments from the jury who selected the recipients are as follows:

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Competition were Lucy Alibar, Jonathan Ames, Cory Hardrict, Dana Harris, and Jenny Lumet.

Wendell Pierce in “Burning Cane” (Photo by Phillip Youmans)

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – Burning Cane, directed by Phillip Youmans. The winner receives $20,000, sponsored by AT&T, and the art award “Bloom” by Fred Tomaselli. The award was given by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal on behalf of the jury. Jury comment: “The Founders Award goes to a voice that is searingly original. One of the jurors compared this filmmaker’s unique voice to a latter day Faulkner, Welty, Williams. We loved this filmmaker’s vision and we love this filmmaker’s inevitable brilliant future. We are honored to present this award to Phillip Youmans for Burning Cane.”

Haley Bennett in “Swallow” (Photo by Katelin Arizmendi)

Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Haley Bennett in Swallow. Jury comment: “For a sensitive, engaging performance the best actress award goes to Haley Bennett for Swallow.”

Jury special mention: “For her always surprising and deeply engaging work in Stray Dolls, Geetanjali Thapi.

Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Wendell Pierce in Burning Cane. Jury comment: “For his portrayal of a troubled, passionate Preacher the best actor award goes to Wendell Pierce in Burning Cane.”

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Phillip Youmans for Burning Cane. Jury comment: “The cinematography was bold and swung for the fences, the award goes to Phillip Youmans for Burning Cane.”

Special Jury mention: “For work that took us to the icy coasts and sweltering kitchens of rural Maine, Todd Banhazl for Blow the Man Down.”

Morgan Saylor and Priscilla Connolly in “Blow the Man Down” (Photo by Jeong “JP” Park)

Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy for Blow the Man Down. The winner receives $2,500. Jury comment: “For a stylized, thrilling story of secrets, Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy for Blow the Man Down.”

Special jury mention: “To a story of a woman finding her biological family and her logical family on the highway, Ani Simon-Kennedy for The Short History of the Long Road.”

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

The jurors for the 2019 International Narrative Competition were Gbenga Akinnagbe, Angela Bassett, Baltasar Kormákur,Rebecca Miller, and Steve Zaillian.

Saebyuk Kim and Ji-hu Park in “House of Hummingbird” (Photo courtesy of Epiphany Films)

Best International Narrative Feature – House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA) directed and written by Bora Kim.The winner receives $20,000 and the art award “Easter” by Eddie Kang. Jury comment: “In this beautiful film, a seemingly un-exceptional girl is truly seen by another human being for the first time. Through that random connection, her perspective of herself, and hence her life, is transformed. The award for Best International Narrative Feature goes to Bora Kim for House of Hummingbird.

Ji-hu Park in “House of Hummingbird” (Photo courtesy of Epiphany Films)

Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film – Ji-hu Park in House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA). Jury comment: “For a subtle performance of enormous range and complexity, the award for Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature goes to Ji-hu Park in House of Hummingbird.

Ali Atay and Haluk Bilginer in “Noah Land” (Photo by Federico Cesca)

Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film – Ali Atay in Noah Land. Jury comment: “For an emotionally powerful and truthful portrayal of a conflicted and self-destructive man struggling to make sense of his life, the award for Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature goes to Ali Atay in Noah Land.”

“House of Hummingbird” (Photo courtesy of Epiphany Films)

Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Kang Gook-hyun for House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA) directed by Bora Kim. Jury comment: “For empathetic, patient, yet specific and assured cinematography which allows us to embark on a young girl’s journey as she comes to terms with who she truly is, the award for Best Cinematography in an international narrative feature goes to Gook-hyun Kang for House of Hummingbird.”

Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film – Noah Land (Nuh Tepesi) written by Cenk Ertürk (Germany, Turkey, USA). The winner receives $2,500. Jury comment: “For its perceptive and nuanced storytelling of an estranged father and son struggling to understand the past, each other and themselves, the award for Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature goes to Cenk Ertürk for Noah Land.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES

The jurors for the 2019 Documentary Competition were Drake Doremus, Robert Greene, Julie Goldman, Andrew LaVallee, and Cheryl McDonough.

“Scheme Birds” (Photo by Ellinor Hallin)

Best Documentary Feature – Scheme Birds (Scotland, Sweden) directed and written by Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin. The winner receives $20,000, and the art award “Oil Lotus Woman” by Shepard Fairey. Jury Comment: “For its poetic, haunting depiction of compelling characters living on the edge. Every element of the film, from editing to cinematography to point of view, is superb. The filmmakers convey their voice in a unique and present-tense way. We’re proud to present the award for best documentary feature to Scheme Birds.”

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film – Cinematography by Yang Sun, Shuang Liang for Our Time Machine (China) directed by Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang. The winner receives $2,500. Jury comment: “For its insightful visual style that captures loss and uses both intimate and grand spaces to maximum effect. The images elevated a universal story to the realm of dream and metaphor. The award for best cinematography goes to Our Time Machine.

Emmanuel Sanford-Durant in “17 Blocks” (Photo by Davy Busta)

Best Editing in a Documentary Film – Editing by Jennifer Tiexiera for 17 Blocks (USA) directed by Davy Rothbart. The winner receives $2,500. Jury comment: “The award for best editing goes to a film for its profound treatment of vast amounts of honest, often raw footage. The film is structured in a way that renders some of the most affecting moments with great subtlety. Viewers are transformed over the course of the film, a testament to the choices made in its making. The award for best editing goes to 17 Blocks.”

Special Jury mention: “This brave film uses editing to reveal narrative layers that weren’t immediately apparent, challenging and surprising viewers along the way. The special jury mention goes to Rewind.”

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION

The jurors for the 2019 Best New Narrative Director Competition were Stephen Kay, Bill Keith, Justin Long, Piper Perabo, and Mélita Toscan du Plantier.

Ana (Regina Reynoso) and Lalo (Eduardo Banda) in “The Gasoline Thieves”

Best New Narrative Director – The Gasoline Thieves (Huachicolero) (Mexico, Spain, UK, USA) directed by Edgar Nito. The winner receives $10,000, and the art award “Love Trap” by Walter Robinson. Jury comment: “A coming of age story, social commentary, and at some points a revenge tale, this new director juggles each genre with equal sensitivity and truth. The film is impressively shot, with the messy and complicated inner workings of the characters’ situations reflected in the emotional camera work that has a blazing intensity. Like the movie’s central character, this movie is defined more by its heart than its swagger. We present the Best New Narrative Director award to Edgar Nito for The Gasoline Thieves. We can’t wait to see more from Edgar.”

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION

The jurors for the 2019 Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award were David Cross, Orlando von Einsiedel, and Kathrine Narducci.

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award – Scheme Birds (Scotland, Sweden) directed by Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin. The winner receives $10,000 sponsored by CNN Films, and the art award “Indigo Rocket Over Tribeca” by Stephen Hannock. Jury comment: “For a film that tells a deeply compelling story, but realised with cinematic vision and invited us intimately into the lives of the film’s characters. This film is a remarkable achievement, made even more so because it’s from first time feature directors. The winners for the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director are Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin for Scheme Birds.”

THE NORA EPHRON AWARD

The jurors for the 2019 Nora Ephron Award, presented by CHANEL, were Debra Messing, Chloë Sevigny, and DeWanda Wise.

Diego Peretti in “Initials SG (Iniciales SG)” (Photo by Roman Kasseroller)

The Nora Ephron Award – Rania Attieh for Initials S.G. (Iniciales S.G.) (Argentina, Lebanon, USA) directed by Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia. Rania receives $25,000, sponsored by CHANEL, and the art award “Alison the Lacemaker” by Swoon. Jury comments: “The film we chose is thrilling, distinct, and fully immersive. It was also something we’d never seen before. A true cinematic experience. We are elated to award this years’ Nora Ephron Award to Rania Attieh for Initials S.G.”

SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES

The jurors for the 2019 Narrative Short Competition and Animated sections were Maureen Dowd, Topher Grace, Rosalind Lichter, Hamish Linklater, Lily Rabe, Phoebe Robinson, and Jeff Scher.

Best Narrative Short – Maja (Denmark) directed by Marijana Jankovic. The winner receives $5,000 sponsored by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, and the art award “Amy Sillman” by Amy Sillman. Jury comment: “A deftly told story of a misunderstood young immigrant girl on her first day at a new school rides a line of danger and yearning innocence, challenging our assumptions and twisting the personal into the political with a grace our moment requires.”

Special Jury Mention: “This film celebrates the humanity and ingenuity of a character from the margins of society on a propulsive, fast-pedaling quest for the best tortilla in New York, The Dishwasher directed and written by Nick Hartanto, Sam Roden.”

“My Mother’s Eyes” (Image by Jenny Wright)

Shorts Animation Award – My Mother’s Eyes (UK) directed and written by Jenny Wright. The winner receives $5,000 sponsored by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, and the art award “Balloon Dog, Magneta” by Jeff Koons. Jury comment: “For its delicate, elegantly simple, breathtakingly imaginative animation and its ability to hold the heart of anyone who has a mother — whether beating in grief or in celebration. To this indelible portrait of immeasurable love, we are thrilled to give this award to My Mother’s Eyes.

The jurors for the 2019 Short Documentary and Student Visionary Competitions were Dr. Kevin Cahill, David Krumholtz, Kathy Najimy, Sheila Nevins, Agunda Okeyo, Aaron Rodgers, and Buster Scher.

“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)” (Photo by Lisa Rinzler)

Best Documentary Short –Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl (UK) directed by Carol Dysinger. The winner receives $5,000 sponsored by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, and the art award “28 Millimeters, Portrait of a Generation” by JR. Jury comment: “A revelatory tale of how skateboarding can fuel the future of dignified resistance to gender oppression in war torn Afghanistan. Told through the Innocent confessions of young girls and the steadfast dedication of their headstrong female instructors, this film shines an uncompromising and ultimately uplifting light onto righting injustice.”

Special Jury Mention: “An unflinching and delicate portrait of a loving father with a haunted past who bravely decides to stand up to the powers that be in Ferguson, Missouri in St. Louis Superman.”

Jala Hesham and Sara Abed in “Jabel Banat” (Photo by Moustafa El Kashef)

Student Visionary Award – Jebel Banat (Egypt) directed and written by Sharine Atif. The winner receives $5,000 sponsored by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, and the art award “Chrysler Building” by Jane Dickson. Jury comment: “This tale of gendered oppression and aspirant liberation paints a searing portrait of life in the Egyptian countryside. Two inseparable young women are tested on their commitment to local mores despite their growing fear of losing themselves and each other.”

Special Jury mention: “Set in rural China, this stunningly cinematic short Pearl (Zhen Zhu) follows the strife of a small family down a path of rupture and loss.”

STORYSCAPES AWARD

The 2019 Storyscapes Award, presented by AT&T, which recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology, jurors were Lisa Osborne, Paul Smalera, and Adaora Udoji.

“The Key” (Image courtesy of Lucid Dreams Productions)

Storyscapes Award – The Key (USA, Iraq), created by Celine Tricart. The winner receives $10,000, presented by AT&T. Jury comment: “This piece was the full package. Emotionally resonant, the winner demonstrates a seamless fusion of technology and narrative. The experience combines a real actor with fantastical, immersive visuals and achieves a rarity in VR storytelling with its use of metaphor to represent an ongoing, real-world crisis. Of particular note are the superbly executed virtual reality technical details, including character design, use of color, and sound design.”

TRIBECA X AWARD

Previously awarded last week were the 2019 Tribeca X Awards, sponsored by PwC. Tribeca X recognizes excellence in storytelling at the intersection of advertising and entertainment. The jurors were Nabil Elderkin, Kim Gehrig, Jason Kreher, Kinjil Mathur,Patrick Milling-Smith, and John Osborn.

Feature

“Almost Human” (Photo by Sine Vadstrup Brooker)

The winner of the Best Feature Film was awarded to Almost Human for The Carlsberg Foundation. Directed by Jeppe Rønde.

Short

“The Face of Distracted Driving” (Photo by Errol Morris)

The winner of the Best Short Film was awarded to The Face of Distracted Driving for AT&T. Directed by Errol Morris for BBDO New York.

Episodic

“History of Memory” (Photo courtesy of HP)

The winner of the Best Episodic Film was awarded to History of Memory for HP. Directed by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason for Redglass Pictures, The Garage by HP.

“The 100%” (Photo courtesy of Springbok Entertainment)

The winner of the Best VR Film was awarded to The 100% by Stand Up to Cancer, HP and Intel. Directed by Hernan Barangan for Springbok Entertainment.

AUDIENCE AWARDS WINNERS

Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid in “Plus One” (Photo by Guy Godfree)

In addition, the festival announced the winners of the Audience Awards: the audience choice for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature films, sponsored by AT&T. Plus One, written and directed by Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer, was honored with the Narrative Audience Award and Gay Chorus Deep South, directed by David Charles Rodrigues, was given the Documentary Audience Award. The winner of each received a cash prize of $10,000.

“These stories are crowd pleasers and united audiences at the Festival,” said Tribeca EVP Paula Weinstein. “Our audiences laughed their way through the screenings of the romantic comedy Plus One lead by Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid and were moved by Gay Chorus Deep South, a timely story that uses music to unite communities around LGBTQ+ rights. We were honored to world premiere these films and know audiences elsewhere will love them as much as ours did at Tribeca.”

“So many of the people who worked on Plus One met in New York, and bringing the film back to this city has been an overwhelmingly emotional experience,” said directors Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer. “We are over the moon excited by the audience response to our film and can’t wait to share it with the rest of the world when it releases on June 14th!”

“Gay Chorus Deep South” (Photo by Adam Hobbs)

“The entire reason we made this film was to bring this message of belonging of the LGBTQ community and all other communities that are considered “the other” to as many people as possible in the world and the Audience Award at Tribeca is the ultimate celebration of exactly this,” said David Charles Rodrigues. “We are honored and humbled by this award. Thank you Tribeca from the bottom of our hearts.”

The runners-up were See You Yesterday, directed by Stefon Bristol, for the Narrative Audience Award and Watson, directed by Lesley Chilcott, for the Documentary Audience Award. Throughout the Festival, which kicked off on April 24, audience members voted by using the official Tribeca Film Festival app on their mobile devices and rated the film they had just viewed from 1-5 stars. Films in the U.S. Narrative Competition, International Narrative Competition, Documentary Competition, Viewpoints, Narrative Spotlight, Narrative Documentary, Movies Plus, Midnight, This Used to Be New York, and Tribeca Critics’ Week sections were eligible.

Audience Award winners and runners-up will screen Sunday, May 5 at Regal Cinema Battery Park Theater along with the winners selected by the Tribeca Film Festival Jury, which were announced on May 2.

Plus One: 2:45 PM & 9:00 PM
See You Yesterday: 5:45 PM
Gay Chorus Deep South: 12:15 PM & 6:00 PM
Watson: 3:00 PM & 9:45 PM

For more information on all of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival films and programming, please visit tribecafilm.com/festival

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON PROJECTS RECEIVING HONORS

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION WINNERS

Blow the Man Down, directed and written by Danielle Krudy, Bridget Savage Cole. Produced by Drew Houpt, Alex Scharfman, Tim Headington, Lia Buman. (USA) – World Premiere. While grieving for the loss of their mother, the Connolly Sisters suddenly find they have a crime to cover up, leading them deep into the underbelly of their salty Maine fishing village. With Morgan Saylor, Sophie Lowe, Margo Martindale, June Squibb, Annette O’Toole, Marceline Hugot.

Burning Cane, directed and written by Phillip Youmans. Produced by Wendell Pierce, Mose Mayer, Ojo Akinlana, Karen Kaia Livers, Cassandra Youmans, Phillip Youmans. (USA) – World Premiere. Set among the cane fields of rural Louisiana, Burning Canefollows a deeply religious mother struggling to reconcile her convictions of faith with the love she has for her troubled son. With Wendell Pierce, Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan, Braelyn Kelly.

Swallow, directed and written by Carlo Mirabella-Davis. Produced by Mollye Asher, Mynette Louie, Carole Baraton, Frederic Fiore. (USA) – World Premiere. Hunter, a newly pregnant housewife, finds herself increasingly compelled to consume dangerous objects. As her husband and his family tighten their control over her life, she must confront the dark secret behind her new obsession. With Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche and Denis O’Hare.

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION WINNERS

House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae), directed and written by Bora Kim. Produced by Zoe Sua Cho, Bora Kim. (South Korea, USA) – North American Premiere. In 1994 Seoul, quiet eighth-grader Eunhee spends her time consumed by love and friendship, shoplifting, and karaoke. But it’s in her new teacher that Eunhee finds the unlikely connection that she has been desperately seeking in this touching coming-of-age drama. With Ji-hu Park, Saebyuk Kim, Seungyeon Lee, Ingi Jeong.

Noah Land (Nuh Tepesi), directed and written by Cenk Ertürk. Produced by Alp Ertürk, Sevki Tuna Ertürk, Cenk Ertürk. (Germany, Turkey, USA) – World Premiere. A son strives to honor his terminally ill father’s last wish to be buried under a tree he planted as a child, but clashes with villagers who claim the tree is in fact a holy relic planted by Noah after the Great Flood. With Ali Atay, Haluk Bilginer, Arin Kusaksizoglu, Mehmet Ozgur, Hande Dogandemir.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION WINNERS:

17 Blocks, directed by Davy Rothbart, written by Jennifer Tiexiera. Produced by Alex Turtletaub, Michael B. Clark, Marc Turtletaub, Rachel Dengiz, Davy Rothbart. (USA) – World Premiere. Using two decades of intimate home video, 17 Blocks tells the story of the Sanford family, whose struggles with addiction and gun violence eventually lead to a journey of love, loss, and acceptance.

Our Time Machine, directed by Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang, written by S. Leo Chiang, Bob Lee. Produced by S. Leo Chiang, Yang Sun. (China) – World Premiere. Conceptual artist and puppeteer Ma Liang begins work on an ambitious performance piece about time and memory. For collaboration, he turns to his father, a former director of the Shanghai Chinese Opera, who is beginning to lose his own memories. TFI Supported.

Scheme Birds, directed and written by Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin. Produced by Mario Adamson, Ruth Reid. (Scotland, Sweden) – World Premiere. As her childhood turns into motherhood, teenage troublemaker Gemma comes of age in her fading Scottish steel town. But in a place where “you either get knocked up or locked up,” innocent games can easily turn into serious crime.

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR WINNER

The Gasoline Thieves (Huachicolero), directed by Edgar Nito, written by Alfredo Mendoza, Edgar Nito. Produced by Victor Leycegui, Annick Mahnert, Joshua Sobel. (Mexico, Spain, UK, USA) – World Premiere. Propelled by a need for cash to impress a crush, 14-year-old Mexican farmhand Lalo finds himself dangerously in over his head after entering into the country’s underworld of illegal gasoline extraction. With Eduardo Banda, Pedro Joaquin, Regina Reynoso, Fernando Becerril, Pascacio López, Leonardo Alonso.

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR WINNER:

THE NORA EPHRON AWARD

Initials S.G. (Iniciales S.G.), directed and written by Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia. Produced by Ivan Eibuszyc, Shruti Ganguly, Georges Schoucair. (Argentina, Lebanon, USA) – World Premiere. An aging Argentine Serge Gainsbourg wannabe struggles with a career he can’t seem to get on track, an affair he doesn’t want, and a crime he didn’t mean to commit. With Diego Peretti, Julianne Nicholson, Daniel Fanego, Malena Sanchez, Francisco Lumerman.

SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

Jebel Banat, directed and written by Sharine Atif. (Egypt) – North American Premiere, Short Narrative. Two Bedouin sisters hide on a mountain, escaping forced marriages and embarking on a journey of freedom. With Sara Soumaya Abed, Jala Hesham, Soliman El Jebaly. In Arabic with English subtitles.

Learning to Skateboard In a Warzone (If You’re A Girl), directed by Carol Dysinger. (UK) – World Premiere, Short Documentary. Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl) is the story of young Afghan girls learning to read, write—and skateboard—in Kabul. In Dari with English subtitles.

Maja, directed by Marijana Jankovic, written by Marijana Jankovic, Adam August. (Denmark) – New York Premiere, Short Narrative. Maja, a six-year-old Serbian girl, has a difficult time interacting with the other kids—and she ends up being misunderstood and lonesome. With Selena Marsenic, Jesper Christensen, Dejan Cukic, Marijana Jankovic. In Danish, Serbian with English subtitles.

My Mother’s Eyes, directed and written by Jenny Wright. (UK) – New York Premiere. My Mother’s Eyes is a story about motherhood and loss in the abstracted world of childhood memory.

STORYSCAPES AWARD

The Key (World Premiere) – USA, Iraq

Project Creator: Celine Tricart

Key Collaborators: Gloria Bradbury

An interactive VR experience taking the viewer on a journey through memories. Will they be able to unlock the mystery behind the mysterious Key without sacrificing too much?

TRIBECA X AWARD

X Best Feature

Almost Human

Notes on the human condition by 10 scientist and a robot. Stephen Fry narrates Jeppe Rønde’s visionary science essay, where the artistic ambitions have intergalactic dimensions.

Director: Jeppe Rønde

Brand: The Carlsberg Foundation

X Best Short Film

The Face of Distracted Driving – Forrest

Tells the story of Forrest Cepeda, a 16-year-old boy who was killed in a distracted driving accident.

Director: Errol Morris

Brand: AT&T

Agency: BBDO New York

X Best Episodic

History of Memory

From Florida to India, Beijing to New Orleans, History of Memory is a documentary series about people whose lives were forever altered by the discovery, creation, or preservation of one photograph.

Director: Sarah Klein, Tom Mason

Brand: HP

Agency: Redglass Pictures, the Garage by HP

X Best VR

The 100%

An immersive experience following the harrowing and inspirational journey of Maggie Kurdirka, a ballet dancer and rising star at the Joffrey Concert Group, who at 23 years old was diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Director: Hernan Barangan

Brand: Stand Up To Cancer, HP

Agency: Springbok Entertainment

ABOUT THE AUDIENCE AWARD WINNING FILMS AND RUNNERS-UP

WINNERS:

Gay Chorus Deep South, directed by David Charles Rodrigues, written by David Charles Rodrigues, Jeff Gilbert. Produced by Bud Johnston, Jesse Moss. (USA) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. To confront a resurgence of anti-LGBTQ laws, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on an unprecedented bus tour through the Deep South, celebrating music, challenging intolerance, and confronting their own dark coming out stories. With The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Dr. Tim Seelig, Ashlé, Jimmy White

The film played in the Movies Plus section.

Plus One, directed and written by Jeff Chan, Andrew Rhymer. Produced by Jeremy Reitz, Debbie Liebling, Ross Putman, Jeff Chan, Andrew Rhymer, Greg Beauchamp. (USA) – World Premiere. In order to survive a summer of wedding fever, longtime single friends Ben and Alice agree to be each other’s plus one at every goddamn wedding they’re invited to. With Maya Erskine, Jack Quaid, Ed Begley Jr., Rosalind Chao, Beck Bennett, Finn Wittrock.

The Film played in the Spotlight Narrative section.

RUNNERS UP:

See You Yesterday, directed by Stefon Bristol, written by Stefon Bristol & Fredrica Bailey. Produced by Spike Lee, Jason Sokoloff, Matt Myers. (USA) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Two Brooklyn teenage prodigies, C.J. Walker and Sebastian Thomas, build make-shift time machines to save C.J.’s brother, Calvin, from being wrongfully killed by a police officer.

The film played in the Viewpoints section.

Watson, directed by Lesley Chilcott. Producers: Louise Runge, Lesley Chilcott, Wolfgang Knöpfler. . (USA, Costa Rica, Tonga) – World Premiere. Co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd, Captain Paul Watson has spent 40 years fighting to end the destruction of the ocean’s wildlife and its habitat. Part pirate, part philosopher, Watson’s methods stop at nothing to protect what lies beneath.

The film played in the Documentary Competition section.

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About the Tribeca Film Festival:

The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, brings visionaries and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, VR, gaming, music, and online work. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is a platform for creative expression and immersive entertainment. The Festival champions emerging and established voices; discovers award-winning filmmakers and creators; curates innovative experiences; and introduces new technology and ideas through premieres, exhibitions, talks, and live performances.

The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Now in its 18th year, the Festival has evolved into a destination for creativity that reimagines the cinematic experience and explores how art can unite communities. The 18th annual edition will take place April 24 – May 5, 2019.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Safe Spaces’ (now titled ‘After Class’)

May 4, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Safe Spaces”

Directed by Daniel Schechter

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 29, 2019.

UPDATE: “Safe Spaces” was retitled “After Class” after the movie was screened at multiple film festivals.

The dramedy “Safe Spaces” almost feels like it could have been two movies because so much is going on with the lead character, Josh Cohn, a 38-year-old adjunct professor in New York City who’s going through turmoil in his professional and personal lives. Justin Long is Josh in the movie, one of several films in which Long plays a single guy who’s unlucky in love. On the professional front, Josh’s job might be in jeopardy because of inappropriate sexual comments that he made in one of his classes. On the personal front, Josh’s beloved maternal grandmother (played by Lynn Cohen) is dying in a hospital, and he has to take shifts with bickering family members who are keeping vigil over her in her final days.

“Safe Spaces” (written and directed by Daniel Schechter) starts out showing the professional problem first. Josh teaches a creative writing class, and during a session with his students, he encourages a female student to share a personal story that might help her become a better writer. “Embarrass yourselves,” he tells the class. “Write what hurts.” When she confesses that an embarrassing sexual situation recently happened to her, Josh eggs her on to tell him and the class in detail what happened. She is very reluctant, but Josh insists that she tell, so she eventually reveals that when she was recently on a date with a guy, he asked if he could ejaculate on her rear end. (It’s described in much cruder terms in the movie.)

Instead of being mortified that he pressured someone to share this very explicit sexual information in a public setting, Josh is elated that she opened up in a candid way. That’s a red flag right there that Josh, especially in this #MeToo era, is socially clueless and has some serious issues with professional boundaries. Not surprisingly, a complaint is filed against him by one of the female students in his class—not the student who told the story, but another student who felt that Josh was being sexually intimidating and that he created a hostile environment in the class.

It turns out the student with the complaint was sexually assaulted in her past. She felt triggered by Josh’s behavior, and she no longer feels safe in his class because she thinks that he might pressure her and other female students to reveal sexual secrets too. Meanwhile, Josh is indignant because he feels that he didn’t do anything wrong. He thinks that because everyone in the class is an adult, they should have been able to handle that raw talk. His bosses recommend that he make an apology anyway, but he refuses. Several of his students then boycott his class to show solidarity to the student who complained. Josh’s job as an adjunct professor barely pays enough to cover his bills, so he’s feeling the financial pressure of possibly losing his job.

Meanwhile, Josh’s dysfunctional family is also giving him a lot of stress. His younger sister Jackie (played by Kate Berlant) is a flaky, pill-popping podcaster who unexpectedly shows up and crashes at his place because she needs a place to live. His married older brother David (played by Michael Godere) is still angry with Josh because Josh had a fling with the nanny (played by Megan Pickarski) hired to take care of David’s daughters (played by Kaitlyn and Emily Schechter), and the nanny left the job because the fling ended. David is the only person in the family to call out Josh for his pattern of irresponsible and selfish behavior. Meanwhile, Josh has begun dating a much-younger Eastern-European woman named Caterina (played by Sylvia Morigi), who likes to use dominatrix-type sexual techniques and who’s reluctant to fully commit to Josh.

Josh’s mother Diane (played by Fran Drescher) is still bitter over her divorce from Josh’s father Jeff (played by Richard Schiff), who left her for a younger woman named Sherry, who is now his current wife. Jeff has started a new life with Sherry (played by Dana Eskelson) and their bratty underage son Ben (played by Tyler Wladis), both of whom can’t stand Josh and his siblings. When Jeff was married to Diane, he was close to his mother-in-law, but since his current wife despises his first family, he’s torn about whether or not to visit his former mother-in-law before she dies. Josh and Jeff already have a lot of tension in their relationship, so the financially strapped Josh feels embarrassed when he has to ask Jeff for money to help pay his rent.

The “family problems” part of the movie is supposed to make Josh look more sympathetic, but it’s hard to feel much sympathy for a 38-year-old professor (in other words, he should know better) who uses his position of power to browbeat a student into revealing a sexual secret to the entire class. It’s inappropriate and aggressive, regardless of the gender of the student. What makes it worse is that Josh thinks the person who complained doesn’t deserve an apology. Even if he doesn’t think what he did was wrong, someone was seriously offended by his behavior, so it’s very problematic that he refuses to acknowledge that his actions hurt someone emotionally. It’s also a symptom of an arrogant sense of entitlement that comes from people who abuse their privileges.

The #MeToo movement has created a lot of resentment from people (mostly men) who used to get away with a lot of this type of behavior, and they’re quick to call people “uptight” or “too politically correct” if anyone objects to inappropriate sexual comments. This resentment is exemplified by two young male students who offer to mount a campaign on campus to defend Josh, who declines their help because he thinks it will make the situation worse.

In another conversation between Josh and another young male student, there’s an underlying “we hate politically correct culture” tone when the student complains that a story he wrote about a Jewish summer camp probably has to be changed because all of the people are white in his current draft of the story. Josh agrees, and then half-heartedly gives suggestions on who in the story could be of a different race. The dialogue in this part of the movie is written in such a cynical manner, they just might as well have come right out said, “This is what we have to go through now as white males. We have to force diversity in our work, or else we might be accused of being racist or sexist.”

What’s kind of dumb about this scene is that Josh doesn’t actually read the student’s story to see if the writing is any good. He just instantly reacts to the student’s paranoia that so-called politically correct vultures are out to get him. It’s obviously a reflection of how Josh feels about the complaint made against him in his job.

As if to further drive the point home that Josh is a symbol for “white men under siege in the #MeToo era,” the two supervisors overseeing Josh’s misconduct case are a white woman (played by Becky Ann Baker) and a man of Indian heritage (played by Samrat Chakrabarti). The white supervisor is more sympathetic to Josh than the non-white supervisor. These are not-so-subtle buttons that writer/director Schechter is pushing about how white men often see themselves when they’re accused of misconduct and how they’re judged if they offend women or people or color.

There’s an uncomfortable scene when Josh and his sister Jackie are out at a diner with their nieces, and they see the student who made the complaint, sitting at a nearby table. Jackie forces a confrontation, which makes things worse for Josh. The student naturally makes another complaint to the school, and Josh comes even closer to losing his job. He has another chance to make things right with the student. Will he do it?

Tensions in the family also come to a head when they are told that Josh’s grandmother has only a few days to live. Josh and his siblings put their squabbles aside to band together, go to their father Jeff’s home, and try to convince him to go with them to the hospital to say goodbye to their grandmother. Jeff’s wife Sherry, who’s portrayed as cold-hearted and jealous, gives Jeff an extreme ultimatum: If you go to the hospital with your children, our marriage is over. Will he do it?

“Safe Spaces” isn’t a bad movie (the best scenes are the ones with Josh’s grandmother), and the lead character Josh isn’t a bad person. He just isn’t interesting enough to care about for most of this film. If you like the type of Woody Allen-inspired movies that are filled with neurotic, privileged New Yorkers who create their own problems and seem to be addicted to personal chaos, then “Safe Spaces” is the movie for you.

UPDATE: Gravitas Ventures, which changed the name of this movie from “Safe Spaces” to “After Class,” will release the movie in select U.S. theaters and on home video on December 6, 2019.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Circus of Books’

May 3, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Circus of Books”

Directed by Rachel Mason

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 26, 2019.

“Circus of Books” is a truly unique documentary that tells the behind-the-scenes story of Circus of Books, the Los Angeles-based company that got most of its profits through gay male pornography and operated multiple stores and a production company. Circus of Books—which had the same owners from 1982 until the business closed in February 2019—was literally a “mom and pop” operation, since the business was owned by married couple Karen and Barry Mason, who are the parents of three children. Their middle child, Rachel, directed this film to chronicle the history of Circus of Books and the last days before the business shut down.

Rachel takes the Werner Herzog/Michael Moore documentarian approach of being the narrator, on-camera interviewer and one of the stars of the movie. The documentary begins by showing the history of the bookstore before the Masons owned it. The LGBTQ activist Black Cat demonstration in 1967 in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood preceded the Stonewall demonstrations in New York City by two years, but both were important events in gay civil rights that had similarities, because both were sparked by LGBTQ people fighting back against police harassment and raids of gay nightclubs.

The Black Cat nightclub and the New Faces nightclub were part of the Los Angeles gay nightlife scene in the 1960s. New Faces would eventually become the gay bookstore Book Circus. When Book Circus went out of business, the Masons took it over and renamed the space Circus of Books, which carried a wide array of family-friendly inventory, but it was outsold by what was in the adult section of the store. So how did this straight Jewish couple end up in the gay porn business?

Karen, whom many people in the documentary describe as bossy and domineering, started off as a criminal-justice journalist, who worked for publications such as the Wall Street Journal (in the Chicago bureau) and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Barry, who’s described as gentle and laid-back, used to work at the University of California at Los Angeles’ film department in the mid-1960s, when the Doors members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek were briefly students there, before the Doors became a world-famous rock band. Barry worked in special effects and had credits that included the original “Star Trek” TV series.

Barry applied his skills in special effects to invent dialysis equipment in the early years of his marriage to Karen. The couple then went into the business together to sell the equipment and were doing well financially. But then they made the mistake of selling the rights to the equipment, and they began to have financial hardships. It was during this challenging time in their marriage that Karen saw an ad seeking distributors for porn magazines. She answered the ad, thinking that it was a temporary way to make money until they could become more financially stable.

When the owner of the West Hollywood store Book Circus was facing eviction because he wasn’t paying his rent, Barry jumped at the chance to take over the business, and he and Karen changed the name of the store to Circus of Books. The business became so successful that they opened a second location in the Silver Lake neighborhood in 1985. (The Silver Lake location closed in 2016.) A third Circus of Books location opened in Sherman Oaks in the late 1980s, but lasted for only two years; it was shut down because of too many neighborhood complaints about the store’s adult content and the clientele it attracted. The Masons further expanded the business by starting a gay porn film-production company. Porn star Jeff Stryker, porn director Matt Sterling and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt are among the Masons’ former colleagues who are interviewed in the movie.

Karen describes herself as religious, while Barry says that he’s not. (Because of their differing views on religion, she calls their relationship a “mixed marriage.”) Even though she and Barry made their living from hardcore porn, Karen says she never really liked to see any of the porn that they sold. She also didn’t want to hear details about the cruising and sexual activities that were going on at Circus of Books. (In 1989, the city of West Hollywood ordered that the store shut down between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., in response to complaints about hustlers at Circus of Books.) Karen’s ability to separate her religious beliefs from her business activities is demonstrated in a scene where she goes to a convention for sex toys and looks over products in a sales-minded, detached manner. It’s almost like she’s the owner of a hardware store who’s shopping for tools and pondering the sales value of what she might buy.

Past and present store employees say that even though Karen never really watched the porn that she sold, what she did watch closely was the financial accounting for the business, and she was a strict “taskmaster” boss, while Barry was more likely to give their employees some slack if they made a mistake. In the years before the Internet changed the porn industry, business was booming for Circus of Books.

Things also began to change for Circus of Books in 1993, when the Masons were busted for transporting obscene material across state lines, due to the mail-order part of their business. The FBI got involved, but the parents kept their legal problems hidden from their three kids. Even though Bill Clinton’s election as U.S. president meant that new prosecutors were appointed to the Masons’ case, the case wasn’t dismissed until 1995. The legal turmoil that the Masons went through had repercussions on the business for many years to come.

As the director of the documentary, Rachel is shown on camera interviewing people, including Circus of Books employees; her parents; and her older and younger brothers. Viewers get to see some of their family dynamics, as Rachel (who describes herself as an artistic free spirit) tries to figure out how her parents’ unusual line of work might have affected their family. Rachel doesn’t really interrogate as much as have conversations with the people involved in the business.

On the one hand, the family is disappointed that they have to close Circus of Books—the rise of Internet porn and gay dating apps such as Grindr essentially made Circus of Books an obsolete business. On the other hand, the business was losing so much money in its last few years (plus, Karen and Barry Mason were getting ready to retire anyway) that shuttering the business is almost a relief for the family.

What viewers won’t be seeing in this documentary are explicit scenes of gay porn, nor will they see undercover video of people cruising at Circus of Books, although there are some people interviewed in the film who talk about their cruising experiences. What’s more surprising (and revealing) is how someone as conservative and religious as Karen lasted as long as she did in the gay porn business. It’s clear from watching the film that she saw the business only as a means to make money to provide a comfortable life for her family. She didn’t see the customers as “family,” only as part of the business.

That emotional detachment explains why Karen had a difficult time coming to terms with her homophobia when her youngest child, Josh (Rachel’s younger brother), came out as gay when he was in college. (By contrast, Barry was more accepting of Josh’s sexual orientation.) In the documentary, Josh talks about the anguish of keeping his sexuality a secret.

And in case anyone is ignorant enough to think his parents’ line of work made him gay, Josh reiterates that he would be gay regardless of what his parents did for a living. According to the documentary, when the Mason children were growing up, Karen and Barry apparently went to great lengths not to expose their children to the porn that Karen and Barry sold. The spouses kept the type of business they did a secret for many years from their children and people in their straight community. In the years before the Internet existed, it was easier to keep this type of secret.

Growing up, Josh was considered the “perfect” child who excelled in school, but he was afraid to come out as gay because he knew it would upset his mother. The irony is not lost on Rachel, who confronts her mother about the hypocrisy of making a living from gay customers and yet not be willing to accept that one of her children is part of the gay community too. The documentary points out that it took years for Karen to be at the place where she is now: a proud member of PFLAG, the organization for parents, families and friends of lesbians and gays.

“Circus of Books” is a low-budget film that keeps the production values very basic in telling the story. There’s no fancy editing or arty cinematography. The movie also strikes the right balance between showing touches humor but not at the expense of addressing serious topics, such as the effect that the AIDS crisis had on numerous Circus of Books customers and employees. On the surface, the movie is about a gay porn business and how it affected the gay social scene in Los Angeles. But underneath the surface, this documentary is really about how this “mom and pop” business affected the family who owned it.

Netflix will premiere “Circus of Books” on April 22, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Lucky Grandma’

May 3, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Lucky Grandma”

Directed by Sasie Sealy

Cantonese, Mandarin and English with subtitles

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 28, 2019.

Things aren’t going so well for Grandma Wong, the title character in the crime dramedy “Lucky Grandma.” Grandma Wong (played by Tsai Chin) is a feisty, 80-year-old, chain-smoking resident of Manhattan’s Chinatown, and she hates that her son wants to take away her independence by having her move in with him and his family in Brooklyn. When a fortune teller says that Grandma Wong will have a rewarding day, she heads to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Queens to try her luck at gambling.

Grandma Wong wins thousands of dollars—but then she gets greedy and thinks she can win more, so she gambles some more, and she loses all the money. While on the bus to go back home, a defeated Grandma Wong notices that the sleeping man sitting next to her has a duffel bag full of cash. Even though she sees that the man has a gang tattoo on his neck, Grandma Wong can’t resist temptation, and she steals the money.

Flush with the cash, Grandma Wong goes on a spending spree, which apparently didn’t go unnoticed by the locals. In a short period of time, she arrives home and finds two gangsters in her apartment, demanding to know where the money is. She denies knowing anything about it. One of the thugs slices his tongue in front of her to show that he’s so tough, he can withstand the pain.

Grandma Wong might have made the impulsive decision to steal the money, but she’s not a complete fool. She’s hidden the money in a place where it would be difficult to find, and she knows that the gangsters won’t kill her as long as they need her to tell them where the money is. Grandma Wong quickly decides that she’s going to need protection in order to keep the money. She goes to a rival gang and asks the leader Lao Shei (played by Zilong Zee) to help her. Grandma Wong has to dip into her stolen loot to pay for these services.

And who does the rival gang send to protect her? Big Pong (played by Corey Ha, also known as former basketball player Hsiao-Yuan Ha), a very tall (6’7”) member of the gang. Big Pong isn’t exactly an ideal bodyguard. Even though his height can be intimidating, he’s out-of-shape and doesn’t have a lot of fighting skills.

The two gangsters who broke into Grandma Wong’s apartment return to her home and try again to get her to return the money. One of the gang members gets into a scuffle, hits his head on a table, and dies. Because Grandma Wong doesn’t want to go to the police about this matter, she’s now involved with covering up the death of the gang member.

What follows is a cat-and-mouse game that involves a kidnapping, lots of violence, and an unlikely friendship that develops between Grandma Wong and Big Pong. The movie sometimes veers into slapstick comedy, but there’s enough menacing mayhem to remind people that the characters’ lives are always in danger.

“Lucky Grandma,” which is the first feature film from writer/director Sasie Sealy has some entertaining moments, especially those involving the banter between Grandma Wong and Big Pong, although the movie’s ending isn’t very original. “Lucky Grandma” is not a deep or complicated film, but it does have an underlying message that people should not be quick to dismiss or underestimate the power of a very determined and stubborn elderly woman.

UPDATE: Good Deed Entertainment will release “Lucky Grandma” in select U.S. virtual theaters on May 22, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘American Woman’

May 3, 2019

by Carla Hay

“American Woman”

Directed by Semi Chellas

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 28, 2019.

The dramatic film “American Woman” (starring Hong Chau) has the unfortunate coincidence of having the same title as another dramatic film named “American Woman” (starring Sienna Miller), with both movies about females who’ve gone missing—although each movie has very different reasons for why these females have disappeared and why people are searching for them. The “American Woman” movie starring Hong Chau and directed by Semi Chellas is the one with the world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it will be released after the Miller-starring “American Woman” movie.

At the beginning of the “American Woman” movie starring Chau, Chau’s Jenny character is being interrogated by a law-enforcement officer for a serious crime. The rest of the movie is a flashback to what led to Jenny’s arrest. We find out that Jenny is a Japanese-American who has been living in 1970s upstate New York, doing renovation work for a racist retiree named Miss Dolly (played by Ellen Burstyn).

Jenny’s background is murky, but during the course of the movie, we find out that she’s no mild-mannered fixer-upper. She’s been heavily involved in radical, anti-government activities that include bombings and robberies in the name of protests against the Vietnam War and the establishment. And she’s an FBI outlaw. Miss Dolly suspects that Jenny is hiding from the law—but Miss Dolly isn’t quite sure what crime(s) Jenny has committed—and she uses that suspicion to take advantage of Jenny by making her work long hours for below the market wage.

We see that Jenny is writing to someone named Michael, who’s in prison. Michael is part of a mysterious underground network of radicals that has committed a series of bank robberies and bombings throughout the United States. Their crime spree includes kidnapping a newspaper heiress named Pauline (played by Sarah Gadon), who’s joined the group in their criminal activities and may or may not have been brainwashed. (The Pauline character is obviously inspired by the real-life Patty Hearst.)

In Jenny’s letter to Michael, she agrees to help hide and take care of three of the group’s fugitives while they write a book that explains their political beliefs and why they’ve committed extreme crimes. Jenny knows that the underground network is financed by criminal activities, so by taking care of these fugitives, she knows that she will have to commit other crimes too. We find out later that the mysterious “Michael” in the letter is Michael Fisher, one of the leaders of the underground network, and Jenny (who also uses the name Iris) is his girlfriend, and she has a history of making bombs.

Jenny quits her job, and she buys an old car from Miss Dolly before she leaves. The fugitives are staying in Monticello, New York, at an isolated farmhouse that they’ve rented under aliases. The outlaws whom Jenny has been tasked with caring for are heiress Pauline, who’s been nicknamed “Princess”; bossy Juan (played by John Gallagher Jr.), a domineering jerk; and Juan’s romantic partner Yvonne (played by Lola Kirke), who is very passive and somewhat afraid of Juan.

In one scene in the movie, we see why Yvonne might be afraid of Juan. When Juan orders Pauline to do something, and she responds, “Don’t tell me what to do,” he hits her in the face. Jenny also has an independent streak, so she naturally clashes with Juan too, but since Juan and the rest of the group are dependent on Jenny to do their grocery shopping and other outside activities, Juan doesn’t get physically abusive with Jenny. Pauline and Jenny’s mutual dislike of Juan bonds the two women in a budding friendship, which foreshadows what happens later in the movie.

“American Woman” is not as suspenseful as it could have been, simply because the movie reveals in the very beginning that Jenny has been arrested. The film often moves at a slow pace in order to depict the isolation and secrecy experienced by the people who are hiding out from the law. There’s a tension-filled scene in the film where the owner of the farmhouse—a middle-aged man named Bob (played Matt Gordon)— unexpectedly shows up, and Jenny has to quickly make up a lie for why she is there. Later in the story, Juan threatens Jenny at gunpoint to force her to commit a serious crime, and it sets off a chain of events in the third act of the film.

“American Woman” is based on Susan Choi’s novel of the same name. The Jenny character was inspired by the real-life Wendy Yoshimura; Jenny’s boyfriend Michael Fisher is inspired by the real-life Willie Brandt (leader of the Revolutionary Army); and Juan and Yvonne are inspired by the real-life couple Bill and Emily Harris, the members of the Symbionese Liberation Army who hid out with Patty Hearst in rural New Jersey, with the help of Yoshimura.

Because “American Woman” is told from Jenny’s perspective, the other characters (except for Pauline, whom Jenny befriends) are written as somewhat one-dimensional. Even though the actors handle their roles capably, there’s a disconnect in how “American Woman” writer/director Semi Challas depicts the outlaws on screen: These characters are supposed to be firebrand radicals, but they’re written as somewhat dull and soulless. Viewers watching this movie will have a hard time believing that these outlaws are so passionate about their cause that they want to write a book about it, because the movie portrays them as lethargic and un-creative.

As the protagonist, Jenny is an introverted character, so the movie might make some people impatient to see more action taking place. This is not the kind of movie that will satisfy people who want everything to be wrapped up neatly in a tidy bow, like a crime procedural TV episode. Because the main characters in the movie are deeply unhappy people, and because we know that it’s only a matter of time before the law catches up to them, there are no real winners here.

UPDATE: Elevation Pictures will release “American Woman” on digital and VOD in Canada on June 30, 2020. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release “American Woman” on digital and VOD in the U.S. on September 15, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘I Want My MTV’

May 3, 2019

by Carla Hay

“I Want My MTV”

Directed by Tyler Measom and Patrick Waldrop

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on May 1, 2019.

The documentary film “I Want My MTV” should come with a warning that the movie is primarily the story of MTV’s first decade in the 1980s. Even with that narrow view, the film misses the mark in many areas. The documentary relies too heavily on the words of the self-congratulatory executives who founded MTV, instead of taking a more responsible, investigative approach and seeking out a more diverse array of perspectives of people who are also part of MTV’s history. The film delivers if you want a predictable and superficial ride down memory lane—commentary on artists and old music videos are expected—but this documentary glosses over and ignores a lot of MTV’s real history.

The story of MTV (Music Television) has been already told in several books, news reports and articles. The network had humble beginnings, because it had a tiny start-up budget, and many people (including a few of its early executives) thought MTV was a bad idea that would fail. MTV’s early network-identification promo video that had NASA footage of the 1969 moon landing was prompted out of necessity because the footage was in the public domain (in other words, free), and MTV couldn’t really afford a fancy ad campaign at the time. Launched on August 1, 1981, MTV started out as a 24-hour music network that initially wasn’t even available in a lot of big cities, such as New York, where MTV is headquartered.

MTV’s lack of availability on many cable systems was the impetus for the famous “I Want My MTV” ad campaign where major artists (such as Mick Jagger, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, The Police, David Bowie and The Who’s Pete Townshend) said the “I Want My MTV” slogan on camera, and urged people to call their local cable companies to add MTV to their channel lineups. Les Garland, who used to be a programming executive at MTV, takes credit for getting Jagger to do an “I Want My MTV” spot, by essentially convincing the money-minded Jagger that he would be filming a promotional video, not an ad. As a joke, Garland said he paid Jagger just $1 after the spot was filmed.

MTV’s music library also started off very small, as most of the initial videos available were from British artists (who were used to making music videos for shows like “Top of the Pops”) or American artists whose music videos usually consisted of cheaply filmed live performances with the studio recordings dubbed in post-production. The first two videos played on MTV exemplified these types of clips: the futuristic “Video Killed the Radio Star” from The Buggles (a British New Wave band) and the simple performance clip “You Better Run” from Pat Benatar, who was America’s top female rock star at the time.

Several artists who became popular on MTV in the early ‘80s are interviewed in the documentary, such as Benatar and her guitarist/husband Neil Geraldo; Idol; Sting (co-founder of The Police); Eurythmics members Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart; REO Speedwagon lead singer Kevin Cronin; and Devo lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh. Also interviewed are two of MTV’s original VJs: Mark Goodman (a radio vet who describes his MTV audition process as “a little creepy” because it was in a hotel room, not a TV studio) and Alan Hunter, a self-described failed actor who got the job, despite having a “terrible” audition and no experience in broadcasting or the music industry. (MTV’s other original VJs—Nina Blackwood and Martha Quinn—are not interviewed, although there is archival footage of all the original VJs in the documentary. J.J. Jackson, another original MTV VJ, died of a heart attack in 2004, at the age of 62.)

To its credit, the documentary does not shy away from the controversy over MTV’s programming decisions. In its first two years, the network was frequently accused of racism for not playing enough black artists. MTV’s all-white first executive team—which included John Lack, Bob Pittman, Gail Sparrow, Fred Seibert, Tom Freston, Judy McGrath, John Sykes and Andrew Setos (Garland joined MTV later, after he had a long stint in radio)—are all interviewed in this documentary. Various excuses are given for excluding top-selling black artists from MTV’s playlists in the network’s early years.

One frequently given excuse is that the original concept of MTV was that it was supposed to be a rock’n’roll music channel. However, it’s a weak excuse because among the few black artists played on MTV in its early years were non-rock acts such as Musical Youth, Eddy Grant and Herbie Hancock. Meanwhile, bigger artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Rick James and Earth, Wind & Fire were being ignored by MTV.

The documentary includes a clip from the notorious 1983 MTV interview that Bowie did with Goodman, where Bowie asks Goodman why so few black artists are played on MTV. Goodman uncomfortably explains that too many black artists on MTV might scare the audience, especially those in “middle America.” It’s an incredibly racist belief, not to mention a condescending insult that wrongfully stereotypes people in the Midwest as automatically more racist than people who live on the East Coast and West Coast. Bowie’s withering stare and curt response in the interview speak volumes of his disgust. In the documentary, a present-day Goodman admits to being embarrassed about the interview all these years later, and he offers a sheepish apology for it.

The Bowie/Goodman interview exposed the mentality of MTV executives at the time, but the former MTV executives interviewed for this documentary who were in charge of making those decisions are still indignant and in denial over their racism. It’s not too surprising, because people who want to be thought of as “liberal” and “open-minded” don’t want to admit on camera that they’ve been racist. The former MTV executives are quick to pat themselves on the back in this documentary (Sparrow calls herself and the other executives “trend-setters, risk-takers and rebels”), but they don’t properly acknowledge their old-fashioned bigoted beliefs that prevented a lot of people of color from being part of MTV in its early years.

One example of this hypocrisy is when Sparrow, with hatred still etched on her face, talks about how Rick James’ “Super Freak” video was unacceptable to MTV at the time because James reminded her of a pimp and she didn’t like the way women were portrayed in the video. Yet, she doesn’t mention that MTV was willing to play videos from numerous (white) heavy-metal bands that often showed women in much more degrading scenarios, such as barely clothed or locked up in cages. Maybe MTV executives like Sparrow just didn’t like to see a music video of a black man being a sex symbol with women of different races. James was an outspoken critic of MTV at the time for not playing enough black artists, so it’s likely that MTV also had an unofficial ban on James, out of spite.

One of the most irresponsible parts of the “I Want My MTV” documentary is how it fails to give the full story of how Michael Jackson broke the racial barrier at MTV. Pittman tries to rewrite MTV history in this documentary by saying about the racism accusations: “Michael Jackson single-handedly pulled us out of that controversy,” and that it was MTV’s idea to “start courting Michael Jackson.” He also makes it sound like MTV had the vision to play Jackson’s videos right when his “Thriller” album was hitting big. What Pittman and the documentary did not talk about was the well-documented fact that CBS/Epic Records (namely, record-label chief Walter Yetnikoff) demanded that MTV play Jackson’s “Billie Jean” video or else the record company would boycott MTV. When MTV caved in, and saw that Jackson became the network’s most-requested artist, that opened the doors for more black artists to be played on MTV.

Yetnikoff, who was not interviewed for this documentary, told more details about this controversy in his 2001 memoir, “Howling at the Moon,” as well as in several media interviews. His credible account of MTV playing Michael Jackson only after MTV was threatened with a boycott has also been verified by numerous non-MTV people in the music industry who were involved at the time, none of whom are interviewed in this documentary.

The movie mentions that as MTV’s popularity grew in the 1980s, tensions grew between MTV and record companies because the record companies eventually wanted MTV to pay licensing fees for the videos. However, this documentary did not interview anyone who worked at record companies at the time to give their perspective. Video-promotion executives, who were on the front lines of music-industry relations with MTV, are shamefully left out of this documentary. Unlike some big-name artists, these past and present record-company executives are not that hard to get for interviews, so not including them in this film just shows that these documentary filmmakers were too lazy to get this valuable insight or they just didn’t care.

And even though “I Want My MTV” addresses the issue of MTV excluding many top-selling black artists in the network’s early years, ironically, the documentary does some noticeable racial excluding of its own, since no women of color are interviewed in the documentary at all. The movie focuses primarily on MTV in the ‘80s, and gives a spotlight to a long list of artists from that era, so it’s mind-boggling that this documentary erases black female artists who had a big impact on MTV in the ‘80s—such as Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Salt-N-Pepa—by not giving a spotlight to any of these women of color.

No disrespect to Tegan and Sara (who were never really big artists on MTV but are interviewed in this documentary anyway), but there are plenty of women of color who were more influential in MTV’s history who could have been interviewed for this documentary but weren’t. The few people of color in this film who are interviewed are black men who talk about hip-hop or “Yo! MTV Raps”: Fab 5 Freddy, Ed Lover and Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniel, who says that Run-DMC was probably the first popular MTV rap act because Run-DMC incorporated a lot of rock music in its songs.

MTV’s influence in hard rock/heavy-metal’s popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s—as well as many of the genre’s sexist videos that got heavy airtime on MTV—are also addressed in the documentary. On the one hand, former MTV executive McGrath says that all that sexist content was “demoralizing.” On the other hand, she and other executives were responsible for choosing to give it so much airtime on MTV. Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” video (which shows model Bobbie Brown being blasted with a fire hose by members of the band wearing firefighter hats) is mentioned in the documentary as an example of the types of MTV-approved rock videos where women were frequently treated as nothing more than playthings and props. Poison lead singer Bret Michaels, who’s interviewed in the documentary, says the popular MTV videos that Poison made were all in good fun.

Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson offers a different perspective of how the testosterone-fueled, often-sexist hard rock videos that MTV favored had an effect on her own career. She and her lead-singer sister Ann Wilson (who co-founded the rock band Heart) became successful with Heart in the mid-‘70s, when they didn’t have to wear revealing clothing to sell records. But by the mid-‘80s, Heart’s record company was pressuring them to make sexpot videos with cleavage-baring outfits that the Wilson sisters say they now regret doing. Nancy Wilson says that a lot of that pressure was because of MTV’s preference of showing rock videos with scantily clad women.

Music-video directors are given minimal scrutiny in the documentary. Mark Pellington, an early MTV hire, is interviewed, and says he was hired even though he had no experience at the time. A few music-video directors who went on to become major film directors are barely mentioned in the documentary, such as David Fincher and Michael Bay. However, the film does talk about how Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video (directed by John Landis) was a game-changer that impacted how videos were made, as budgets became larger and concepts became more elaborate.

In addition to “Thriller,” other music videos that are mentioned as the most-influential of the 1980s include a-ha’s “Take on Me,” Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” And although there are numerous artists whose careers were boosted because their videos got played on MTV, the documentary mentions that a few artists had their careers damaged by this exposure. Billy Squier is singled out in particular, for his 1984 “Rock Me Tonite” video (in which he awkwardly dances and slithers around in a “Flashdance”-styled ripped tank top), which ruined his rock credibility, and his career was never the same.

The documentary shows that the end of MTV’s ’80s golden era was around 1987, when some of the original team of network executives and VJs began to leave. It was also around this time that MTV began introducing more non-music programs, such as the game show “Remote Control,” which had a then-unknown Adam Sandler as a cast member.

As former MTV executive Freston says in the documentary, reality TV was “a blessing and a curse” for MTV. Grammy-winning musician Jack Antonoff adds that he (just like many other people who grew up with MTV) became frustrated with the decrease in music content on MTV over the years. The documentary also interviews OK Go, Good Charlotte twins Benji and Joel Madden and indie rock twins Tegan and Sara to offer their perspectives of musicians who were toddlers or weren’t even born when MTV was launched. (By 2010, MTV removed the words “music television” from its logo.)

One of the biggest flaws in the documentary is how it barely mentions the impact of the annual MTV Video Music Awards, which launched in 1984. Many of MTV’s biggest pop-culture moments came from the MTV VMAs. Perhaps the filmmakers couldn’t get the rights to a lot of VMA footage, but that shouldn’t have prevented the documentary from giving more time to discuss the VMAs, other than a passing mention.

Because the focus of “I Want My MTV” is so heavily concentrated on 1980s-era MTV, the documentary breezes through mentions of MTV’s post-1980s programming, such as “The Real World,” “Singled Out” and “Jersey Shore.” Artists who became popular on MTV after the ‘80s are barely acknowledged, so don’t expect to see anything significant about Eminem, Nirvana, the Spice Girls, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Sean Combs, Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears or any boy bands. Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and Tori Amos are among the few ’90s-era artists who are interviewed in the documentary. It’s briefly mentioned at the end of the film that YouTube (which launched in 2005) has significantly decreased MTV’s influence, and YouTube is now the main outlet where people see music videos.

“I Want My MTV” could have been a better documentary if directors Tyler Measom and Patrick Waldrop didn’t let the film be dominated by executives who haven’t worked at MTV in years, and if the filmmakers included a wider variety of people whose careers were also significantly impacted by MTV. In order to do a truly comprehensive history of MTV, the documentary probably should have been an episodic series instead of a feature-length film. “I Want My MTV” also comes at a time when a lot of people don’t want MTV, because the network just isn’t that relevant to pop culture as it was in the 1980s and 1990s. But for people nostalgic about MTV’s glory days and looking for a thorough examination of MTV’s history, this documentary is ultimately an incomplete disappointment with a lot of valuable perspectives shut out of the film.

UPDATE: A&E will premiere “I Want My MTV” as part of the “Biography” series on September 8, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘The Quiet One’

May 2, 2019

by Carla Hay

“The Quiet One”

Directed by Oliver Murray

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on May 2, 2019.

Bill Wyman, who was the bass player for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until he quit the band in 1993, has been a Rolling Stones archivist for decades. He has shared his mementos and memories in various ways, including in his 1990 memoir “Stone Alone” and his 2001 photo book “Rolling With the Stones.” The documentary “The Quiet One” is essentially an updated, movie version of Wyman’s books—there’s plenty of great stuff pulled from the archives, but if you’re looking for a truly revealing tell-all, then you’ll have to look elsewhere.

The movie’s title comes from the image that Wyman had of being “the quiet one” in the band. During his time in the Rolling Stones, Wyman was also known for being the most aloof in the band, and he says he was the only member of the Rolling Stones who didn’t abuse drugs. That’s not news to die-hard Rolling Stones fans or anyone who’s read “Stone Alone,” but it might come as a surprise to those who know very little about Wyman. Sex is the only addiction that Wyman confesses that he had during his heyday with the Rolling Stones, but “The Quiet One” doesn’t have the braggadocio that Wyman had in “Stone Alone,” where he claimed that he bedded many more women on tour than all of his bandmates. Not surprisingly, Wyman’s 10-year marriage to first wife Diane ended in divorce in 1969.

Although “The Quiet One” barely mentions Wyman’s first marriage, the documentary offers a little more insight into how Wyman was as a divorced dad who had full custody of his son Stephen, who was born in 1962. Being a divorced father with full custody was rare in the 1970s, and being a rock star in that family situation was even more unusual. As he did in “Stone Alone,” Wyman hints that he got full custody because Stephen showed signs of neglect when the child had been living with Diane. Through home movies and photos, Stephen is seen as a constant companion to Wyman and his then-partner Astrid Lundstrom, who was in a relationship with Wyman from 1967 to 1983. Unfortunately, Stephen was not interviewed for this documentary. However, it’s clear that when the Rolling Stones temporarily moved to France in the early 1970s for tax reasons, the reason why Wyman said he hated it was because he was separated from Stephen, who lived with Wyman’s parents in England during this time.

Some of the movie’s content has been seen before in Wyman’s books and in Rolling Stones documentaries such as “Charlie Is My Darling,” “The Stones in the Park” and “Gimme Shelter.” Most of the material from Wyman’s archives are photos, audio recordings and brief snippets of home movies and off-stage band footage, such as the Stones frolicking at a hotel pool in the mid-1960s or flying on a private jet in the early 1970s. New interviews with fellow music stars Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Mary Wilson (formerly of the Supremes), Bob Geldof and Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts are not seen but are only heard in voiceovers. The other members of the Rolling Stones—lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood—did not give new interviews for this documentary. There are also many stylized closeups of someone pushing play or stop on an old audio cassette recorder, to add to the ambience of the retrospective footage.

During the first three-quarters of the movie, Wyman is shown mostly from behind, sitting in front of a computer in the Stones archive room of his home, with his voice heard in voiceovers. It isn’t until the last quarter of the movie that the present-day Wyman is fully shown on camera in new footage, whether it’s of him taking photos (one of his hobbies), puttering in his garden, or being interviewed with his third and current wife, Suzanne Acosta Wyman. (They’ve been married since 1992, and they have three daughters together.) The full reveal of Wyman in the latter part of the movie is a metaphor for how Wyman wasn’t able to fully open up until later in his life, when he was away from the Rolling Stones spotlight, and after he settled down with Acosta and started a new family with her. She’s the only romantic partner of Wyman’s who’s interviewed for this movie.

The best thing about “The Quiet One” is that it offers a thrilling journey through music history. Rolling Stones songs that are in the movie include “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Paint It Black,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Brown Sugar,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Miss You” and “Start Me Up.” There is also early footage of the Stones when they were primarily a blues covers band. Wyman’s solo career is briefly mentioned, as is his post-Stones work with the Rhythm Kings, a rotating group of musicians that play retro rock and blues. The documentary has a great selection of songs for its soundtrack, but the sound mixing is sometimes uneven. The movie also has some dramatic recreations with actors, as well as animated footage, which are production choices that sometimes annoy documentary purists.

“The Quiet One” offers a psychological explanation for Wyman’s ability to remain stoic in a mercurial, superstar band whose highs and lows have been well-documented. Wyman’s emotionally distant parents, especially his father, didn’t expect him to go beyond his financially disadvantaged working-class background. Wyman (who was born William Perks but changed his last name to Wyman after he decided to become a professional musician) says only his maternal grandmother had faith that he would become world-famous, and she was ridiculed in the family for believing in him. The combination of growing up poor and having most of his family members discouraging his dreams of being a musician led to Wyman often feeling emotionally “empty” and having lifelong insecurities over whether or not he deserved the success that came his way.

One of the most poignant moments in the movie is near the end when Wyman chokes up and tearfully remembers meeting his biggest musical hero, Ray Charles, who asked Wyman to play on his next album, but Wyman turned down the offer because he didn’t think we was “good enough” to work with Charles. Through the tears, you can feel how Wyman is reliving the experience and how he must have felt humbled, star-struck and inferior in the presence of his legendary idol. You can also sense that even though Wyman might have regretted turning down the offer, he probably would’ve had the same response if Charles were still alive and made the same offer today.

Authorized documentaries about celebrities have their pros and cons. The obvious advantage is the documentary will have exclusive access to interviews and other footage that an unauthorized documentary might be prevented from getting. The downside is that authorized documentaries often gloss over unflattering details.

The way “The Quiet One” describes Wyman’s ill-fated marriage to second wife Mandy Smith is one such example of how the documentary doesn’t adequately address the biggest controversy of Wyman’s life. Wyman says in “The Quiet One” that he fell in love with Smith at first sight, but she wasn’t old enough to date at the time. What he doesn’t mention in the documentary is that Smith was only 13 and he was almost 47 when they met. In past interviews, Smith admitted that she and Wyman secretly dated while she was underage, and they began having sex when she was 14. They got married in 1989, when Smith was 18, and they officially divorced in 1991. In the documentary, Wyman says of the marriage: “I was stupid to think it would actually work.”

Wyman’s pre-marital relationship with Smith was not only scandalous, it was also illegal for several years. In “The Quiet One” documentary, Wyman does not explain why he was sexually attracted to a barely pubescent girl, nor does director Oliver Murray acknowledge the disturbing and inappropriate aspects of that relationship, except for a brief flash of a newspaper article that mentions Wyman’s romantic interest in Smith began when she was 13. Even though Wyman appears to be an upstanding family man now, the way he pursued Smith when she was an underage child is the very definition of what a sexual predator does. Wyman’s excuse (which he’s given in his memoir “Stone Alone” and past interviews) was that Smith looked like an adult when she was 13.

Needless to say, Wyman and Smith’s illegal relationship would have absolutely had more serious consequences for him if it had been going on today. In this #MeToo era, society has been far less likely to overlook people’s misdeeds when it comes to the abuse of power and sex. Sheffield Doc/Fest in England dropped “The Quiet One” from its 2019 lineup, and canceled a post-screening Q&A with Wyman and Murray that would have taken place on June 7, after receiving numerous complaints that the movie irresponsibly covers up the serious issue of statutory rape. In its attempt to erase or minimize unsettling aspects of Wyman’s personal life, “The Quiet One” completely ignores another bizarre twist to Wyman’s relationship with Smith: In 1993, Wyman’s son Stephen got married to Mandy Smith’s mother, Patsy Smith, but the marriage ended two years later.

Wyman’s refusal to acknowledge the scandalous mess resulting from his relationship with Mandy Smith is not the only example of how Wyman may not be the most reliable narrator of his life story that he tells in this movie. The Rolling Stones famously headlined a free concert at London’s Hyde Park on July 5, 1969. The concert, which had an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people in attendance, took place just two days after former Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones had died in a mysterious drowning, which happened one month after Jones had left the band. It was also the first concert that the Rolling Stones performed with guitarist Mick Taylor, who had replaced Jones.

Unfortunately, it’s widely considered one of the worst high-profile concerts that the Rolling Stones ever performed. The Stones were ragged and out-of-tune, the band’s tribute to Jones was awkward (white butterflies were carted in to be released on stage, but most of the butterflies died in the boxes), and the death of Jones brought an air of sadness to the event. The way that Wyman describes the concert is certainly questionable. He says that it was a “wonderful concert” that went so smoothly that “it was like a dream” and there were “no drugs”—but it’s a description which simply isn’t true when it’s been well-documented that Richards and several members of the band’s entourage were strung out on drugs at the time. Fortunately, there was no real violence at the Hyde Park concert.

The same can’t be said for the Altamont festival that was held in the San Francisco area on December 6, 1969, when four people died, including a man who was stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels gang members while the Rolling Stones were performing. So much has already been written, said, and revealed about the Altamont tragedy (including in the documentary “Gimme Shelter”), that “The Quiet One” offers no new insight. Wyman, who is more comfortable dealing with facts than emotions when discussing his life and the Rolling Stones, expresses the expected remorse over the concert, but he doesn’t talk about what it was really like to go through that trauma. As with many aspects of his life, Wyman will only admit that he pushed his feelings aside to get through the situation at hand.

And that’s probably why the documentary doesn’t mention two more recent things that are probably touchy subjects with Wyman: He’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he announced in 2016. Wyman also reunited with the Rolling Stones as a guest performer for the band’s 50th anniversary concerts in London in 2012, but the reunion ended on a sour note when Wyman gave post-concert interviews complaining the experience was “disappointing” for him because the band didn’t give him enough time on stage. Wyman was subsequently not invited to be a guest performer on the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary tour, but former Stones guitarist Taylor (who was also at the 2012 London shows) was included on the tour as a guest performer.

Wyman admitted in “Stone Alone,” as he does “The Quiet One,” that because he was so different from the other members of the Rolling Stones, he often distanced himself from their behind-the-scenes antics and drama. He was in the band, but he remained somewhat of an outsider within the group. His desire to have a more “normal” life was the main reason why he retired from the band, and it allowed him to lead a more content lifestyle with his current wife and family. “The Quiet One” shows that Wyman is indeed different from the rest of the Rolling Stones, who continue to tour the world for the millions in revenue and for the huge crowds. It’s the kind of money and adulation that Wyman says he doesn’t need to be happy, so he can live life and make music on his own terms.

IFC Films/Sundance Selects will release “The Quiet One” in select U.S. theaters on June 21, 2019.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘A Regular Woman’

May 2, 2019

by Carla Hay

Almila Bagriacik (pictured at left) in “A Regular Woman” (Photo courtesy of VincentTV)

“A Regular Woman” (“Nur Eine Frau”)

Directed by Sherry Hormann

German and Turkish with subtitles

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 27, 2019.

So-called “honor killings” are part of an extremely conservative Muslim culture that teaches that it’s acceptable to murder a family member who brings shame upon the family. This type of killing is usually committed by a male against a female, and it usually has to do with the female’s sexuality. The German film “A Regular Woman” is the dramatic, scripted version of the real-life “honor killing” of 23-year-old Hatun “Aynur” Sürücü, a Turkish-Kurdish woman who was murdered by one of her brothers in 2005 in Berlin.

In the movie, she’s played by Almila Bagriacik as a woman who’s truly a victim of her circumstances. At 16, Aynur was forced into a marriage to a cousin who physically and emotionally abused her. She has a son named Can with her husband, but when Aynur can no longer take the abuse, she leaves her husband and flees with Can to Germany, where they start a new life.

It’s revealed in the beginning of the film that Aynur is a murder victim. The crime scene is shown with her dead body covered, and Aynur (who’s supposed to be speaking as a dead person in another dimension) narrates the film in voiceovers and tells the audience that one of her brothers murdered her. The rest of the movie is a series of flashbacks showing the events leading up to the murder and its aftermath.

Even though Aynur begins her new life in Berlin, she can’t really escape from her large, meddling family. Three of her brothers—Nuri (played by Rauand Taleb), Tarik (played by Aram Arami) and Sinan (played by Mehmet Atesci)—are especially offended that Aynur has rejected a traditional life as a subservient Muslim wife, and they keep tabs on what she’s been doing in Berlin. When the brothers see that Aynur has stopped wearing a hijab and has begun wearing Western clothes such as jeans and T-shirts, they feel scandalized. Youngest brother Nuri is the one who is the angriest with Aynur, especially when she begins dating a German man named Tim (played by Jacob Matschenz). Aynur and Tim end up living together, and it isn’t long before Aynur’s brothers start harassing him.

Aynur has a slightly better relationship with her brother Aram (played by Armin Wahedi Yeganeh), whom she trusts the most, and sister Shirin (played by Merve Askoy), but all of her siblings are still influenced by their extreme religious beliefs, and they have varying levels of disapproval of Aynur’s new lifestyle. Aynur has a love/hate relationship with her family. Although she knows that they think she’s an immoral harlot, she can’t quite cut herself off from them. A part of her knows they will never approve of her new life, but a part of her is in denial and thinks that they might eventually accept it.

Meanwhile, Aynur has jumped from one male-dominated environment into another. She enrolls in school to become an electrician, and she’s the only female in her class. She eventually decides to move from Berlin to Freiburg, shortly after she turns 23. Because “A Regular Woman” reveals in the beginning of the film that Aynur is going to be murdered by one of her brothers, the movie sacrifices a lot of suspense that could have been experienced by people who don’t know what happened in real life. (Her murder was big news in Germany, but not well-known in many other countries.) Therefore, the first and second acts of the film are basically a countdown to the heinous crime.

What the movie doesn’t reveal until the third act is what happened to the murderer, who else knew about the crime before it happened, and who ended up being punished for it. “A Regular Woman” director Sherry Hormann does a capable job of telling Aynur’s story, while actress Bagriacik does a believable and sympathetic portrayal of a young woman trying to find her identity in the midst of this family turmoil.

This movie is not a judgment against the Muslim religion but an unflinching critique of anyone who devalues women’s lives or treats women as always inferior to men. Unfortunately, there are so many movies and TV shows being made about women who are murdered, that “A Regular Woman” might get lost in this over-saturation. What’s even more tragic is that these stories are all too often based on what happened in real life.

UPDATE: Corinth Films will release “A Regular Woman” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on June 26, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘All I Can Say’

May 2, 2019

by Carla Hay

“All I Can Say”

Directed by Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould, Colleen Hennessy and Shannon Hoon

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 26, 2019.

The documentary “All I Can Say” gets its title from the first line of “No Rain,” the biggest hit song from Blind Melon, the rock band that released only two studio albums when lead singer Shannon Hoon died of a cocaine overdose in 1995, at the age of 28. Unlike most documentaries, which combine archival footage with new interviews, “All I Can Say” consists entirely of footage that Hoon filmed of his life from 1990 to 1995, the years when Blind Melon existed with Hoon as lead singer. Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessy (who are credited as co-directors) assembled the footage and made it into this film.

The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival has the world premieres of three documentaries about lead singers of rock bands who had untimely, tragic deaths in the 1990s, and all three men left behind a toddler or infant child to grow up without their father. The documentaries are “All I Can Say”; “Sublime” (whose lead singer Bradley Nowell died in 1996 of a heroin overdose); and “Mystify: Michael Hutchence” (about INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997). “All I Can Say” is the most unique of this trio of movies, simply because it’s filmed from a first-person perspective with no outside commentary or current footage. There are voiceovers, but they are of interviews that Hoon did during the five-year period in which the documentary footage was filmed.

Almost all of the footage in “All I Can Say” is shown in chronological order, but it begins on a chilling note, with the last footage that Hoon filmed of himself. It shows him in a New Orleans hotel room, talking on the phone to an unidentified person, on October 21, 1995, the day that he died. Before this final footage can be seen in its entirety, the movie then rewinds to 1990, when Hoon was living in Los Angeles as a struggling musician, but also going back home to visit family in Indiana, where he grew up in the suburban cities of Lafayette and Dayton.

It’s clear from these first few scenes that even before he was famous, Hoon was a self-described troublemaking rebel who couldn’t wait to get out of Indiana to become a rock star. He had drug problems and arrests before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream. He also had a high-school sweetheart named Lisa Crouse, who was in a relationship with him during the time all of this footage was filmed.

It was while in Los Angeles that Hoon met the musicians who would become the other members of Blind Melon: lead guitarist Rogers Stevens, rhythm guitarist Christopher Thorn, bassist Brad Smith and drummer Glen Graham. The band’s name was inspired by the nickname that stoner hippies gave themselves in Graham and Smith’s home state of Mississippi. But it was Hoon’s Indiana roots that proved to be a major factor in Blind Melon’s career, because Guns N’Roses lead singer Axl Rose, whose hometown was Lafayette, knew Hoon’s half-sister Anna from high school.

Guns N’Roses was one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, and Hoon became friends with Rose in Los Angeles. Hoon did guest backup vocals on several Guns N’Roses songs (including “Don’t Cry” and “The Garden”) that would be released on Guns N’Roses’ 1991 albums “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” There’s footage in the documentary of Hoon with Guns N’Roses at the Record Plant recording studio in Los Angeles.

Hoon’s prominent appearance in the “Don’t Cry” video catapulted him into the spotlight, and it became the catalyst for a quickie route to Blind Melon signing with Capitol Records, at a time when Blind Melon didn’t even have enough original songs for a showcase. The documentary has footage of Blind Melon recording the band’s 1992 self-titled debut album, including signature tune “No Rain.” There’s also footage of Hoon watching the 1992 Los Angeles riots on TV.

The documentary shows that Hoon’s heavy drug use was ongoing throughout the period of time that this movie was filmed. In one scene, he holds up a bag of psychedelic mushrooms. In other scene, he and Stevens are seen doing cocaine on Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. In other scene, a coked-out Hoon is talking about being awake for several days. There’s also a hint that Hoon’s substance-abuse problems were probably passed down from a previous generation, since there’s a scene of him on the phone with his father after his father was arrested for DUI.

Blind Melon’s self-titled debut album was a big hit (selling 4 million copies in the U.S. alone), and it remains the band’s best-selling album, known for the singles “No Rain,” “Tones of Home,” “I Wonder” and “Change.” But that quick success came at a price, because Blind Melon became known as the “bee girl” band, which was an image the band ended up hating. First, the album cover was of drummer Graham’s younger sister Georgia as a child, dressed as a bee when she was in a school play. Then, Blind Melon’s “No Rain” video prominently featured another child—actress Heather DeLoach—dressed in a similar bee costume.

The “No Rain” video, directed by Samuel Bayer (who also directed Nirvana’s iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video), has the concept of a lonely bee girl who is rejected and ridiculed by society until she walks into an open field where she finds that there are other bee people just like her. Blind Melon is shown performing in the field, but “Bee Girl” DeLoach actually ends up being a scene-stealer in the video. For a while, she became a minor celebrity in real life. It’s obvious that the “bee girl” image was starting to annoy the band, because Blind Melon was constantly asked about it in interviews. In one such interview that’s shown in the documentary, Hoon says with an exasperated voice, “The bee is bigger than the band.”

Another major fame-related issue that Blind Melon had was the lead singer got most of the attention—and that didn’t sit well with the rest of the band. (It’s a common issue with most famous bands.) Blind Melon was on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1993 (when being on the cover of Rolling Stone was still a big deal), and the documentary shows how that cover caused a lot of tension in the band behind the scenes. Rolling Stone originally wanted only Hoon on the cover, but the other band members insisted that they be on the cover too.

The documentary shows video footage that Hoon secretly recorded of the band members talking about him when he wasn’t in the room. “All I Can Say” also shows Blind Melon’s photo session for Rolling Stone—all the band members were completely naked—and the cover photo ended up showing Hoon, front and center, in pig-tailed braids. The documentary also shows Stevens’ giddy and happy reaction to seeing the magazine cover for the first time.

“All I Can Say” also shows a mischievous, devil-may-care side to Hoon, such as a scene of him delivering pizza on-stage naked, a scene of him trying to channel the Beatles while walking on London’s famous Abbey Road, and a full-frontal nude scene of him filming himself completely naked in front of a bathroom mirror. There are also a few rock-star diva moments, such as when Hoon taunts a security guard backstage at a concert for some real or perceived conflict. Hoon treats the guard in a condescending manner, essentially saying, “I dare you to pick a fight with me, but you won’t, because I’m untouchable.”

Hoon was arrested for indecent exposure in 1993 for urinating on a fan during a Blind Melon concert in Vancouver, but that footage isn’t in the documentary, although the arrest is briefly mentioned in a TV news report that Hoon filmed. Hoon was also arrested in 1995 in New Orleans for disorderly conduct. That arrest isn’t shown in the movie either.

Since most people watching this movie know how Hoon died, there’s a sense of impending doom when watching “All I Can Say”—and there are plenty of signs that despite the fame and success, Hoon was deeply troubled and immersed in drug addiction. In one scene, he has a spoon that looks like it’s dripping with melted heroin. In another scene, he openly talks about doing smack. Hoon’s drug addiction was well-known to people in the industry and to Blind Melon fans, and he had multiple stints in rehab. The rehab stints are obviously not in the movie, but the documentary includes footage of Hoon getting a message from Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready asking for Hoon’s advice on rehab.

Hoon’s emotional turmoil must have also been compounded by a suicide that he and other band members witnessed after one of Blind Melon’s shows at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, where a woman in her 20s jumped to her death at a nearby hotel. (Blind Melon’s song “St. Andrew’s Fall” on the band’s 1995 second album, “Soup,” is about that horrifying experience.) In the documentary, Hoon is seen confessing that witnessing the suicide was the hardest moment for him in the band.

Other haunting footage is of Hoon watching TV news about the suicide of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain (who died in 1994 at the age of 27), and later commenting about Cobain’s death in an interview: “A lot of people are hurting, including his little girl.” The irony is that one year later, Hoon would also leave his own little girl behind by tragically dying. Hoon and Crouse welcomed their daughter, Nico, on July 11, 1995. The documentary has footage of Hoon finding out he was going to be father, seeing ultrasounds, the birth of Nico, and Hoon being a loving and affectionate father to Nico.

One month after the birth of Nico, Blind Melon’s second album, “Soup,” was released, and it was the band’s sophomore slump. Even though there’s a scene where a band member jokes that Blind Melon isn’t that popular anymore, the band’s big decline in sales was obviously a blow to the band’s confidence. And although Hoon didn’t reveal on camera how this career decline affected him, there’s one scene in the movie that clearly shows how depressed he was.

At home celebrating his 28th birthday, Hoon is seen with Crouse and Nico, who are seated at a table with him. A birthday cake is on the table, and while Crouse is smiling and singing “Happy Birthday,” Hoon sits there sadly, deep in his own thoughts. It’s impossible to know if Hoon’s personal problems or career problems (or both) were weighing him down at that moment, but it’s obvious that being surrounded by his closest loved ones on his birthday wasn’t making him happy.

We’ll never know what Hoon would be doing if he were alive today. Blind Melon’s third album, “Nico,” was released in 1996, and featured songs the band had already recorded with Hoon. After going on hiatus, Blind Melon regrouped in 2006 with new lead singer Travis Warren. But in that five-year period when Hoon experienced his meteoric rise to stardom, we get to see his perspective in “All I Can Say” as a talented but self-destructive person who found out that fame wasn’t the answer to his problems.

Hoon might have escaped from Indiana, but he couldn’t escape from himself. The tragedy is that Hoon left behind a child who didn’t know what it was like to grow up with her father. But at least she can see from this footage that she was adored by him in the short time that he was in her life, and he left behind a musical legacy that affects people who are fans of Blind Melon’s early music.

UPDATE: Oscilloscope Laboratories will release “All I Can Say” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on June 26, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Devil’s Pie – D’Angelo’

May 2, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Devil’s Pie – D’Angelo”

Directed by Carine Bjilsma

Back in the mid-to-late ‘90s, the media singled out a select number of rising R&B artists and labeled them as part of a “neo-soul” movement—artists releasing music that had something more interesting to say than bump’n’grind of acts like Bobby Brown or Jodeci or safe crossover acts like Boyz II Men or Brandy. The so-called “neo-soul” artists included D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, Angie Stone and Macy Gray. D’Angelo’s first album, 1995’s “Brown Sugar,” was a critical and commercial success. His follow-up was even bigger and remains his best-selling album. By the time D’Angelo’s Grammy-winning, chart-topping second album, “Voodoo,” was released in 2000, he was on a hot streak. And he became a bona fide sex symbol, thanks largely to his naked “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video.

But then, fame, alcohol and drugs took their toll on D’Angelo (whose real name is Michael Eugene Archer), and he went on a very long hiatus. It took 14 years before his third album (2014’s “Black Messiah”) was released. D’Angelo went on a world tour in 2015 called “The Second Coming” in support of the album. The documentary “Devil’s Pie – D’Angelo” is a chronicle of that tour.

The concert scenes are very good, but the main reason why people want to see this film is to hear D’Angelo answer this question: “What really happened when you disappeared from the spotlight for all those years?” You have to sit through the expected footage of tour rehearsals and concert performances before “Devil’s Pie” director Carine Bjilsma gets to the heart of the matter about halfway through the movie. Watching the film, it’s apparent that it took a while for D’Angelo to open up to her on camera.

D’Angelo talks about his downward spiral, which included a serious car accident and arrest for DUI and marijuana possession in 2005. He was devastated by the deaths of his beloved grandmother Alberta, his Uncle Cece, and a close friend (not mentioned by name in the film but it’s widely believed to be MTV executive Fred Jordan), who all passed away within a short period of time of each other in the early 2000s. In 2010, D’Angelo was arrested again, this time for soliciting an undercover cop posing as a prostitute. He doesn’t talk about those arrests in the film, but he does admit that his addictions were the main reasons why he faded from the public eye.

“I started going down a dark path,” D’Angelo says in the movie. “I started drinking and getting high. It was tough to get out of it.” He also says that the car accident was a “second chance” at life, and he went to rehab three times before he could get his life back in order. However, D’Angelo says with his eyes tearing up, he can’t talk about certain things because “they’re too deep.”

One of D’Angelo’s personal issues is dealing with anxiety, according to him and people interviewed in the documentary. Questlove, who was a drummer in D’Angelo’s band on the “Voodoo” tour, says of his longtime friend: “It’s a struggle for him to do simple stuff, like leave his apartment and coming somewhere to play. He has fears about being the chosen one.”

Through flashback archival footage, which is shown at different parts of this non-chronological story, we see what this “chosen one” description is all about. Raised in a strict, religious family in Richmond, Virginia, he was the son of a Pentecostal minister, and expectations were high for D’Angelo from a very early age. There is footage of him performing in church.

He was considered a musical prodigy by people close to him (he won The Apollo’s amateur contest three times in a row at the age of 13), and there was a lot of pressure put on him to pursue a religion-related career as a minister or a gospel singer. But D’Angelo chose R&B music, much to the disapproval of many of his family members. One of the key influences on him was his feisty grandmother Alberta Cox, who encouraged him to do his own thing, while other people in his family warned him not to do the “devil’s music.” (This movie’s title come from the D’Angelo’s song “Devil’s Pie” from the “Voodoo” album. “Devil’s pie” is also a phrase that can be found in the Bible’s Revelation 13 chapter describing the apocalypse.)

As for how he feels about religion now, D’Angelo says that “God, not religion” feeds his soul. We see early on in the film that he still prays (there’s the expected prayer session with his band), and he says of this ritual: “When we pray at night, it’s not a game.”

In addition to showing how religion still impacts D’Angelo’s life, this movie has a lot of talk (mostly from Questlove) about D’Angelo’s soul. Questlove says of D’Angelo: “He’s Superman, but a Kryptonite-filled Clark Kent is trapped in his soul.” In another scene, Questlove has this to say about D’Angelo’s sex-symbol status that began to overshadow the music: “Part of his soul was being consumed.” And then Questlove offers this explanation for D’Angelo’s tormented soul: “Survivor’s guilt is what every black genius wrestles with.” If D’Angelo needs someone to write a book about his soul, he might want to ask Questlove to do it.

There’s also some rare archival footage of D’Angelo in the studio recording his “Voodoo” album, with Questlove and Q-Tip hanging out in the background. Questlove says that it took a while for him to get used to D’Angelo’s avant-garde musical style: “He was blatantly, beautifully disrespectful of rhythm structure.”

Feeling emotionally paralyzed by intense pressure is a recurring theme in the story of D’Angelo, as he tells of wasted recording sessions in the years that people were expecting him to release the follow-up to “Voodoo.” There are also scenes of him backstage, usually accompanied by his hovering tour manager Alan Leeds, where it looks like D’Angelo is silently coping with stage fright before the concert starts.

There are a few signs that D’Angelo’s long hiatus means that he’s still catching up to a lot of the technological changes that affect how artists get feedback about their shows. After a concert, instead of waiting for critics’ reviews, his manager Kevin Liles explains to D’Angelo that he can just check out social-media comments about the show. Liles then shows the singer some of the comments on his phone.

The documentary also shows some of the famous guests who visited backstage during the tour, including Busta Rhymes, Dave Chappelle and Bobby Seale. Chappelle is seen asking D’Angelo how it feels to be back, which is somewhat ironic, since Chappelle took his own break from showbiz in the 2000s, after freaking out over being famous, and then made a comeback in the following decade.

Because D’Angelo has a reputation for being unpredictable, there’s a sense that his handlers are always on edge that he might disappear or be very late for a public appearance. Instead, toward the end of the movie, D’Angelo’s keyboardist Cleo “Pookie” Sample is the one who has a major flake-out, by disappearing right before D’Angelo is supposed to hit the stage at the high-profile Montreux Jazz Festival. A frantic search ensues, but they don’t find him before showtime, and D’Angelo and the band have to go on without him. The missing keyboardist isn’t seen for the rest of the movie, which means the split was not a good one.

“Devil’s Pie” ends with a mention that D’Angelo is working on his fourth studio album, but—D’Angelo fans are used to hearing this by now—no one knows yet when it will be completed or released. In the meantime, this movie will likely end up being a direct-to-video release, since a documentary about a faded R&B star’s tour from several years ago isn’t going to sell a lot of movie tickets. “Devil’s Pie” is what it is—a niche documentary made in a conventional (but not bad) way that might not have much appeal outside of die-hard D’Angelo fans.