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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Thursday, March 16th, 2006 - Comments Off on More Tribeca Titles as Fest Unveils Discovery and Spotlight Selections
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More Tribeca Titles as Fest Unveils Discovery and Spotlight Selections


Another day, another programming announcement from the gang at the Tribeca Film Festival. This morning brings word of the festival’s Discovery and Spotlight (neé Wide Angle) sections, comprising 38 world premieres from more than a dozen countries. Sydney Pollack’s Sketches of Frank Gehry (previewed last November on The Reeler) is in there somewhere, as are films by Guy Maddin, Chris Marker and Ed Burns.
Also look for the premieres of Chen Kaige’s delayed-to-death The Promise and Claude Chabrol’s Comedy of Power–yet another Isabelle Huppert collaboration, but one that boasts the undeniable appeal of “(d)elighting in the permutations of human stupidity.” A few New Yorkish titles are scattered in the mix, including John Dower and Paul Crowder’s pro soccer doc Once in a Lifetime and George Gallo’s art-tinged coming-of-age flick Local Color.
Tribeca also announced the selections for its new NY Specials program, featuring Gerald Fox’s documentary glimpse at filmmaker/photographer Robert Frank (Leaving Home Coming Home) and Rosie Perez and Liz Garbus’s chronicle of New York’s Puerto Rican culture, I’m Boricua, Just So You Know! Animation geeks will be excited to know that Bill Plympton has programmed the work of 12 local filmmakers in NY Specials’ “Animated NY” section.
Read the full list of NY Specials selections after the jump; check out the TFF site later this afternoon for the complete Discovery and Spotlight programs.


NY Specials
The newly formed NY Specials showcases a varied group of out-of-competition titles that are quintessentially New York. In this years program there are portraits of experimental filmmakers, a film about 9/11 volunteers and about our Puerto Rican neighbors. Animated NY section is a curated program by animator Bill Plympton of talented animators in our own backyard.
The Heart of Steel, a documentary directed by Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr., written by Karen Lisko (U.S.A.) – World Premiere. Produced in partnership with The September 11th Families Association, The Heart of Steel follows a group of volunteers who banded together-calling themselves The Renegade Volunteers-immediately after the attacks. Guglielmo’s documentary highlights the profound impact that ordinary citizens can make in the face of tragedy.
Leaving Home Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank, a documentary directed by Gerald Fox (U.K.) – North American Premiere. In this intimate and moving portrait of groundbreaking photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank, Fox engages the artist in a dialogue about his life and work. Creative tensions develop between Frank’s desire to focus on the present and Fox’s impulse to revisit the past.
Notes on Marie Menken, a documentary directed by Martina Kudlacek (Austria) – North American Premiere. A diary portrait of underground filmmaker Marie Menken based on the reminiscences of her family and friends. Various interviewees recount stories of how Menken and her husband, filmmaker Willard Maas, became the inspiration for the protagonists of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In English.
Yo Soy Boicua, pa’ que tu lo sepas! (I’m Boricua, just so you know!), a documentary directed by Rosie Perez and Liz Garbus (U.S.A.) – New York Premiere. In her debut doc, the always sparkling Rosie Perez takes viewers down the route of New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade and through an exploration of her heritage. Weaving snippets of family moments and the often bumpy history of the island, Perez and co director Liz Garbus build a pastiche of unbridled optimism and pride.
NY Specials: Animated New York
The Backbrace, directed by Carolyn London and Andy London (U.S.A)
Bar Fight, directed by Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick (U.S.A.)
Bathtime at Clerkenwell, directed by Alex Budovsky (U.S.A.)
Dentist, directed by Signe Baumane (U.S.A.)
Guide Dog, directed by Bill Plympton (U.S.A.) – World Premiere
Life in Transition, directed by John Dilworth (U.S.A.)
Puppet, directed by Patrick Smith (U.S.A.) – World Premiere
Roof Sex, directed by Sarah Phelps (U.S.A.)
Sita, directed by Nina Paley (U.S.A.) – World Premiere
Sex Life of Robots, directed by Mike Sullivan (U.S.A.) – World Premiere
Santa Goes South, directed by Peter Wallach (U.S.A.) – World Premiere
Soccer Time, directed by Edmond Hawkins (U.S.A.) – World Premiere

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon