Back to Its Roots? Evolving Tribeca Fest Emphasizes Escapism, Activism

On Monday afternoon, Rosenthal gave her first public welcome to the 2009 event, at a lunch for the annual Tribeca All Access program, a concurrent sidebar of meetings and networking for filmmakers of color, run by the sibling, not-for-profit Tribeca Film Institute.

“The nation has embraced a fundamental change,” filmmaker Warrington Hudlin, a TAA advisor, highlighted yesterday, citing the current national mood for this change that lead to the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Aiming to inspire the room full of emerging and established filmmakers, the veteran offered, “Be the change that we are looking for.”

“This was always very much of an activist film festival,” Rosenthal reiterated yesterday, during the conversation with indieWIRE, “A film festival that started as a response to an act of war.” Along the way the event has expanded and contracted, exploding beyond the small TriBeCa neighborhood to venues all around Manhattan, but ultimately then returning to downtown Manhattan in recent years, with a much leaner program. And in recent months the event has also seen a leadership shift. Longtime artistic director Peter Scarlet left the festval just as this year’s program was locked. Rosenthal continued, “As a festival, we had to find our footing.”

Expected to play a large role in the vision of Tribeca Enterprises, the umbrella organization that guides the festival and other Tribeca initiatives is Geoff Gilmore, the longtime director of the Sundance Film Festival who left Redford for DeNiro earlier this year. Insiders maintain he will not have an active role in the annual festival but will instead work on broader global, digital and educational initiatives.

Looking Ahead

During this morning’s press conference at Manhattan’s Community College in Tribeca, a rep from founding sponsor American Express referred to a sense of “nostalgia” for the early days of the festival. A short promo clip for the festival highlighted the positive impact on local businesses from customers drawn to the annual festival. Organizers and sponsors are aiming to reiterate that role during the current downturn.

In challenging times, “you always turn to the arts,” Rosenthal told indieWIRE, “You turn to filmmakers. You can find inspiration, you can find the truth, or a version of it.”

Inevitably, the conversation turned to where the festival goes from here. “We’re happy with the way its going,” the perpetually soft spoken festival co-founder Robert DeNiro said on stage this morning, “How it will wind up who knows. Sometimes you can’t predict where things go, only that it’s positive and great.”

One big question that emerged recently involves the future spot the Tribeca fest will fill on the crowded annual calendar. Would it move to the fall as a recent report in Variety suggested? Event insiders have discounted the talk as pure speculation, saying that the rumor was spawned by an industry big wig and then fed to the trade paper.

Asked today, by a reporter from The Globe and Mail, whether the festival would move to the autumn to play a larger role in awards season, Rosenthal was asked to categorically deny the talk. After listening to the question, she moved to the podium.

“I can’t categorically state what I am having for lunch today,” Rosenthal smiled, curtly, “I’ve been hearing the same rumors you have. That’s all I can say.”

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Which Tribeca Film Festival film are you most looking forward to seeing?

	"Departures"
	"The Girlfriend Experience"
	"In The Loop"
	"Moon"
	"Outrage"
	"Rudo y cursi"
	"Whatever Works"

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