What to Watch at 2022 Tribeca
The hottest film festival of the summer, Tribeca Festival, returns for its 21st year on June 8 - 19. Founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2002, the festival revitalized New York's economics and film culture following 9/11. Over the years, the festival crossed the word film in its title and has expanded its exhibition in immersive programming, audio storytelling, and video games. Here are some features that you should consider seeing at the fest, as some of them are selling out and can only be purchased on the day of the film's screening.
Films to Watch
An Act of Worship - Documentary Competition
Still from An Act of Worship. Courtesy of Nausheen Dadabhoy
Muslims are the world’s fastest-growing and most racially diverse group. Yet, as their population increases, so do the disheartening attacks and policies that target them. In a more extensive follow-up to her 2018 short An Act of Worship, director Nausheen Dadabhoy explores the last thirty years of Muslim life in the United States that have shaped today’s circumstances through its community members and protagonists, Khadega, Aber, and Ameena.
As many governments and media entities have surveilled Muslim communities without their consent, Dadabhoy, and her team de-weaponize the camera through reenactments, home videos, and testimonies that present a multifaceted portrait of a group that resists assimilation and erasure. Poetically weaving through personal moments and historical events that affected many, An Act of Worship unpacks generational trauma with care, agency, and determination.
American Dreamer - Narrative Spotlight
Still from American Dreamer. Courtesy of Paul Dektor
Economics professor and aspiring author Phillip Loder (Peter Dinklage) hopes for a more fantastic future after going through two divorces and an underpaid salary. However, he also needs to secure an excellent home-ownership deal as he deals with his poorly skilled real estate agent Dell (Matt Dillon). One day, Phillip finds an ad for a mansion that belongs to an unwell Astrid (Shirley Maclane) and hopes that he can acquire it once she dies. However, Phillip’s plan takes another direction when Astrid’s daughter comes by in this comedy of manners.
Beba - Tribeca’s Critics Week
Still from Beba. Courtesy of Neon
Many documentaries feature their respective directors and/or their families onscreen (such as Charm Circle, and Dick Johnson is DeadI) confronting their familial, societal, and political surroundings. The TIFF-world premiere and Tribeca’s Critic Week pick Beba goes deeper in multimedia artist Rebeca Huntt navigating New York through her lens as an Afro-Latina. She does not let anyone, including herself, off the hook in their critiques and perspectives of the world.
Huntt’s inclusion of her troublesome activities makes the audience question her argument and extricates herself from her haunted events. The film dives into the flaws of everyone’s mindset that make each person complicated and amiable for Huntt to retain relationships with them. Filled with literature references to authors such as Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin and shot primarily on vibrant celluloid, Beba evokes strength, fragility, and intrepidity in this coming of age story.
The Drop - US Narrative Competition
Still from The Drop. Courtesy of Sarah Adina Smith
Bakery shop owners and married couple Lex (Anna Konkle) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler) want to conceive a baby. So out of all the places and times in the world, they attempt to do it at Lex’s friend’s (Aparna Nancherla) wedding in this comedy by Sarah Adina Smith (Buster’s Mal Heart). Everything at the wedding seems chill, but the scene escalates quickly when Lex cannot hold and drops her friend’s baby in front of everyone. Executive produced by the Duplass brothers, it all leads to zaniness and meaningful purposes in this comedic ensemble - featuring Robin Thede, Jillian Bell, and Utkarsh Ambudkar - satire of hipsters, millennials, and relaxation.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande - Narrative Spotlight
Still from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Courtesy of Searchlight
Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) is a retired British school teacher who wants to have a sexual journey. She then hires escort Leo Grande (Darryl McCormack) to get rid of her sexual worries in this Sundance-premiere dramedy by Sophie Hyde. Even though it is unlikely that they will meet otherwise, it is intriguing to see this human connection unfold. What appears to be a one-night stand turns out to be the start of something new in this character study of female desire in a media landscape that generally doesn’t cover such nuanced stories about older women.
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers - US Narrative Competition
Still from The Integrity of Joseph Chambers. Courtesy of Robert Machoian.
Actor Clayne Crawford and writer/director Robert Machoian reunite in this drama after collaborating on The Killers of Two Lovers. In this new chapter in their partnership, family man and insurance salesperson Joe (Crawford) plans to hunt deer. Despite objections from his wife Tess (Jordana Brewster), Joe embarks on this mental challenge to prove the need for survival. But, as deer hunting is a sport full of patience, an event passes by Joe at the speed of light that will be life-altering in this psychological thriller.
Official Competition - Narrative Spotlight
Still from Official Competition. Courtesy of IFC Films
Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, two of Spain's biggest stars, co-lead in star billing for the first time after sharing two minutes on screen in a cameo slot in Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited! Official Competition follows a formed, commissioned partnership between acclaimed director Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz), actors Felix Rivero (Antonio Banderas), and Ivan Torres (Oscar Martínez) working together on a highly anticipated epic. After several rehearsals, their true colors are slowly unveiled on film in this Venice-premiere satire by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn.
Subject - Documentary Competition
Still from Subject. Courtesy of Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera
What happens to the person on screen once when they are the center of a documentary? How much of their appearance is life-changing? Can their offscreen ego be as separate as their on-screen persona? Do they get compensated for their work? Those are the buzzworthy questions that directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall observe in their documentary that dissects the ethics of a person’s documentary appearance. It marks a return to Tribeca for Hall (Copwatch ‘17) and Tiexiera (P.S. Burn This Letter Please ‘20) as they teamed up together in this partnership after forming the production company Lady and Bird alongside Rita Baghdadi (Sirens) in 2021.
Featuring past iconic documentary participants Arthur Agee (Hoop Dreams), Ahmed Hassan (The Square), Margie Ratliff (The Staircase), Mukunda Angulo (The Wolfpack), Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans) as the main characters and co-producers, Subject spotlights the importance of care, rights and protections participants need to make nonfiction filmmaking a safer place to work.
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb - Documentary Spotlight
Still from Turn Every Page. Courtesy of Lizzie Gottlieb
Family is something that director Lizzie Gottlieb is proud to discover in her works. Her first documentary, Today's Man, follows her brother Nicky Gottlieb (who has asperger’s syndrome) over the course of six years. While being patient and letting the film speak for itself during Today’s Man, she applies those practices as it stars her father, Robert Gottlieb, the editor of many books from authors such as Toni Morrison, Michael Critton, and Salman Rushdie.
After collaborating on four volumes on the life of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro and his editor Gottlieb attempt to finish a fifth volume that possibly concludes the aforementioned president’s biography and potential final partnership of 50 years. Relying on relationships and close access, Lizzie brings an intimate and first hand approach in examining the evolution of Caro and Gottlieb’s relationship. As the creative process of literature is predominantly private, she explores the impact of Caro’s book through testimonies from writers and media personalities like Conan O’Brien and Ethan Hawke and the verite footage of the eponymous protagonists that explore their roots, rituals, and activities that make them who they are.
The Wild One - Documentary Competition
Still from The Wild One. Courtesy of Tessa Louise-Salomé
Survival is a mechanism that Jack Garfein undergoes in his path to Hollywood as a Holocaust Survivor. He is essential to the history of American arts. He was a theater and film director and a key figure in the formation of the Actors Studio. He produced and directed plays by playwrights Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, and Eugene O’Neil and discovered stars such as James Dean, Ben Gazzara, and Steve McQueen.
Despite these accomplishments, the Hays Code made Garfein forgotten due to the themes of race and homosexuality in his films The Strange One and Something Wild. Narrated by the unassailable Willem Dafoe, director Tessa Louise-Salomé (Mr. X) utilizes a wealth of archival footage and scenes of Garfein’s work to have him be known in the record books in The Wild One.
All other films can be read here. reelprint discussed some films above and others in the reelprint episode “2022 Tribeca.”