The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival winds to a close on Sunday, and the overall quality of this year's selections makes me regret I couldn't get away more often from my day job editing Film Journal International. I've seen 16 of the nearly 100 feature films in the fest (and plan to catch more this weekend), but even that small sampling has revealed some true gems.
For me, one of the revelations of the festival was Sam Fleischner's Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, which was the runner-up to World Narrative Film Award winner The Rocket. It's the tale of an autistic boy from Rockaway Beach who, when his sister fails to pick him up at school, wanders into the New York City subway system and just keeps riding for days. Fleischner filmed roughly half the drama on subway trains, securing waivers from the real-life passengers his cameras captured. With an alert eye for unusual visual details, the director uncannily recreates the sensitive perspective of his autistic protagonist—and few films have provided such a vivid sense of the lively, ethnically diverse community of New York's underground travelers. Three-quarters into production, Hurricane Sandy arrived, forcing Fleischner to rework his script—a development which only adds to the film's power and immediacy. The director rises to the challenge of casting nonprofessional Jesus Sanchez-Velez (found on an Asperger's blog) and coaxes a moving performance from Andrea Suarez Paz as his distraught mother. This very special film deserves a life beyond the festival circuit.
Another striking fiction film was Emir Baigazin's Harmony Lessons, runner-up to Whitewash for Best New Narrative Director. Set in Kazakhstan, the drama centers on a scrawny 13-year-old farm boy who becomes the target of the school bully who shakes down students for protection money and himself answers to a network of older criminals. Elegantly shot with subtle touches of surrealism, this debut feature is like a slow-burning fuse that ultimately ignites into a disturbing study of psychological breakdown.
Along with the Elaine Stritch and Gore Vidal portraits detailed in a previous blog post, one of the most entertaining documentaries at Tribeca was I Got Somethin' to Tell You, Whoopi Goldberg's salute to pioneering African-American comedian and entertainer Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Viewers of a certain age will remember "Moms" from her appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," sans teeth and dressed in tacky floral-print housedresses and matching cap. But they may not be familiar with her early years as a groundbreaking, highly successful performer on the black vaudeville circuit, or her daring, politically charged humor during the Civil Rights struggle. An amazing highlight of the film is a clip of Mabley sitting next to Sammy Davis, Jr. on Hugh Hefner's '60s "Playboy After Dark" TV show, in another loud housedress but surrounded by groovy young swingers, then rising to deliver an extremely moving rendition of the song "Abraham, Martin and John." Goldberg, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, Tommy Smothers, Jerry Stiller and Arsenio Hall all weigh in on this unique performer's influence and legacy; now that HBO has picked up the doc, even more people will rediscover the indispensable "Moms."
Other highlights from my Tribeca 2013 included Let the Fire Burn, a documentary about the tragic 1985 Philadelphia police raid on the headquarters on the militant African-American commune MOVE (comprised entirely of newscasts and courtroom footage from the period); the eye-opening The Kill Team (winner of the fest's top documentary prize), about a headline-making U.S. Army unit who murdered Afghan civilians for sport; Before Snowfall, a globe-trotting drama about a Kurdish teen determined to find and kill his older sister, who has shamed their family by fleeing an arrranged marriage and running off with another man; and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, a delightful comedy-drama from Taiwan about a closeted, married optometrist whose old sexual feelings are suddenly reawakened.
Now it's time to catch up with The Rocket, Whitewash and some of the fest's other award winners and buzzed-about titles before the final screenings Sunday night.
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