Wrap up on the Tribeca Film Festival

There are many cool things about the Tribeca Film Festival but what I love most is that I get to see films that might never be distributed.  Also I spend a few days seeing a variety of films and then an opportunity to listen to the audience and director discuss each film.  Funny enough, there are a ton of films in the theaters right now that I can't seem to get my shit together to go see but I was able to buy tickets in advance, set aside time in my calendar to see a handful of films over a few days. 

Thursday, I saw 2 films.  The first was called Off and Running.  A beautiful documentary focusing on a 16/17 year old African American girl, Avery, who was raised as a white Jew by 2 lesbian Mothers in Brooklyn with her 2 other adopted siblings.  Her older sibling, a boy, is of mixed race and brilliant.  Her younger brother is from Vietnam.  A United Nations family.  We follow Avery as she comes of age trying to figure out who she is, where she came from and finding the balance between being a white Jew inside and a black African American on the outside.  Moving film of a unique American family.

The next film we saw that day, isn't worth mentioning, so I won't.

On Friday, I saw a series of shorts.  Shorts are such an interesting medium.  Very few people get to see them.  I have never understood why audiences aren't treated to a short film before the main attraction at the theater vs seeing a series of ad campaigns.  I obviously get it, its about the advertising revenue but it would certainly be more interesting.  Shorts: Wake-Up Call , seven short films about lessons learned the hard way.  My favorite was Gefilte Fish.  Tradition in the family expects that when a girl gets married she needs to kill a fish and then make gefilte fish from scratch with it or her life won't be happy.  Hilarious.  Others were not so good and others were incredibly dark. 

Last, I saw a film called Handsome Harry that we should all hope comes to the big screen.  A moving film about a topic I have not really read about or ever seen on the big screen.  The story is about a group of men who are now in their mid-50's and all served together in the navy.  One night, a tragic event takes place among them which basically haunts all of them in different ways and causes them to never speak to each other again.  One of the friends is dying and calls Harry to come see him on his death bed as he is afraid that he will go to hell for what he/they did.  After his death, Harry travels down the eastern seaboard to pay a visit to each of the men involved in the event.  As the visits unfold, we learn more about what happened and about Harry.  Homosexuality of this generation was not viewed kindly or openly, sexuality was pushed into the closet.  I loved this movie.  Still thinking about it days later. 

Now, I must find time to return to the local theater.