2007 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL PERSONAL PICKS & REVIEWS

Saturday, April 28

·        Fraulein (Das Fräulein)

AMC Village VII Theater 3 : @

A brilliant portrait of three women from former Yugoslavia-one Croat, one Serb and one Bosnian-searching for 'home' in the cold, alienating light of contemporary Zurich, and coming to terms with the war that lives in each of them. In Swiss-German, German, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

2006, 81 mins

Tio Louie review: Loved it & thought it was the very best of all the films I had seen at this film festival!!!! One of the main leads is a young, 22-year-old Bosnian (Ana) who has an advanced case of leukemia. She is a survivor of the war from whose brother committed suicide. The other is a Serbian, 47-year-old cold and distant woman who methodically runs a restaurant. The third is a Croatian older woman (at the verge of retiring), whose husband just wants to continue building their home back in so that they can return. She doesn’t care to do so, because her grown kids are staying put in with her grandchildren. The film was beautifully shot. Also there were some instances in which the images were distorted that enhanced the storytelling -- especially, when Ana was in a dance club dancing away trying to escape her day-to-day miseries. Afterwards, during the Q&A, when the female director and the lead actress were present the director shared a very interesting story. She said that at one point they had shot all day and the Producer said they had to wrap up. The Director insisted that she needed a dance floor sequence shot. The Producer was adamant that they could not incur additional production expenses. The Director implored her case. Then the Producer caved in and told her that she could only have 15 minutes. When the cameraman pulled her aside and asked her how they were going to carry it out with only a window of 15 minutes, the Director said, “Shoot the dancing out of focus.” It worked in the finished piece beautifully. What also surprised me about the film was that because the premise of the film was about three women from the former living in the German-speaking part of , I assumed that there would have been issues of xenophobia. There was none of that whatsoever. This was completely devoted to the emotional roller coaster that these three women were enduring. It was wonderful and left you reeling in a manner that pushed the borders of your mind. That’s good filmmaking where you are literally transported from point A to B and that you are made to shift your thought process.

Sunday, April 29

·        The Sugar Curtain (El Telón de Azúcar)

AMC Village VII Theater 3: &

Guzmán Urzúa makes her feature documentary debut with The Sugar Curtain, an intimate portrayal of the singular experience shared by people of her generation-those living 's utopian dream during the golden era of the revolution. It is also a lament for the end of that dream, which began to fizzle after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

2006, 80 mins.

Tio Louie review: Loved it. This film tells the story of people connected to a middle school that they attended in 1977-78 and how they are now grown and the Cuban dream just never measured up. A happy childhood filled with lots of hope and faith now consisting of dashed dreams. Many from that class are living abroad (beyond ) and the ones who stayed behind, with the exception of one, are disillusioned. The film takes note of the fact that life changed dramatically in Cuban after the fall of the Soviet empire when the purse strings were cut. The early ‘90’s were a tough period of adjustment in that for many never fared out. The filmmaker herself was born in and went to with family as an exile under the Pinochet government, but now resides in (the film was finished with French government funding).

·        The Road to St. Diego

AMC Village VII Theater 1: &

A young Argentine backwoodsman learns that soccer star Diego Maradona is ailing in a hospital, and resolves to bring him a tree root he's uncovered—which he's certain looks just like his idol. Tracing a pilgrimage filled with humor, Sorin spins a delightfully offbeat tale about the roles that fate, religion and idolatry can play in life.

2006, 98 mins

Tio Louie review: Enjoyed it. Have seen this filmmaker’s work before who gets non-actors to play the roles superbly. His son composes musical score. He swore that getting real people to act is quite a challenge and that he shudders to do it again, but he’s done it well before.

Monday, April 30

·        Miss Universe 1929

Amateur filmmaker Marci Tenczer was smitten with his cousin, Liesl Goldarbeiter and chronicled her rise from a modest childhood in to the competition where she was crowned the first Miss Universe. Then Hitler upended everyone's universe. Péter Forgács (El Perro Negro, Best Documentary, 2005 Tribeca Film Festival) continues his fascinating exploration of 's private history through home movies.

2006, 70 mins

Tio Louie review: Very informative. A remarkable 90% of the footage was original from that era. Interesting history of during WWII through the life of this very humble and beautiful, Grace-Kelly beauty. The Hungarian director came off arrogant and callous and I left during the Q&A because of his treatment and disregard of people asking questions.

Tuesday, May 01

·        Forging A Nation (Hacer Patria)

Tribeca Cinemas Theater 2

Accompanied by his mother, cousins, aunts and uncles, the director retraces the steps of his Jewish ancestors, who fled in the 1920's hoping to find in the land of their dreams. This poignant film journey uses the documentary as a singular tool to explore the multifaceted ways in which the Argentine nation was built.

2007, 127 mins

Tio Louie review: Very moving and extremely informative story about Jews and how it reflects their migration not only to from and , but throughout the world. A little on the long side, it should have been cut 20-30 mins, but highly informative, nonetheless.

Wednesday, May 02

·        Taxi to the Dark Side

Theater 10

This documentary murder mystery examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram Air Base from injuries inflicted by soldiers. In an unflinching look at the Bush administration's policy on torture, the filmmaker behind Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room takes us from a village in to and straight to the White House.

2007, 105 mins

Tio Louie review: Very heavy film that just bombards you with information about how the Bush administration is just pushing their agenda under the “disingenuine” (I’ve invented a much-needed word in the English vocabulary that defines the current government) guise of responding to . Their violation of the Conventions, which set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns and the treatment of non-combatants and prisoners of war, is a mockery in the eyes of the rest of the world. We forget that what is “good for the goose, is good for the gander.” The documentary pointed out that over 83,000 have been detained between and and many tortured as potential “terrorists.” If we didn’t have 83,000 terrorists before, we do now. This just makes the case why we need to close as a torture chamber and why Rumsfeld and several others need to be tried by the International Tribunal on War Crimes (but the U.S. is a non-signatory, of course).

·        Golden Door (Nuovomondo)

Pace

The turn-of-the-century voyage of a poor family from rural through the 'golden door' of and into is beautifully portrayed in this visually striking, emotionally resonant narrative. Charlotte Gainsbourg portrays the young bride in this new film by NYU graduate Crialese that was 's Oscar submission this year. In English and French. A Miramax release. Co-presented by the Italian Cultural Institute.

2006, 118 mins

Tio Louie review: Beautiful, beautiful and touching movie. A slow-moving and captivating masterpiece. The film was delayed 30 minutes in starting as we waited in downtown NYC, near City Hall, during the evening’s rush hour for Martin Scorsese to arrive. He shared with the audience that when Miramax sent him the film asking him to officially present the film in the opening credits, he screened it with hesitancy. But that when he heard them speaking in the opening scenes on the rocky hills of it brought back a flood of memories of the language his parents and grandparents spoke. A beautiful story on immigration through Ellis Island during the turn of the century and what people endured as they battled to come to the U.S. to reach the land of milk and honey where money grows on tress. Ironic that this film played the day after demonstrations were held throughout the country in support of immigrants in the – the backbone of this country. As reflected in the film, it is ironic that we still have today, as we did then, a policy of those playing “God” who feel that certain people are acceptable and others are not. Amazing how history repeats itself. It’s a beautiful story that reminds us all (except Native Americans) that we are all children of immigrants who struggled and beat the odds to come to the for a better future for themselves and family.

Thursday, May 03

·        Born and Bred

Theater 14

When his life is shattered by a terrifying accident, a successful interior designer winds up in the desolate extremes of , trying to find himself among other lost, disaffected men. Pablo Trapero's haunting film demonstrates why he is at the cutting edge of Argentina's most exciting cinema.

2006, 100 mins

Tio Louie review: Really relished this film. A husband and wife team own the production company in which he directed and she starred. What happens when you’re driving the car with your wife and daughter and a horrific accident occurs en route to an idyllic country getaway? All the audience is left with are his screams amidst a blaring inferno. Next scene he’s in the harsh winter (pretty far south in ) working as a blue collar worker at a tiny airport in the outback. You never know what happened to his wife or daughter. Never disclosing his past to his roommate or others, he can’t hide from his nightmare. Finally he speaks to his wife on the phone and returns to . A highly emotional reunion occurs in that first meeting as the film ends with their going out for a walk with no mention at all of the daughter. After the film and Q&A, I had an opportunity to talk to the lead actress and asked how she conjured up the emotions to create that last scene when they were reunited. She said that the actors were left with their own thoughts and separated on the set for a long while until the actual scene when the cameras started rolling and that it just poured out. She said that once the damns opened, it continued for a few hours even after the cameras stopped rolling. Impressive.

·        The Devil Came On Horseback

Regal Cinemas Theater 5: @

5-6:30

While serving six months as an unarmed military observer with the African Union in , former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle had access no journalist was afforded. Unable to intervene, he took thousands of uncompromising photographs that documented the genocide, then resigned his post and dedicated himself to exposing the magnitude of these atrocities.

2006, 85 mins

Tio Louie review: For those who have slept through the genocide at Darfur or question whether it is happening or not, this is a must see. Brian Steidle who is trying with every breath to tell the world of the horrors of 400,000 murdered and 2.5 million displaced, is a saint. Experiencing the atrocities he photographed, never leave you the same again. If you don’t lose it earlier, when he breaks down and cries on a helicopter ride, the river just flows. After a film like this it is just impossible to sit by idle in regard to this cause that must be championed internationally. An excellent Q&A afterwards in which he was present and strongly advocating divesting from companies doing business in (a-la the successful anti-Apartheid movement of the ‘80’s).

Friday, May 04

·        Zolykha's Secret (Rahz'e Zolykha)

Theater

A deeply moving account of a rural Afghan family struggling to eke out an existence during the brutal final years of Taliban rule - and the beginning of the new war that still rages. This is the first Afghan-produced feature to make it to the West since Osama won the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

2007, 128 mins

Tio Louie review: An important film that had to be made and a story to be told, however, I was very surprised to see a two-hour narrative shot on video. Plus not the most uplifting film about a miserable time in the country’s history: the parakeet died, grandma died, papa died, mama died and then the film’s star, the nine-year-old girl died. Whoosh! During the Q&A sessions afterwards the non-Afghani filmmakers shared that the social mores are so stringent in that an actress who played a role in another film was killed.

·        Anita O'Day The Life of a Jazz Singer

Theater 13

An intimate and deeply moving tribute to jazz diva extraordinaire Anita O'Day, completed just weeks before her death in November 2006. Packed with terrific clips and anecdotes from friends and fellow musicians, this enjoyable documentary zips along at the speed of her renowned up-tempo interpretation of "Sweet Georgia Brown."

2007, 90 mins

Tio Louie review: I went to see this film because I have to admit that I was unfamiliar with this jazz great. All throughout the film, as people were interviewed she was touted as one of the three best jazz female vocalists along with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald (only a few added Sarah Vaughn who I would have included). What marked her life besides her great performances was the fact that she was a heroine addict for 15 years from 1954-1969. Her most stellar performance was given at the Jazz Festival where she sang “Sweet Georgia Brown” (that was incredible). She could scat like nobody’s business. Many were interviewed (from the recording industry, performers, singers, composers, etc.). She performed throughout the , and . The original concert footage from live and television performances were great. However, her interviews for this film in her late ‘80’s were poorly shot and disappointing (tight and unflattering close-ups). She performed from 1940 up until 2004. She died at the ripe old age of 87 in November 2006.

·        Alexis Arquette: She's my Brother

AMC Kips Bay, &

2007, 70 mins

An intriguing look at sex and celebrity, this richly textured documentary, filled with drag queens and glitterati, is actually a serious movie about transgendered life. In this unique and candid documentary, Alexis reveals a more private side as she grapples with the process of sex reassignment surgery.

Tio Louie review: A major vanity piece about a transgender person who flipped from being a drag queen to somebody who genuinely believed that she belonged in a woman’s body. This is someone who loved having the camera on at all times (including therapy sessions in which a therapist had to assert that this was the right path for her to take in her decision to have Sexual Reassignment Surgery). This was someone who felt that she was competing with her more famed actor siblings (i.e., Roseanne Arquette from “Desperately Seeking Susan” with Madonna and most recently “The L Word”). Not all the images were shot well. By the end of the film she is fed up with the camera and states that she will not partake any longer and it will be a mystery as to whether she actually has the sex change or not. Five months later she reappears and still will not divulge. A waste of our time!

Saturday, May 05

·        Fiestapatria

Theater 13

10AM-12noon

As two families celebrate the engagement of their children, one of the betrothed discovers the family's dark secret. A provocative metaphor on the social and moral state of , from the start of the Pinochet dictatorship to today, Fiestapatria tells its tale through a gallery of characters representative of Chilean society.

Tio Louie review: Really thought that this was wonderful and totally brings out what the country is finally coming to terms with in the aftermath of Pinochet’s death in December and now a Socialist, female President (finally!). is beginning the process of what underwent 20 years ago after the fall of the military government and coming to terms with the over 20,000 that disappeared during the 70’s-early 80’s. Shot in 24 days, this is a weekend party in which people are put together with pro-Pinochet and anti-Pinochet sympathizers, as well as those who returned from being in exile. This is a slice of real life with all its twists and turns that reflects the divisions in families around the world and throughout history. Certainly two thumbs up and a must see.

·        Shame

AMC Village VII Theater 3: &

In 2002, Mukhtaran Mai, a woman living in a remote Pakistani village, was publicly gang raped to atone for a crime her brother allegedly committed. Instead of killing herself, as she was expected to do, she raised an outcry that became an international cause. A powerful essay in courage.

2006, 96 mins

Tio Louie review: Let’s put it this way, I was so emotionally moved after this film that I had to go home, take two aspirins, take a nap and then two Alka Seltzers afterwards until I could get my bearings straight. This is a story that originates in a small farming village in with no schools, electricity, police or hospital. A young man has intimate relations with a next door neighbor whose family comes from a higher caste than his. A tribunal council gets together and renders a decision to avenge this act. The boy’s father asks the older 30-year-old sister to go to the council and beg for forgiveness for her brother. She goes there unaccompanied by any family members and is gang raped in front of 200 onlookers who do nothing to defend her. She returns home and the family does nothing but descend into a hell of shame. So much so, that they said they could not cook or eat for eight days. Even her older brother says that she brought this upon herself because she was not married and did not have any children. An illiterate woman, she realizes that this is wrong and that she’s got to do something about it. She goes to the nearest city and tries to file charges to no avail. It is only when she goes to the local newspaper in that city and makes the front page news and it hits the press throughout and world the world that there is finally some intervention. Arrests are made for a number of men (especially from that one family), a court trial and a conviction (in which two were given the death penalty). An appeal is made and they are released, to only be taken into custody again. Meanwhile, her family is getting death threats. They have to position a guard outside her family’s home for protection. When she is invited to speak in the , the Pakistani government will not let her leave for fear that she is giving a bad image internationally. Finally they acquiesce. She gets money and opens the first girl’s school, then a boy’s school, and a high school. Because of her, electricity comes to the village, as well as a small police prescient. She is now building a hospital. She has come to the three to four times and was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She also spends time going throughout and addressing women throughout the country. For me, a Latino who makes films about Latinas and advocates for women, it was an inspiration to learn that the filmmaker was male and of Pakistani extraction doing for his culture. What blew the audience away was that for the Q&A she was present with the filmmaker (who acted as her interpreter) and she got a standing ovation from the audience before and afterwards. We are humbled by this woman.

Sunday, May 06

·        The Animated World of John Canemaker

AMC Kips Bay Theater 14 : 32nd &

Continuing Tribeca's celebration of New York-based independent animators, this program features the work of John Canemaker, a preeminent animation teacher, filmmaker, author and historian, who won an Oscar® for his animated short The Moon and the Son in 2006. A selection of short films spanning Canemaker's career will be shown including Confessions of a Stardreamer, Bridgehampton, The Wizard’s Son, Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, and Bottom’s Dream.

2007, 100 mins

Tio Louie review: Very enjoyable, thought-provoking and so visually stimulating that it felt like a drug-induced trip. The very first animation project featured was produced by him in 1978 and it included the audio recording of a fellow actor, an actress and her highly animated voice and demeanor who made a perfect subject to animate as she shared her philosophies on acting and life. Then there was also a documentary on Otto Messmer, the true creator of Felix the Cat that was great and took us down a very pleasant path down memory lane. But the cream of the crop was experiencing his 28-minute Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation. It was a therapeutic conversation that this great NYU animation professor had with his father, like he never had with him in real life. It was a wonderful journey for the audience. I can only imagine its impact and the healthy closure it provided him. Eli Wallach did the voice of this father and John Turturo did John Canemaker’s voice. Afterwards in Q&A he explained that he first got $14K from the NY State Council on the Arts to do it and then Sheila Nevins at HBO committed funding to finish it. The film went on to win an Academy Award (to the great surprise of the filmmaker himself). In the audience there were many graduates of his animation program as they rooted their professor on. He also pointed out that there are graduates from his program who are all over the world and the , including at Disney and Pixar.

·        To Die A Little (Morir un poco)

Theater 10

Two remarkable rediscoveries: To Die A Little, an unknown jewel of Latin American filmmaking, lost for nearly 40 years until it was unearthed last year, features images recalling Cassavetes and Rouch. Preceded by Memories About Sayat Nova. 2006, , , 30 min., WP RESTORATION. DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER: Levon Grigorian. Reveals astonishingly beautiful, newly discovered scenes from Sergei Paradjanov's masterwork Sayat Nova, which was censored by the Soviet government.

1967, 50 mins

Tio Louie review: These were two films first produced in 1967 and then lost and have almost perished. It was astonishing to learn that 60% of all films have already perished. I must say that the first film done under the left a lot to be desired by my standards and was a bit too avant-garde for my tastes. The second one from was a little more palatable. The Director spoke beforehand and shared the poor statistics of ’s state in those days including those of poverty. The 50-minute film did not include one actor. It was about the common “man” (human being). The camera just filmed with no editorializing as it covered tremendous poverty in shantytowns with dirty and scantily-clad children. It covered downtown , as well as beaches filled with hordes of people just enjoying a hot day on the sand and in the water or just walking around in bathing suits. In the Q&A session afterwards he said that when it opened in 1968 in a theater with 2,500 seats only 15 people came on the first day. On the second day, 10 people went. When the owner told him that he could not afford to continue screening the film, he asked him to reconsider and give it a little more time. On the next day, nearly 1,000 people showed up. Then more and more people showed up. So much so, that it played for nine months at this theater. To the point, that Zorba the Greek starring Anthony Quinn was supposed to open in Santiago and the success of this film prevented it from opening months after it was supposed to do so. Stories like this give us filmmakers hope.