2013 Tribeca Film Festival Preview: Films with Black StoriesPosted by Wilson Morales
April 17, 2013
The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) will take place from April 17 to April 28 in New York City.
Among the many films being shown at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival are some documentaries, with some focusing on legendary performers such as Richard Pryor and Moms Mabley, and sports legends Muhammed Ali and Wilt Chamberlain.
“The documentary films in the Spotlight section this year highlight several famous individuals (including one very cute cat) who use their wit and bold personas to make us think and laugh,” said Genna Terranova, Director of Programming. “A mix of established filmmakers and rising talent top off the rest of the section with features exploring some fresh takes on unconventional relationships.”
HERE ARE SOME SELECTED FILMS WORTH SEEING AT THE FESTIVAL
Coach
Directed by: Bess Kargman
One of college basketball’s most prolific coaches, hall-of-famer C. Vivian Stringer became more well known to the non-sports world when the words “nappy headed hoes” were used to describe the young women she was then leading to the 2007 national championship game. A mother whose career has long been mixed with personal tragedy, Stringer’s handling of the incident is a perfect example of grace under fire.
I Got Somethin’ to Tell You
Directed by: Whoopi Goldberg
Comedy pioneer Moms Mabley, often referred to as “the funniest woman in the world,” comes to life again, complete with rolling laughter and measured eloquence, in Whoopi Goldberg’s directorial debut. This astute first documentary feature showcases Mabley’s talent and pays homage to a woman whose relevance still resonates today.
A role model for Whoopi Goldberg herself, Mabley’s legacy is defined through rich found footage and interviews with some of the world’s best comedians, including Bill Cosby, Kathy Griffin and Eddie Murphy. They show how Mabley paved the way for female comedians and performers everywhere with her boundary-pushing stand-up routines and innate ability to transcend racism, sexism and ageism. The documentary dives whole-heartedly into Mabley’s comedy, political and social and still hilarious. A passion project for Goldberg, it celebrates Mabley’s historical significance and profound influence as a performer vastly ahead of her time.
Lenny Cooke
Directed by: Benny Safdie and Joshua Safdie
In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. In an era when high school stars were forgoing college hoops in favor of the potential multi-million dollar contracts promised in the NBA draft, Lenny was supposed to be the next superstar. He had the world at his fingertips. But over a decade later, while his peers are taking home MVP awards and championship trophies, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. What went wrong?
With incredible access to Lenny’s story as it unfolded over the past decade, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie follow Lenny from his run-down home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to the New Jersey suburbs where he spent his high school career through to the present day, with the friends and family who shared in his dreams and aspirations. Lenny Cooke is a quintessentially American story about dreaming big, the fickle nature of sports celebrity and the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach.
Let The Fire Burn
Directed by: Jason Osder
Jason Osder makes an impressive feature film debut through his unbiased and thorough account of the incidents leading up to and during the 1985 standoff between the extremist African-American MOVE organization and Philadelphia authorities. “Let the fire burn” were the fateful words that may or may not have been spoken by one Philadelphia authority on an intense and confusing day that destroyed a community. Documenting the personal stories of neighborhood residents, MOVE members and officials through extensive archival footage of court hearings, news broadcasts, home movies and interviews, Osder leaves no stone unturned, save the first one cast.
The structure of the film follows the same crescendo as the dramatic clash that claimed eleven lives and literally and figuratively devastated an entire community, taking viewers on the same tumultuous ride as those directly involved. The angst of the MOVE organization, the fear of the community and the confusion of authorities all reach a boiling point as emotions overpower reason. A real-life Wild West story without the luxury of identifying its heroes by the color of their hats, the film admirably demonstrates that sometimes no amount of known fact can help us understand the complexities of our psyche.
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Directed by: David Winkfield
Cast Cynthia Marzan, Benjamin Jones, LJ Battle, Storm Gunraj, Suzanne Rydz, Shana Solomon, Samuel Caruana, Kurt Owens, Domenica Galati, Amauris Munoz
A young runaway is kicked out of her group home after a vicious altercation. As she travels up to Harlem, where her father is a low-level drug dealer, she is assaulted by a mysterious creature and left for dead.
Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic
Directed by: Marina Zenovich
Cast Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Quincy Jones, Lily Tomlin, Jesse Jackson
This moving portrait of legendary comedian Richard Pryor chronicles his life from his troubled youth in Peoria, Illinois, to his meteoric rise as one of the most respected comic actors of the 20th century. Often misunderstood during the height of his celebrity, the late superstar has never been profiled this extensively. Marina Zenovich’s revealing and entertaining film lays bare the demons with which he struggled, and it reminds us just how daring and dangerous artistic freedom can be.
Zenovich has created a definitive cinematic profile of the comedy icon. Featuring appearances from comedy royalty Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, Dave Chappelle, Paul Mooney and a host of others, the film offers unprecedented access to members of his family and inner circle. Totally unbiased, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic features rarely seen footage of the artist at work and delves deeply into the public and private lives of this very complex man. Zenovich continues to exercise her methods of revelation with this remarkable film, easily engaging those who may be unaware of Pryor’s struggles and triumphs beyond the silver screen.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
Directed by: Bill Siegel
Brash boxer Cassius Clay burst into the American consciousness in the early 1960s, just ahead of the Civil Rights movement. His transformation into the spiritually enlightened heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is legendary. This religious awakening also led to a bitter legal battle with the U.S. government after the superstar refused to serve in the Vietnam War. The film reveals the perfect storm of race, religion and politics that helped shape one of the most recognized figures in sports history.
Directed by Bill Siegel and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Leon Gast, The Trials of Muhammad Ali is not merely a boxing documentary, but rather an examination of a specific time in America in which many of its citizens were ridiculed, jailed or exiled for choosing to stand up for their beliefs. Pulling no punches when dealing with the atmosphere of the time, the film boasts an amazing array of interviews from those who were there, including Ali’s family members, notable journalists and the current, controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, Rev. Dr. Louis Farrakhan. The electrifying persona of Muhammad Ali guides the story through a wealth of remarkable archival footage.
Wilt Chamberlain: Borscht Belt Bellhop
Directed by: Caroline Laskow and Ian Rosenberg
Before his senior year of high school, Wilt Chamberlain took a summer job at Kutsher’s Country Club, a Jewish resort in the Catskills. By day, he was making $2 an hour. At night, he played on Kutsher’s basketball team, coached by its then-unknown athletic director, Red Auerbach. Mixing interviews with rarely seen archival video, this documentary captures a basketball great in a very different era, the Borscht Belt’s Dirty Dancing-styled heyday.
Sidewalk Stories
Directed by: Charles Lane
Cast Nicole Alysia, Sandye Wilson, Darnell Williams, Trula Hoosier, Michael Baskin, Charles Lane
The low-budget, New York-in-the-’80s movie that proves that silence is not all that golden, Charles Lane’s magnetic feature debut is long overdue for rediscovery. With an overlap to a more recent attempt to update silent film for a modern movie audience, Lane plays The Artist, a Chaplin-esque street portraitist whose hapless efforts at fitting into the odd world of sidewalk performance are made all the more troublesome when he finds himself caring for an abandoned toddler, played by Lane’s adorable daughter Nicole Alaysia. The Artist’s efforts to find the girl’s mother are quickly and continually confounded by the many oddball characters he meets.
Shot and released in the same year as Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Sidewalk Stories is a similarly vivid encapsulation of the race and class divisions that inform life on New York City’s streets. Lane’s version centers on the homeless perspective, made all the more visceral for being shot in black-and-white and silent apart from Marc Marder’s wide-ranging score and a brief moment spent listening to panhandlers. The result is an ingenious, spellbinding effort by a black artist to give a voice to those who have none.
