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Tribeca and the Evolution of the Film Festival

June 3, 2023
Notes
Transcript

This week I’m joined by Cara Cusumano, Festival Director and VP of Programming at the Tribeca Festival, for a wide-ranging chat about the nature of the modern film festival, how a festival’s sense of place can coexist with efforts to make the festival’s programming available to people around the world, and how Tribeca has expanded beyond film into a multimedia extravaganza. We also talked about a subject near and dear to my own heart, as a parent of younger children: What can festivals do to get families more involved and encourage the next generation’s love of film? Tickets for a number of the events Cara and I discussed today are still available at TribecaFilm.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

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This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors and omissions. Ironically, the transcription service has particular problems with the word “bulwark,” so you may see it mangled as “Bullard,” “Boulart,” or even “bull word.” Enjoy!
  • Speaker 1
    0:00:06

    Welcome back to the Board goes to Hollywood.
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:08

    My name is Sunny Bunch. I’m Culture Editor at the Bulwark. And I’m very pleased to be joined today by Cara Cusimano, who is the festival director and VP of Programming at the tribeca Festival. I am extremely excited to talk to Kara about this year’s festival just in in terms of the programming, what what they’ve got coming up. But also to discuss festivals as places that people go to, Kara, because in over the last couple years here, you know, we had a pandemic.
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:35

    There was a there was a lot of trouble getting people in one place for good reason. And That has had weird consequences for film festivals in particular, which have done a good job I think of trying to work around that, but also are now I think maybe trying to move back towards festivals taking place in a discrete place, where people could come and gather and enjoy movies, music, everything else. Cara, thanks for being on the show, first of all.
  • Speaker 3
    0:01:07

    Thanks for having me.
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:08

    So let’s let’s talk a little bit about the festival as a thing that people go to because I’m I’ve always loved Trebekah as an idea. Tribecca being this film festival at the at the beginning that tried to get people back to downtown New York after nine eleven You know, it’s a devastated economy, film festival comes back, gets people in, go into restaurants, go into movies, that sort of thing. And that’s an important part of the story here of the festival.
  • Speaker 3
    0:01:37

    Yes. You know, when you’re talking about festivals as thing that physically happens in a specific place in person, that is very much a part of our founding mission, you know, the post nineeleven moment when the businesses downtown were struggling, people were not really coming back, creating the fast as a place for community and to really have a healing purpose around film, that’s the the reason the festival came to be. And it stayed with us, I think, in our DNA, even when that felt less sort of specifically urgent. And then it became urgent again, you know, around the COVID era. And I feel like we were uniquely positioned in that moment because we were not only the the festival that did this once before, that kind of had a festival in a moment of crisis when the community really did need to come together, but we’re also the kind of innovation festival.
  • Speaker 3
    0:02:34

    And when we couldn’t come together, how do you have a festival anyway? Is it online? Is it outside? You know, we did all of these things. So I think that that has continued to be really core purpose to what it is that we do over the last twenty plus years.
  • Speaker 2
    0:02:50

    As as, you know, the festival director and as somebody who, you know, works on programming these things, how does that how does the inability to gather in a place change how you program, what you decide to show, what sort of events you can put on, you know, I imagine that just logistically, it’s kind of a nightmare.
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:12

    Well, it was interesting because you know, the if you’re thinking about the the kind of COVID years, twenty twenty, it was March twenty twenty that everything shut down. At that point, we had announced our program. We were weeks away from having a festival. So we had to make something new really quickly. It was approaching films that were already in the festival about doing something online.
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:37

    It was giving our awards. It was you know, there was a very practical angle of, like, what can we do immediately. And then we had a whole year plan. And then it was twenty twenty one, and things were still shut down. But we did have an in person festival that year.
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:55

    I think we were the first in North America, if not one of the first, and we did it all outdoors. So that was that was the solution was what is the safe way So, a lot of the planning was very logistical, very, how do we just change what the physical experience is, in order to make it safe. And then in parallel, we did the online festival too. So there were films that screened both in person and online there were films that were just online. And and, yeah, I was thinking about a different audience.
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:25

    You know? It’s not only the the kind of local community and the New Yorkers that we know very well, but now we’re talking about nationwide and people wanting to participate in what what’s a movie that plays well when you’re home and watching Q and A virtually, and is that different than what plays well when you’re in person at a premier. So, these are all questions we were kind of asking ourselves and answering in real time.
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:49

    Well, can you can I don’t I don’t wanna put you on the spot here, but are there were there any specific movies or events that you were like, well, this this just This is gonna be much better virtually than some other things might be virtually? Was there what what specifically were you kind of looking at and thinking about in that in that regard?
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:11

    Well, when we’re programming the in person festival, we do so much live beyond just the screenings. There’s a bare minimum, there’s an introduction. There’s a Q and A. The filmmaker is there to kind of share in the excitement and experience and talk directly to the audience, but a lot of our events are also featuring live music performances. You know, I think we have ten, twelve, different full concerts at the festival this year that are paired with films about the subject Indigo Girls or Glora Gienner, French Montana, they’re all coming and playing.
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:44

    So those films, you know, benefit from having that live kind of coming off the screen at you experience, which has been so much a part of what we think makes Rebecca really exciting. So looking at online, you know, you’re sort of in a way liberated from that. It’s just it’s just the fill. You know? There’s we can do a virtual q and a, but really, it’s like what do people want to watch at home, and they can they’re probably watching it communally, you know, with their family or with a partner.
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:15

    So films that kind of play well in that. Space and things, you know, that we do think have a big, like a sort of nationwide appeal. Sometimes there’s things that play really well in New York because they’re about a great New Yorker. You know, we’ve got a doc about Stanley. And we last year, we opened with Jennifer Lopez, Obviously, there’s our big name folks that play to the whole country, but they made particular sense to do something to celebrate in New York City and and we when we looked at an online festival, we were thinking that, you know, that much larger.
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:48

    You know, what is what do people across the country kind of wanna see an experience?
  • Speaker 2
    0:06:53

    On the on the online front, I’m kind of fascinated by by the again, the COVID era move to online because, you know, part of Look, part of the whole appeal of a festival is a sense of exclusivity. Like you’re you’re seeing these things and you’re Joining other film lovers and and coming together and you’re getting the first look at whatever, something something new. And the the online experience both broadens that in terms of making it available to more people, but also does kind of dilute the the, you know, idea of exclusivity. We’re doing this, you know, kind of special thing for lack of a better word. And I I’m curious how how a, the the the filmmakers themselves think about this.
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:42

    You know, when you when you’re talking to them and say, hey, we wanna put this online. Are they like, yeah, that’s great or are they like, well, you know, maybe maybe we wanna be just in person. And also just in terms of distribution, I mean, there’s all sorts questions about, you know, I guess my big question here is, do you limit it? Do you say, well, we we’re only gonna sell a thousand online viewings for this movie. We we can sell two thousand for this movie.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:06

    Do you have to do that in in in partnership with the studios? How does that work?
  • Speaker 3
    0:08:14

    Yeah. I mean, your question exclusivity is is interesting because I think we’ve had to some really hard questions. A double edged sword of, like, there’s an excitement to that, and there’s, you know, people like sort of being in the room when other people can’t be in the room, the celebrity element, but who were you excluding, you know, and the accessibility of the online festival to people who could not be a part of tribeca in the past, or felt like maybe they weren’t our audience, was really powerful, and I think that’s something we don’t wanna lose now that we’ve we’ve broached that and kind of broadens who the festival can be available to. So how do you create the energy of what an like what I think you’re living too many say exclusivity is also just sort of energy in the room. And that’s what the filmmakers want to, is that that feeling of excitement, that sort of it’s never been seen before, that premier energy, that that can then hopefully kind of snowball into a acquisition for their film, great reviews, the sort of palpable experience of seeing a premier for the first time.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:24

    So emulating that experience online is, I think, a big questions still. You know, that’s something that festivals are still trying to achieve and certainly creating an online screening that looks as much like an in person screening as possible has been a big part of how we’ve approached it with. So exactly that, you have only so many tickets available. It starts and stops at a certain time. There’s an introduction and a q and a like you would see in person.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:51

    But I think that there’s more to be done. You know, there’s there’s more ways to create the community feeling and that excitement that that you, you know, that we’ve kind of refined and perfected over over many years.
  • Speaker 2
    0:10:02

    Mhmm. And I Again, I’m I’m I’m just curious from from the business perspective on the the studios and the the the distributors, do they you approach them and say, hey, we’d like to show this. How do they ensure that it is not I don’t know, immediately available to everyone. I guess, I’m asking a piracy question here. How do how do you guys how do you guys stop help help try to, you know, combat the the the the threat of piracy, which remains ever present in in looming and annoying.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:37

    Yes. There are a lot of security protocols. We partner with a platform that has a lot of those implemented, so there’s geo targeting, there’s UCAP, There’s watch windows. There’s like a blackout feature. So if you try to screen mirror, it won’t have that effect.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:56

    Forensic watermarking, which was something I’d never heard of in twenty nineteen, but now I’m kind of intimately acquainted with. So there’s been a lot of innovations on the security front as well to address exactly that concern. Because, you know, early on, like, when it first became an idea, when it first became clear that this was the only way we were gonna be able to do anything in the earliest days. I think people’s first reaction was no. Like, there was such a baked and kind of fear of being online that it took a minute for filmmakers in the industry as a whole to kind of come around to it.
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:31

    And then you saw a period of time where there was Rebecca, there was Sundance, there was all these big festivals were offering huge chunks or all of their programs available online. And I think now it’s it’s kind of come back a little too where where there’s less of an appetite and more or at least a more of a foregrounding of the in person premiere with the online kind of being let’s think about this as as the second, third P and I screening type situation. So it’s all kind of calibrating itself over time.
  • Speaker 2
    0:12:03

    Yeah. Have I mean, have this is a thing I don’t know and I making a bad lawyer mistake here by asking I don’t know the answer to. But have there been any, like, big festival style leaks? I mean, I like, I I feel like this would have been much bigger news at least in my world, I would have seen something about this if if these premiers were getting like splashed all over bit torrents everywhere. But I feel like that hasn’t really been the case.
  • Speaker 3
    0:12:29

    Not that I have heard. I mean, there’s there’s no big example I can think of of some, you know, huge festival premier that was suddenly available all over the Internet. Maybe if you’re deep into the the Internet, so you could find something somewhere, but I I can’t think of a sort of scandal.
  • Speaker 2
    0:12:52

    Yeah. I I again, I I haven’t either, which which I find kind of surprising just because of, you know, how much everybody worries about this sort of stuff. Let’s talk about this year’s festival. So, you know, I I I was either last year or the year before that, you guys changed the name from try back a film festival to try back a festival, which is interesting. What was what was the impetus there?
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:13

    You know, over the years, we’ve grown so much in the kinds of programming that we do. And I think even from the earliest days, we’ve we’ve talked about ourselves as a storytelling festival and had that as kind of the guiding principle that it’s not just film. We were one of the first festivals to do TV. I think we were the first festival to do immersive kind of VR programming. We’ve now added podcasts, talks, branded content, So we just felt like it was a more representative name of what the scope of the program really was.
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:43

    I think film remains the bedrock, the we’re showing the same number of features, if not more than we always have. But there’s just so much else too, and it felt appropriate to be inclusive of them, those projects in the name.
  • Speaker 2
    0:13:59

    There’s one in particular I want to get to in a second, but you had mentioned concert You guys have a really good concert lineup this year. It’s kinda kinda crazy. Wait. What are what are some of the highlights? What are what are what should people show up for if they if they can still get tickets?
  • Speaker 3
    0:14:12

    Yeah. We’ve got a couple big ones that we’re doing as Galas at the Beacon Theatre. We have a film called let the canary sing. That’s about Cindy Loper, and she’s going to perform after that. And then we have a film called ForKadija.
  • Speaker 3
    0:14:27

    Which is about French Montana, another, you know, New Yorker. He grew up here with and it’s really Padisha is his mother’s name. It’s really kind of a tribute to his single mom raising him in New York City, which is a really kind of fresh approach to a biographical music doc. That I appreciated, and he is going to do a conversation and a performance after that screening. And then our last night at the beacon, we have Carlos Santana performing what is shaping up to me a pretty epic show after his documentary as well.
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:00

    So those are kind of the big gala performances, and then we have this section called spotlight plus, where the plus is kind of what what happens after the movie. And almost all of those are live music. We’ll have Indigo Girls, Gloria Gainer, Mark Rabier. We have a dance hall documentary. We have the live Broadway show of waitress, which was recorded, sort of Hamilton style, and Sarah Longwell will be doing a performance after that one.
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:30

    Gogled Bradello will be here. And Alicia Keys. So it’s a pretty That’s stacks. It’s like a yeah. Amazing music, program in addition to and all of those are paired with films too.
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:44

    So all of it is kind of inspired by the films themselves.
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:47

    Yeah. That’s great. I I mean, that it’s like it is like a film festival, music festival, you know, Bonnaroo, whatever. We got we got all sorts of stuff here. Alright.
  • Speaker 4
    0:15:58

    The the the thing that jumped out
  • Speaker 2
    0:16:00

    at me and I’m really curious to to hear more from you about because I haven’t seen it at a festival like this before. Games. Mhmm. Games. How how do you how do you program a gaming installment in into a festival like this because I’m I’m I’m kind of fascinated what it will actually look like.
  • Speaker 2
    0:16:19

    Just are we talking panels? Are we talking previous, we’re talking a lot. Are people gonna be doing speedruns? What’s the what’s the what what are we looking at here?
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:27

    Yeah. I mean, we we came out at the same way we come to every new addition of the festival, which is this is storytelling, and this is a sort of creative storytelling medium with a huge audience and really incredible creators, and there’s a space in the festival world to kind of be showcasing their work. And And so it really does mirror the film program, the TV program, the immersive programs, and that there’s there’s a competition with official selections. People submit We have games programmers who play all of the submissions and kind of make those final selections, so the jury well award prizes, and then you can actually experience some of these games at the festival. So there’s the competition, which are, like, independently created and premiering the festival the way a film would.
  • Speaker 3
    0:17:17

    And then there’s the kind of what what would be the equivalent in the film space of, like, spotlight are our temple films, where there’s kind of anticipated major releases and they’ll come and they’ll do a panel, they’ll maybe premiere some content, or they’ll do a conversation about it, and and those kind of tentacle moments exist integrated throughout the festival as well.
  • Speaker 2
    0:17:40

    Can I ask what some of the tent pole games are this year?
  • Speaker 3
    0:17:44

    Well, I know that we have an incredible event that I’m excited for with Hideo Kojima coming. And this is actually a documentary, so I’m cheating for my answer a bit. But a documentary about him, and he’s gonna come and do a conversation afterwards, which is really exciting because I know his appearances are rare. We’ve been fortunate to have him at the festival in the past. But in terms of a a creator who really is pushing the storytelling potential of the medium, we couldn’t, you know, be more excited to have him come and speak at the festival in the context of storytelling and film.
  • Speaker 2
    0:18:15

    Yeah. I mean, that is a that’s a big get. He is a he’s one of the greats. The Alright. So let’s let’s move on a little bit else here.
  • Speaker 2
    0:18:25

    You know, TV. What what is what is the state of TV At at the festival, you know, what what are you guys looking at in terms of the the the prestige landscape? How are How is that shaping up?
  • Speaker 3
    0:18:38

    Yes. So TV has been with us for many, many years. We we trace our TV lineage back to showing the series finale of friends in, I think, like, two thousand and four whenever that happened. And it became its own section probably six or seven years ago now. And we’ve been fortunate to have some premieres of incredible, you know, major television that was a handmaid’s tale premiered with us, Chernobyl, last year, the bear, World Premier to Tribecca.
  • Speaker 3
    0:19:03

    So We really saw, again, a space that the festival that a festival could serve to this audience and to the the creators because they’re, you know, there’s some TV festivals, but to be able to kind of offer that communal experience for something that most audiences are maybe used to watching, at home or, you know, with their families, was really well received by audiences and by the the networks and the streamers to have that opportunity to be have their work recognized, be an official selection, kind of be curated and put on the same level as some of the feature films that we have. So This year’s program, it’s ten events, and we have they’re mostly new series that are premiering. Like, you know, some big stuff, the new Walking Dead spin off, Dead City, which is set in New York. We have a doc series about Oscar Delahoya called Golden Boy. We have Stephen Soderbergh’s new series with HBO, which has a really stacked cast.
  • Speaker 3
    0:20:00

    And then there’s some kind of returning favorites that the most probably the hottest ticket of the festival was the Outlander season seven Premier. Which sold out in, I think, a minute and a half or something like that. So we’re expecting that one to be to be bonkers. So it really just shows how passionate these audiences are and how much they want an opportunity to engage with the cast and the creators and each other. At in a festival style sort of presentation.
  • Speaker 2
    0:20:29

    I I every year I I talk to the the programmer at Payley and I’m always I’m always fascinated by the the the fandoms that that show up for these TV. These TV style shows and The the the the fact that the hottest ticket at Triback of this year is for Outlander makes me late fills me with joy in a weird way. I I I kind of love that. I love that that obsessive energy. There that it’s shocking.
  • Speaker 2
    0:20:57

    A minute and a half. That’s crazy.
  • Speaker 3
    0:20:59

    It was, and people were angry. So you couldn’t make more seats, we would because I love to see it. And, you know, we have the whole cast coming out for it. So it should be should be bonkers.
  • Speaker 2
    0:21:11

    That’s a great What You mentioned you mentioned the new Stephen Soderbergh show. That that you guys are gonna be. But you you also have a a try back a talk with David fincher. Right? David fincher and Steven Soderberg, which sounds I like can’t imagine two more interesting directors talking to each other.
  • Speaker 2
    0:21:30

    Mhmm. That is a that is great. Me a little bit about the tribeca talks because that is always one of the the highlights of the festival. Just, you know, you get these You get titans of entertainment and great artists kind of talking to each other about their art which I find a much more useful thing than having a schlub like me talk to somebody about their art. You you get you get folks who actually know the intricacies and the difficulties of the artistic creative experience explaining it to folks?
  • Speaker 3
    0:22:05

    Yeah. It really came from, you know, wanting to do talks in a different way than maybe anyone else is doing talks. So you see you a lot of panels and or conversations with someone who’s, you know, doing the circuit and promoting a project. But we were, like, about what if we start with making the people? And, you know, they’re really there to to have a conversation about about their careers and about their industry, and let’s pair them with someone unexpected or someone that they’d show.
  • Speaker 3
    0:22:31

    You know, we go back to the part of David Fincher says, yes. And we say, who do you want to talk to? And sometimes they choose a friend, sometimes they choose someone they’ve never met before, but admire. And really the most interesting conversations emerge from that, because you know, you’re gonna have we have Lynn Manuel Miranda with Rosie Perez. We have Paul McCartney with Conan O’Brien.
  • Speaker 3
    0:22:53

    We have John Melencamp with David Letterman. You know, I think any of these people alone would be fascinating to hear speak. But when you put them in conversation, with each other, it really is these incredibly memorable, unique hours of conversation that we’re really proud to host. And David fincher has been one that I’ve been hoping to get for the festival for many years, so I will be there in the audience because Unlike the film, you know, I go into the festival. I’ve seen all the films, but these talks, they only happen during those ten days, and and you really have to kind of be there to to capture that.
  • Speaker 2
    0:23:27

    How do the I I I assume it depends on the the pairing and it changes from from person to person. But how do they prepare for these? I mean, do you guys get them do they trade emails? What what is the actual process like for making a conversation that is both informative and interesting and you know still feels kind of off the cuff.
  • Speaker 3
    0:23:49

    Yeah. I mean, it it really depends on on the people involved in spent to which they want us involved, you know, where we wanna be supportive and we want it to be interesting as well. So it runs the gamut. We have fully prepped questions before and watched as that person read the questions that we prepared. But, you know, when you have David Lettermanery of Conan O’Brien, they they are going to be prepared for the conversation.
  • Speaker 3
    0:24:13

    They’re gonna have their own process. So, you know, we we sort of allow the participants to dictate the the process that they wanna follow. And, you know, sometimes it is more conversational. They’re people who’ve known each other for many years when they get together and and chat, and it’s incredible. And sometimes it’s it’s much more kind of by the book.
  • Speaker 2
    0:24:34

    Mhmm. Are these I I I’m sorry, I don’t actually know. I should know the answer to this. Are these gonna be live streamed as well? Can people by taking to watch these online, or are these only gonna be in person?
  • Speaker 3
    0:24:44

    They’re not live streams. We do capture most of them and make them available later — Mhmm. — whether it sort of depends on which ones. Some will be kind of on our virtual platform. Some we turn into casts and released throughout the year, you can go back and listen to many previous Rebecca talks from over the years through our podcast.
  • Speaker 2
    0:25:05

    Okay. Great. Alright. What else? What else is going on at the festival that that folks should know about?
  • Speaker 2
    0:25:12

    I mean, those were all the the things that the highlights I had kind of beat in on, what else should folks be aware of? That’s that’s happening at Rebecca.
  • Speaker 3
    0:25:22

    Yeah. I mean, there’s a couple other new things we have going on this year. One is a section called Escape from TriBECa. That’s part of our or lives within our midnight programming. And the idea behind this is that it’s it’s sort of all the films you wouldn’t that wouldn’t have been part of our midnight section before we created this.
  • Speaker 3
    0:25:42

    So it’s supposed to be fun and wild, and raucous, and and celebratory of kind of the late night crowd. So we have we’re doing a special focus on Bruce Lee. Which will include and enter the Dragon anniversary screening and then a bit of a reunion, a panel with some of the full who originally made the film, a celebration of him. It’s also the anniversary of his death, so we’re going to do a little alive tribute. And there’s a documentary as well called clones of Bruce, which is about this era of Bruce Lee kind of tributes.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:15

    They called them Bruceploitation films.
  • Speaker 2
    0:26:17

    Yeah.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:18

    Happened after his, after Angela Dragon, after his success. So that’s a really fun, incredible, informative doc We have a film within that called Final Cut, that’s from France, it’s a zombie comedy that I think is really incredible, also somehow miraculously behind the scenes, kind of making a backstage comedy. So I hope people kind of come out and discover that one. There’s a couple other things in that section as well. And then also new this year, well, sort of an evolution is since the festival’s been in June, which it’s been over the last couple years.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:53

    We’ve been creating programming for Juneteenth, and we have kind of renamed this this year expressions of black freedom and created a focus on music, which we touched on on some of the music programming in the festival already, but it’s also the 50th anniversary of hip hop this year, which was born in New York. And so to kind of do something specifically around hip hop and in New York City felt really appropriate, timely for us. We have a doc about Bismarckie called Allupin The Biz. We’re screening wild style, and there’s sort of programming throughout the festival that feeds into this as a festival wide theme. So I think if that’s interesting to anyone, they should come and check that out.
  • Speaker 3
    0:27:40

    So those are the kind of highlights of brand new stuff, but Yeah. As you said, there’s so much more in there with Elemental, the new Pixar movie, which I’m taking my kids to. So I really hope people kind of discover some of the family programming as well.
  • Speaker 2
    0:27:57

    It’s wild just the amount of of stuff at the at the festival. I’m I’m like almost overwhelmed. I was almost overwhelmed looking at the the schedule trying to figure out what to focus on here. I I I did wanna you you mentioned the the Juneteenth programming. There are some interesting panels on diversity in in film and inclusiveness in storytelling.
  • Speaker 2
    0:28:21

    One one that jumped out not actually about race but was about disability and the portrayal of disability on screen. Could you talk about that just a little bit? I’m curious what that panel will will look like and sound like?
  • Speaker 3
    0:28:38

    Yeah. So we have panels throughout the festival that mostly take place in our Spring Studios, the hub of the festival, and we have some lounges in there. So anything, all these talks that are, you know, sort of state of the industry, conversations are gonna live in that space, and they definitely have a strong focus on diversity and inclusion and the, you know, not just TriBecca, but really what’s going on across the industry, and I think disability is maybe underrepresented when people have these conversations, and we wanted to be sure that we were speaking to to that within the programming as well, whether that’s, you know, specific to TriBECas programming and and and representation on screen or in terms of creators, but also in terms of audience accessibility. So these, like I mentioned before, you know, I think these are questions that the pandemic has has forced a lot of festivals to grapple with more than they ever have in the past. So that’s been really meaningful.
  • Speaker 3
    0:29:37

    And what better space for us to kind of come together and have that conversation than at the festival and and kind of see what the the future could could look like when we have all these incredible storytellers and thinkers and industry executives here in town for it. What I I guess one one last question
  • Speaker 2
    0:29:55

    here. Since you mentioned the the the grappling with kind of how how these festivals work, do you do you think there is a kind of movement back toward I don’t know, a reaction against the the digitalization of festivals. I mean, do you think some you guys seem to be pretty pretty with like, we’re just gonna do online, we’re gonna do in person, we’re gonna do it all. But I do I I get the sense that for some other festivals, there’s more like, well, we’re not we’re not gonna do as much of the online stuff. We want people here at the the festival.
  • Speaker 2
    0:30:29

    Do you see a little bit of retrenchment in in other other other places?
  • Speaker 3
    0:30:34

    Yeah. I think there is sort of a movement the other direction, but I I think it’s important to kind of continue thinking about it because who who are we leaving behind when we say, oh, we’re not doing it online anymore. It’s too important to be in person, which I think sounds great and and feels right when, you know, when you’re someone used to experiencing festivals in person. But I think that the huge groups of people that have traditionally been excluded that were able to be a part of Trebecca and the whole festival community through these innovations, I think it’s important to preserve that. So it may not look the way that it looks.
  • Speaker 3
    0:31:16

    Today, but I think the right answer is not to just go back to how it looked before. The right answer is to kind of come up with something together that works for everybody.
  • Speaker 2
    0:31:25

    Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was pretty much everything I wanted to ask. I always like to close these interviews by asking if there’s anything I should have asked of you. If there’s anything you think folks should know about, the try back Pestimal in general, the state of film, whatever.
  • Speaker 2
    0:31:38

    I mean, I’m I I always like to know what I have not asked and should have.
  • Speaker 3
    0:31:43

    Tickets on sale now, tribeca film dot com. That’s that’s my closing statement for the next two weeks.
  • Speaker 2
    0:31:52

    Alright. I’m gonna put you on the spot then. You say trick. What what is an event that still has tickets on sale that you think people should definitely check out? Your your Go ahead.
  • Speaker 3
    0:32:03

    Oh, it’s elemental. I am so excited about this. The the new Pixar movie, it’s opening at the end of June. We have the New York premiere filmmaker is gonna be at the second screening. So we have two screenings of it.
  • Speaker 3
    0:32:15

    And, you know, this is the one movie that I’m actually going to see at the festival because I can bring my kids, and And it’s really exciting to me in principle too that we’re we’re just doing more for families. And, again, opening up the audience, like, who who’s not been part of vessel before, and we haven’t done a lot family programming over the years. So I would really love to see a big full fun premiere for that festival.
  • Speaker 2
    0:32:38

    You know, it’s interesting you mention that as as a parent of two small children who likes to take them to the theaters, I, you know, it it definitely is not something that has ever occurred to me to be like, I’m gonna take my kids to sundance. Or Rebecca. But, I mean, I I do feel like that’s an under explored space in terms of, you know, programming for a festival. How do you I mean, This gets to another of my long running issues with the industry and kind of the the move to take things online. But like, I don’t know how you can raise the next generation of film goer without including them in events like this.
  • Speaker 3
    0:33:19

    Yeah. That’s my thing is well, I mean, I’m choosing to raise two small kids in New York because we can take them to the museum of natural history and the Guggenheim. And the Bronx suit, like you have these incredible resources for families by living in New York, and I would like Rebecca to be a part of that. It’s not just elemental. We have an animated film from China called DeepC, that’s in three d, it’s some of the most incredible animation I’ve ever seen, and sort of a Miyazaki esque story, maybe for slightly older kids, with subtitles.
  • Speaker 3
    0:33:50

    We’re doing a free screening of shark tail. We’re showing Planet b boy and doing Break dancing tutorial. You know, we really are trying to do a lot of programming for all audiences because it’s it’s part of the same story we’re telling. It’s not just about film, embracing TV, and games, and immersive is also about reaching new audiences and kind of designing what the future of visual storytelling is going to look like. So bringing bringing the next generation into that is is a big art of of maintaining that culture.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:27

    Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s great. That is great to hear. I love to hear that.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:29

    Alright. Carrot, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it. And it and again, tickets on sale at tribeca film dot com. You can you can get all all all the stuff we talked about here or I guess some of it, you can no outlander tickets.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:42

    But everything
  • Speaker 3
    0:34:43

    You actually cannot get outlander.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:45

    Most most of the other stuff is still you you can still get tickets for so. Check that out try back a film dot com. I’m Sunny Bunch. I’m culture editor at the Bulwark, and I will be back next week. With another episode of the bulwark goes Hollywood.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:57

    We’ll see you guys then.
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