By Dwight Casimere
More than 80 films, online premieres and exclusive live chats with filmmakers from Tribeca Festival 2022 can now be enjoyed form the comfort of your living space with Tribeca At Home. Visit tribecafilm.com/at-home for more information.
Among the dazzling documentary premieres are Kaepernick and America, at NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his iconic role in the fight for racial justice. Long-time Tribeca Festival supporter, and one of the elite winner of the Academy, Grammy, Emmy and Tony awards, Whoopi Goldberg, returns to the festival as executive producer of Butterfly in the Sky, featuring LeVar Burton and the Reading Rainbow, which set the standard for literary children’s television for 25 years. Goldberg made her directorial debut at the 2014 TFF with the documentary I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, a portrait of comedy pioneer Moms Mabley, often called “the funniest woman in the world,” Whoopi called her a role model, and told her story through found footage, TV appearances and interviews with today’s comedy legends.
Among the early films screened for this year’s festival is the short Full Picture. Produced, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jacob Reed, the film details the journey of Santina Muha, a woman who has been in a wheel chair since she was six years old. During the pandemic, when all of us began experiencing both old friends and new relationships via Zoom, Santina develops a cadre of new friends, who form glowing opinions of her. Will those warm feelings subside once she discloses her disability? Full Picture forces us all to face our perceptions and biases regarding our attitudes towards the disabled.
Director Zen Pace with writer, star Dana Aliya Levinson brings Fraud to TFF’s Sex, Love Rock and Roll-from-the-heart shorts program. A North American Premiere, Short Narrative, it delves into the trans rocker world of petty trans thief Shira, who makes a living hustling stolen jewelry online, using credit cards she’s lifted from unsuspecting johns. It’s all a moneymaking lark until she runs into the exotic harmer Andre (a penetrating Babak Tafti) at a local dive. Shira is suddenly faced with the glare of a mirror that challenges her self-perception, and confronts her with an unusual proposition. This is one of the most beguiling films in the shorts category.
Also part of the Tribeca At Home lineup is Live From Tribeca featuring Bill Bellamy: I Want My Life Back. Bellamy delves into the complexities of live brought on by the pandemic, including the disjointed journey from quarantine to the new normal in a breakneck hour of standup comedy.
Cocoa Brown: Famous Enough presents the comedian and actress known for her appearances on Showtime at the Apollo, One Mic Stand and BET’s ComicView. She’s also appeared on Tyler Perry’s series, For Better of Worse, and comedy films such as Ted 2 and The Single Mom’s Club.
The Big Payback (Spotlight Documentary/World Premiere) examines the fight of Evanston, Illinois rookie Alderwoman Robin Sue Simmons as she leads her community on an uphill battle to obtain a big payback promised in a $10 million reparations bill funded by cannabis tax. The measure is the first tax funded reparations bill in American history. Her fight mirrors that of formidable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who continues to fight in Washington, DC for passage of HR 40, a national reparations law that has languished in Congress for more than 30 years. The film lays bear the conflict of racial reckoning and the bitter legacy of slavery.
Tribeca At Home allows participants to extend the festival for a full week after its conclusion to catch any films that were missed, re-watch favorites and screen Festival winners. All without leaving the house! For more, visit tribecafilm.com.