The Whoopi Goldberg curated animated short Nate & John screens at Tribeca Festival 2024 Saturday, June 8 and again on June 13 and 15. Visit tribecafilm.com for more information.
Unity Animation Project is the film’s production company. The film was not only selected for Tribeca Festival screening, but it was also awarded the Gold House Cultural Impact Award at the recent Cannes Film Festival.
Goldberg is not only a distinguished host of ABC-TVs ‘The View’, but she is also one of only ten people in the world who have won an Oscar, a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy, and is the first woman to be honored with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
She is an original supporter of the Tribeca Festival along with good friend and Festival Co-Founder Robert DeNiro. She has also appeared as a director in the festival.
The 68-year-old actress and ‘The View’ host will star alongside De Niro and Rose Byrne in the upcoming comedy-drama film ‘Ezra, directed by Tony Goldwyn. Whoopi and Tony appeared together in the 1990 fantasy film ‘Ghost,’ for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming only the second Black woman to win an Academy Award for acting. The first was Hattie McDaniel, who was the first Black actor to win an Oscar for her portrayal in 1939’s ‘Gone With The Wind.’
Directed by Jumai Yusuf with Producer Todd Feldman and Writer/Producers Michael Bickel and David Bickel with Producer Jean Liu and Composer Pedro Osuna, Nate & John is a sensitively drawn animated portrait of a life-long story of male bonding set against the backdrop of a half century of turbulent change in American life and history.
Nate & John begins in 1966, at the very cusp of the Civil Rights and Anti-Viet Nam War and Black Pride Movements. Nate is Black. John is White.
We first meet Tony, the white owner of Tony’s Barber Shop where Nate works sweeping floors and keeping things tidy while harboring aspirations of one day becoming a master barber. We see him wearing a modified Afro, which will later become a symbol of the emerging Black Pride Movement.
Teenaged John appears reluctantly at the shop, dragged in by a stern, but largely unidentified male figure, most likely his father, who insists that Tony the Barber get rid of John’s unruly long hair, a sign of his mid-1960s rebellious nature.
Nate jumps at the opportunity to do his first haircut and eagerly rips away the cover draping his unused barber’s chair for its inaugural customer.
As John grimaces through the ordeal of his unwanted haircut, there appears a glimmer of something else that may be developing. John snatches the peace offering of a post-hair cut Tootsie Roll Pop and turns to give Nate a look that speaks volumes.
Later, in another of John’s visits, the sight of a lovely, young female passerby through the front window distracts Nate. He nicks John’s neck as he’s shaving him. Rather than becoming irritated at the oversight, John quickly sizes up the situation and jumps into action. He rushes outside to save the day for his bashful friend, giving the young lady an impromptu artificial flower gleaned from the shop. Thanks to John’s quick action, a romance ensues between Nate and the young lady. There’s a courtship, a marriage, then a child, well…you get the picture.
Over the ensuing years and many subsequent haircuts, life experiences are shared between Nate & John and many of life’s milestones are jointly crossed.
One powerful scene shows Nate watching a live news report of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis is 1968. John sits with Nate as a silent but sympathetic witness to the unfolding tragedy.
Actor Ben Holtzmuller effectively voices the news report.
In the film, swatches of hair of varying shades and shapes land on the screen like bookmarks to chapters in the story of Nate & John.
The lilting, jazzy score by composer Pedro Osuna serves as the film’s leitmotif, identifying characters and underscoring changes in mood and direction of the story. (Jazz quartet Julien Knowles, Trumpet, Emiliano Lasansky, Double Bass, Pedro Osuna, Piano and Music Producer, Benjamin Ring, Drums).
In the soundtrack, moments of silence and the sound of raindrops on a sidewalk are equal to the music in advancing the power of Nate & John’s story.
Tribeca’s Unity Animation Project is designed to bring together filmmakers from different backgrounds and experiences and the team behind Nate & John is a perfect example.
Director Jumai Yusuf is from Nigeria. A Muslim and Nigerian immigrant who is passionate about telling BIPOC genre stories, she is a writer, director and film producer who also holds a B.A. in Neurobiology from Harvard as well as an MFA from USC.
Writer and Producer Michael Bickel regards Nate & John as a passion project which has consumed his creative spirit for the past fifteen years. He views this animated film as a vehicle to touch the hearts of audiences worldwide. To him, it is a poignant reminder of the enduring strength and power of the human spirit.
David Bickel is a veteran TV writer and producer, best known for the long-running comedy The King of Queens. More recently, he has served as Co-Executive Producer on Young Sheldon, head writer/Executive Producer on Nightcap for Lionsgate TV, and head writer of BET’s Comedy Get Down.
Chinese producer Jean Liu, Spanish Composer Pedro Osuna and American Producer Todd Feldman, round out the international team.
Producer Todd Feldman has been a successful entrepreneur across multiple industries. Through his management/production company, The Feldman Co., Todd has produced films, and packaged and set into motion several television shows at various broadcast and streaming outlets.
Fellow producer Jean Liu is a filmmaker from the UK and China. Her portrait-style films have screened at SXSW, Slamdance, and AFI Docs. Jean is a graduate of USC’s Stark Producing Program, where she was a BAFTA/Pigott Scholar.
The film’s beautiful music was created by Pedro Osuna (Lightyear, Thor: Love And Thunder, Golden Globe Winner and Academy® Nominated Argentina).
Later In the film, we meet Nate in his hospital room where John appears for what may be a final visit. Nate’s wife appears with a lineup of his former customers in tow, each laying one of Nate’s signature Tootsie Roll Pop customer tchotchkes at his bedside as if laying a single rose stem at a final resting place. It is a poignant moment, for Nate not only trimmed the hair on their heads; he also molded and shaped their lives.
Nate & John is a short, but powerful animated film that proves Shakespeare’s timeless quote from Hamlet that ‘brevity is the soul of wit.’ In its scant seven-and-a-half minutes, Nate & John takes the viewer on a journey of the heart and soul that transcends time. It leaves an indelible emotional impression.
The past fifty years of American life have been marked by tumult and tragedy. Yet, somehow, in the small, untold stories of everyday lives such as those in Nate & John, the human spirit and its ability to triumph over adversity, shines through.
Tribeca Festival 2024, Presented by OKX, includes a record number of short narrative, documentary and animated films as well as music videos. Countries represented range from Saudi Arabia to Cote D’Ivoire, Martinique, Chile, Qatar, among a total of 27 nations. For more on this magnificent short film and others at Tribeca Festival 2024, visit tribecafilm.com.