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| Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move, starring Benicio Del Toro and Don Cheadle is the Centerpiece Gala selection of the 20th anniversary Tribeca Film Festival |
The World Premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move, starring Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro and David Harbour, with Ray Liotta and Jon Hamm is the Centerpiece Gala selection of the 20th anniversary Tribeca Film Festival, and Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s documentary on Dave Chappelle will have its World Premiere at Radio City Music Hall as the Closing Night event. Jon M Chu’s adaption of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights is the Opening Night selection.
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| Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Shariff Korver’s Do Not Hesitate: “In this film there is something I have never seen.” |
Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer shared his thoughts on Shariff Korver’s Do Not Hesitate; Adam Leon’s Italian Studies, starring Vanessa Kirby; Andreas Koefoed’s The Lost Leonardo, and three Georgian films - Levan Koguashvili’s Brighton 4th (in Tribeca), Juja Dobrachkous’ À Mon Seul Désir (New Directors/New Films), and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning (New York Film Festival).
From Paris, Frédéric Boyer joined me on Zoom for the second installment of our in-depth conversation on the 20th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Anne-Katrin Titze: How is Italian Studies with Vanessa Kirby?
Frédéric Boyer: It’s okay. A film that I think is interesting, and you know the filmmaker because he was there with a film a long time ago, is Levan Koguashvili, the Georgian filmmaker who made the film called Brighton 4th. Before he did Blind Dates and Street Days. He’s probably the most important Georgian filmmaker. It’s really interesting because most of the film is shot in Coney Island, in the mob mafia wrestling world.
There’s a father, his son has debts, so he’s coming to Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and he goes to the Georgian community. And the guy in the film was a wrestler, twice or three times Olympic gold winner, he’s super famous. He’s like LeBron James in Georgia. He cannot walk in the streets, wrestling is a national sport in Georgia. When you see the footage of him against an American named Peterson, ’72, ’76, everywhere! He’s playing a very old wrestler. It’s really good, I’m sure Scorsese will love it.
AKT: Georgia has a moment right now. I recently did an interview with Juja Dobrachkous about her film that takes place in Georgia and that screened in New Directors/New Films. It’s called Bebia, À Mon Seul Désir; the main character is Ariadna who has to connect the dead body of her grandmother to the soul of her grandmother with a string, walking through the Georgian landscape.
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| Vanessa Kirby as Alina Reynolds in Adam Leon’s Italian Studies |
FB: Yeah, Georgia, they are producing five films. And the five are good. The other small country where the films are extremely good is Kosovo. The last four films from Kosovo are just as good as any Greek film. They are very good and there are a lot of women making the films. Georgia and Kosovo are the two countries with a lot of quality.
AKT: Did you see Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning, which was in the New York Film Festival?
FB: Yes, of course, I saw it. I thought it was a little bit too long. I saw the message. But she’s an extraordinary filmmaker. I liked the film.
AKT: It grew on me. At first I was startled by some of the decisions, but then I liked it very much.
FB: Yeah, me too. I really want you to see this film, because it’s also a debut from Holland, Dutch, quite interesting, called Do Not Hesitate.
AKT: Okay.
FB: In this film there is something I have never seen. Of course I will not tell you what is in the film.
AKT: But it’s something that you’ve never seen before?
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| Kakhi (Levan Tediashvili) with Soso (Giorgi Tabidze) in Levan Koguashvili’s Brighton 4th |
FB: No, you cannot even think about it!
AKT: That sounds intriguing!
FB: It’s not just something I’ve never seen, I don’t think it has been done. In terms of script, not in terms of filmmaking. Also there is a film called The Lost Leonardo. You’ve heard about it?
AKT: I’ve read about it.
FB: Because there’s one that was just on TV, the mk2 one [The Savior For Sale: The Story of the Salvator Mundi], which is okay good. And the second one [The Lost Leonardo], which is extraordinary is the one by Sony Pictures Classics. It’s a Danish film, and the Danish school of documentary, I really like the way they are editing their work. What they are doing is very prêt-à-porter. It’s super intelligent, it’s going through politics and things. After the film you really want to have a pizza and discuss about the film. To discuss, hey what happened? It’s one that’s going to play well outdoors.
Read what Frédéric Boyer had to say on Mariem Pérez Riera’s Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It; Pan Nalin’s Last Film Show; Andrew Gaynord’s All My Friends Hate Me with Tom Stourton; Thomas Robsahm and Aslaug Holm’s A-ha The Movie; Thomas Daneskov’s Wild Men, and Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain; Warwick Ross and Robert Coe’s Blind Ambition.
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| Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s documentary on Dave Chappelle to close the Tribeca Film Festival |
No Sudden Move screens at Tribeca on June 18 at 8:00pm at The Battery in downtown Manhattan. The film is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and debuts on HBO Max on July 1.
The Dave Chappelle documentary closes the festival on June 19. Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Festival Co-Founder and CEO: “This extraordinary documentary is the most fitting to close this historic night at Radio City Music Hall and our 20th Festival. We're huge fans of Dave’s ability to make us laugh and this poignant story provides us with another look at his unique talent to bring people together and the grand re-opening of a fully-vaccinated Radio City after 18 months.”
Dave Chappelle: “Premiering our film at Tribeca and closing out the festival at Radio City Music Hall is a big honor. Our film is about courage and resilience, something New Yorkers can relate to.”
Julie Reichert: “Dave is our neighbor. We see him in the grocery store, and on the street. When Dave came to us with the idea, we were immediately struck by the challenge to tell the story of our part of the world during the pandemic and the national reckoning on racial injustice. This was a historic moment and we really wanted to chronicle this place and this time, it just felt right.”
Steven Bognar: “Dave and his friends entrusted our team of amazing young filmmakers from Ohio with intimate moments which enabled us to create a moving portrait of artists' as they navigated a time of fear and isolation.”
This year's Tribeca Film Festival has moved from its regular spring dates in response to the pandemic and will run from June 9 to 20. There will be in-person and drive-in events and, for the first time, the festival will have venues across the city's five boroughs.
