Tribeca Film Festival celebrates its 10th year anniversary this April. Founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff opened the film festival in 2002 as a creative and economically motivating response to the September 11 World Trade Center attacks. It’s not surprising then that the modest film festival, born out of tragedy, would dedicate itself to championing the lesser-heard voices of their global community to their local lower Manhattan neighbourhood.
We Trespass with Genna Terranova, one of the Festival Directors at Tribeca Film Festival, discussing the importance of the cinematic voice – especially when it comes to supporting emerging and important filmmakers in a brave new world.
The 2011 festival program boasts 88 international films whittled down from 5000 submissions, but if you’re a budding filmmaker don’t let that discourage you. This year, two Australian film productions have made the shortlist at Tribeca: The Kiss by Ashlee Page, a double 2010 AFI Award-winner for Best Short Fiction Film and Best Screen Craft (for cinematography by Nick Matthews), has its North American premiere; while Grey Matter (Matière Grise) by Kivu Ruhorahoza has its World Premiere as part of the Narrative Competition.
film still from THE KISS
Page’s The Kiss, a more traditional Australian film production, is about two young girls fuelled by alcohol and hormones on a night swim. Based on a story by Peter Goldsworthy, the short was financed by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation. However, it is Grey Matter that steals some of the Australian thunder. ‘Some’, because like many international festival circuit films today, Grey Matter is actually a co-production between two countries; Australia and Rwanda. The unlikely coupling is a result of Australian filmmaker Dominic Allen’s involvement as producer, and it’s one of the facets of the film that Festival Director Genna Terranova noticed.
“Something like Grey Matter obviously shows up on our radar because it’s a strong movie (technically), but it’s also one of the first films out of Rwanda and you really just don’t see that many African voices making African films. It happens to also have a co-production with Australia, something like that really pops.”
Balancing the Australian film industry’s advantage of resource and experience with Rwanda’s unique and potent voice, Grey Matter is about a misunderstood young filmmaker, Balthazar (Hervé Kimenyi), who conceals the bad news when his first feature film’s (The Cycle of the Cockroach) budget is pulled by investors. He makes the film anyway, or does he? The director attempts to blur realities of the narrative worlds (and his own) as scenes from the script suddenly begin to materialise. Ruhorahoza layers and then delayers his story and characters under the overarching theme of the “The Cycle of the Cockroach”, a metaphor for the history of the Rwandan people and the haunting effects of the country’s civil war.
film still from GREY MATTER
“Anytime there are co-productions involved, it means a lot more people are believing in the movie, and I think financing is harder and harder these days. Australia has a very organised system of how they support films and it’s a great system. Not every country has that.”
Terranova is supportive of these co-productions, especially as it gives a chance for individuals to voice their stories and others to listen:
“The film Grey Matter, definitely has Australian involvement, but we’ve had other films in the past that really represent Australian cinema as far as the identity goes. This is not a film about Australian identity, but it’s great to know that Australia will be a part of films that are not only about their own cultural identity… it’s great that they (Australia) are also able to look outside and support other voices and countries”.
However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for more traditional Australian films.
“We generally have a representative film from Australia, we’d like to have more. In fact, we are hoping to travel to Australia this year because we really feel like we want to make those personal contacts every year. Sometimes it’s hard for us to get there, but this year we’ve already talked about going there, doing some meetings, seeing some movies and seeing how we can find more movies to play in New York….There are definitely some great art-house films that come out of Australia. But in addition, what’s great about Australia is that these films appeal to a popular audience in the States. Primarily, they are in English, they’re universal themes… in that sense, you might be a small industry, but Australian films tend to translate well for our audience, and it seems to be a culture that our audience are very embracing of. That’s why we’re anxious to find more!”
The 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival runs in New York City from April 20th – May 1st 2011.
