00:26Film in New York, but also the programming game,
00:28as well as the festival game, have changed so much since you came on board at Tribeca.
00:34And now with the 25-year anniversary, could you talk about looking at the journey,
00:41but also looking at the moment and how to see Tribeca as it is now?
00:47Yeah, I mean, it's very exciting to be at 25.
00:51I know Jane has spoken many times about she thought it was going to be a one-year thing.
00:56So the fact that we're still here is pretty amazing.
01:00And it's nice to have that be a lens that we can look at the festival through.
01:04You know, often it's always kind of on to the next year and what are we, you know,
01:08how are we building and growing and adding?
01:10So to take a moment to think back on everything that brought us here
01:14and this amazing community of filmmakers that we've built
01:17and the body of work that has come out of the festival
01:19and the audience that has, you know, accumulated around it
01:22has been really rewarding and it's a kind of lovely thing to take a minute and celebrate it.
01:28And in terms of how the festival's changed, it's just been kind of the story of storytelling, I think.
01:34It started as a film festival and this, the interdisciplinary growth into, you know,
01:39first television and then immersive in VR.
01:42And now lately we've, you know, in the last five years added games and podcasts and content creators.
01:46And I think all of that together just tells a really beautiful story about creativity thriving.
01:52It's just always been top notch.
01:54So crazy, crazy, crazy.
01:57To suddenly be a part of it is truly mad.
02:12But also as a programmer too, looking at this, not just the director,
02:15you have to look at like the diversity of it, of course, you know,
02:19the aspect of different kinds of filmmakers, but also the saturation point.
02:23You know, I just came back from Cannes, but you can see like where things are going,
02:28but also where things need to go.
02:30Can you talk about using your sort of approach and obviously your experience
02:36and intelligence about what people might want to see,
02:39but what the industry is not necessarily looking for,
02:43but what the creative sector wants to say, if you will.
02:47Yeah, I mean, I think it's a, it's definitely a luxury to be in New York City
02:52and to have the breadth and diversity of audience that we have here.
02:56I feel like as a programmer, there's something really liberating in that,
02:59because if we see a great movie, we know that it will connect with the right audience.
03:04We don't have to say, well, it's great, but it's not quite right for us.
03:07Or, you know, maybe, you know, it would do better at a different festival.
03:10Um, so I, I love being part of the New York, you know, community in that, in that way.
03:16Um, in terms of like business value, I think, uh, you know,
03:20just being a strong place for discovery, having the robust short film program that we have,
03:25having the storytelling summit, which is our industry strand,
03:28having a creator's market, which is like a closed door pitch market,
03:32just kind of diversifying the ways that working creatives can come to the festival
03:36and benefit and network and advance their projects.
03:39That's, it's not, it's, you know, purely about the audience experience,
03:43which is very much part, you know, the bread and butter of what we do, I think.
03:46But, um, but really we're here to support that community
03:50and help them get the most out of the festival that they possibly can.
04:16But it's also looking at finding the, I think it's obviously the two documentaries that you're opening and closing with
04:21are very specific, very music driven, obviously keying into very, very New York voices.
04:27Um, but then with a lot, I'm just going to talk about the documentaries for a minute.
04:31It, you know, the way that you're sort of progressing that, you know, the asset with, you know, with Basquiat,
04:37with that, with the, uh, obviously the, the, the, the POTUS documentary,
04:43which is interesting and that's not been done, but also misrepresentation.
04:46Could you talk about looking at these different things?
04:48Cause they obviously come to you guys before, you know, uh, they're done.
04:53Could you talk about keeping your eye on all these different things moving,
04:56but also making sure those first time filmmakers get to have their say as well?
05:01Yeah. I think when you build a festival and you, at the, the moment you're starting out,
05:06it's sort of, you have plus or minus a hundred films and we need to get a lot done in
05:11those hundred films.
05:12This is a program that should be, um, political and relevant to what's going on in the world.
05:17This should showcase a really fascinating, diverse group of new voices.
05:23This should also deliver some really established voices and have some big names come through and,
05:28and premiere new work. Um, this should be, uh, artistically rigorous and innovative.
05:34So I think it's, it's all about that balance and, and how do we find projects that ideally are doing
05:41many of these things,
05:42all of these things at the same time that we know are going to really resonate with ticket buyers,
05:47but with the press, with the, the industry. Um, and, and, and that's the,
05:52that's the challenge and that's the journey of kind of putting it all together.
06:09Uh, if you could like on the feature side, you know,
06:13obviously you got like Burns coming back, but you got Katie Holmes directing,
06:16you got Sean Lennon. You have all these things when you guys are looking,
06:20because there's obviously so many things you can do with genre, but with drama,
06:24with representation, with all kinds of things, as well as international.
06:27Can you talk about looking at sort of that balance? Because I mean,
06:31there should be a balance, but from your point of view as the, you know,
06:35from the top down,
06:36what do you have to look at with your programmers to make sure that it's encapsulated
06:40in the way that you want to have it done as well as, as James?
06:44Yeah, I think we have, I mean, in a very specific way,
06:48we have a certain number of venues,
06:50a certain number of days and, and a certain number of films that we can program
06:53into. So it's about, you know,
06:55setting priorities of there should be this many of this kind of thing we need,
06:59you know, 10 films in documentary competition,
07:02and we need five films in midnight and there's kind of a grid you start building
07:04into. Um,
07:06but then I think it becomes a more kind of abstract or theoretical conversation at
07:10points of like, once things start getting, we, we program as we go.
07:13So once things start getting booked in, it's like, okay, well, we have this,
07:16this is looking a little, this,
07:18maybe we need to start pulling in another direction or like, uh,
07:21the international films this year from really fascinating countries.
07:24And that's amazing. But like, maybe we need something from, you know,
07:28France because everybody wants to see a film from France.
07:30So I think that it's about reacting also to what you're seeing in real time and
07:35making those adjustments. Does it need to, does the tone need to be lifted?
07:39Does it need to have, um, sort of greater broad audience appeal?
07:44Does it actually need to have more kind of specific, uh,
07:48discovery, uh, uh, voices? So, um, so yeah,
07:52I think that that's, that's really the balance.
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