The 2023 Tribeca Festival has had incredible film premieres thus far, and the producers and directors of five films premiering at this year’s festival were in attendance at a panel presented by the Producers Union to discuss their films and give insightful conversations about the independent film industry.
Richland has all the trappings of a picturesque American small town.
It has diners, high school football, town parades and a smattering of hometown heroes and their kids and their kids’ kids. All this rests on contaminated land, from improper nuclear waste storage from the power plant that has driven the economy for the past half century. As it happens, the plant supplied plutonium for the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.
Director Irene Lusztig’s documentary “Richland” takes a look at the legacy of the nuclear history in the eponymous town.
Pierce under the facade of many towns in America and you’ll find a radioactive underbelly. There are unsavory and complex histories to contend with, dominating industries with questionable practices and deep ideological rifts between its denizens. So this isn’t a film just about a nuclear town. It captures a disturbance felt all over the country. Its subject town’s focal point, uranium enrichment, happens to be a great metaphor: it brings energy, death, destruction, longevity, decay, prosperity, blight, advancement, regress. You can use that array of terms for plenty of institutions that backbone the history of many towns in this country.
Richland carries baggage that sounds familiar to many places. Beyond the scope of nuclear debate, there are salient moments to today’s public conversation writ large. For example, high schoolers and their parents debate the appropriateness of having a mushroom cloud mascot for their school team “The Bombers.”
The film captures so well the universal essence of small industry town life. And it gives breath to all its nuances and perspectives by letting its inhabitants speak for themselves. We’re not subjected to lectures from proselytizing pro or anti nuclear talking heads. Instead, we sit down at a diner table or a high school quad or living room and hear what people have to say about Richland, until we get an illuminating mosaic of thoughtful positions and the people behind them.
“Richland” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival June 11.
The Tribeca FIlm Festival is in full-swing with big time actors and actresses taking over New York City for exclusive screenings, but let’s be serious here, we’re all here for the after parties! Casamigos has been at the center for several exclusive parties, famously associated celebrity founder George Clooney, Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman.
Grammy-Award-winning singer Gloria Gaynor was celebrated at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival with the premiere of the documentary Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive. The documentary which follows Gaynor who achieved massive success in the 1970s with her disco hit I Will Survive on her journey to making a musical comeback in the gospel music genre. The documentary was produced and directed by Betsy Schechter.
The Ned NoMad, helmed by Richie Akiva, recently celebrated their one-year anniversary on June 8th.
It was an exciting evening for Ballet lovers on Thursday, as Tribeca Festival hosted the world premiere of “Flower,” a captivating short film produced by renowned ballerina Misty Copeland’s production company, Life In Motion Productions.
At the Tribeca Film Festival yesterday, Audible hosted the world premiere of “The Space Within” featuring Jessica Chastain.
New York is not a city where one can afford not to put their best foot forward. So, BACARDÍ collaborated with Stadium Goods to host a VIP preview of their BACARDÍ x Stadium Goods SNEAK3ASY, an ode to footwear and the summer moments we all look forward to. Brand founder Jeff Staple of Staple led the event with a rum toast detailing the design process of his new custom “dancing shoes,” which featured the spirit’s signature fruit bat.
Allison Ponthier’s electrifying set lit up the audience from the first chord as her euphoric energy filled the room.
On June 2, the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) screened Jennifer’s Body (2009). The horror-comedy starred Megan Fox as Jennifer and Amanda Seyfried as Needy. MoMI showed the film as part of their ‘Queer Cinema, Top to Bottom’ series. The series started on May 20 and ended on July 2.