Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage      

Tribeca Film Festival- April 25th-May 6th   

Overview: "Tribeca Film Festival 2007" by Gerald Wright

The Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 25 to May 6, was founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The aim by the founders was to revitalize the Lower Manhattan community with celebrated events of film, music, culture and business.

With more than 160 programs from around the world, the sixth Tribeca Film Festival presents the best in cinema. Almost every film is a North American, International or World Premiere. The Festival will present a total of 159 feature films and 85 shorts selected from 4,550 films that were submitted. There are 75 world premieres, 4 international premieres, 32 North American premieres, 18 U.S. premieres, 20 New York City premieres plus an extra gala event of Spider-Man 3 week throughout New York City (premieres shown simultaneously in all 5 boroughs).

Narrative features and documentary features will compete for combined cash prizes amounting to $100,000. The Narrative (incomplete) list follows:

1. BORN and BRED (Argentina 2006, 100 mins.) Directed by Pablo Trapero
2. GARDENER of EDEN (USA 2007, 88 mins.) Directed by Kevin Connolly
3. HALF MOON (Iran/Iraq/Austria/France 2006, 113 mins.) Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
4. LADY CHATTERLEY (France/Belgium 2006, 168 mins.) Directed by Pascale Ferran
5. THE LAST MAN (Lebanon/France 2006, 101 mins.) Directed by Ghassan Salhab
6. LOST in BEJING (Peoples Rep. of China, 112 mins.) Directed by Li Yu
7. MAKING OF (Tunisia 2006, 120 mins.) Directed by Nouri Bouzid
8. MY FATHER MY LORD (Israel 2006, 72 mins.) Directed by David Volach
9. NAPOLEON and ME (Italy/France 2006, 104 mins.) Directed by Paolo Virzi
10. PLAYING the VICTIM (Russian 2006, 95 mins.) Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
11. STILL LIFE (Hong Kong/China 2006, 108 mins.) Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke
12. TIMES and WINDS (Turkey 2006, 110 mins.) Directed by Reha Erdem
13. TOWARDS DARKNESS (Panama/Columbia/USA, 94 mins.) Directed by Antonio Negret
14. VIVERE (Germany 2007, 94 mins.) Directed by Angelina Maccarone
15. WEST 32nd (USA 2007, 83 mins.) Directed by Michael Kang

This year's festivities look to be exciting, so check back daily for updates.