The most surreal moment I’ve ever experienced at a film festival came Wednesday night in Battery Park. I was at the outdoor world premiere of …
The most surreal moment I’ve ever experienced at a film festival came Wednesday night in Battery Park. I was at the outdoor world premiere of the documentary “ Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James,” part of the Tribeca Film Festival, when the movie stopped with 40 minutes still to go. “We will now pause for 15 minutes to watch the fireworks,” an announcer said. Huh? Cannes has never shot off pyrotechnics during a Lars von Trier debut. ( Perhaps they should.) The surprise display was Gov. Cuomo’s hastily announced celebration of many COVID restrictions being lifted in the state. Mayor de Blasio barely knew about it, which, granted, is not uncommon for him. Usually at such an event, all I’d have to watch is the new film and a few obnoxious speeches about the importance of art. But, from start to finish, this was no normal Tribeca. The 20th anniversary edition was the first major in-person film festival in the United States since Sundance in January 2020 — although there was an optional at-home element — and it was a successful experiment in how to get these shindigs off the ground again. Not to mention a hilarious one. Just because the screenings took place outdoors does not mean the films were PG-ified to appease New York kids for whom the word “bedtime” is as foreign as “tractor.
