Despite menacing winds and erratic rainstorms that whipped
around the city and all but ensured a moratorium on rooftop revelries, the 2019
Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) once again brought faces and places together for an
electrifying 12 days of indie-flick nirvana.
With a star power pedigree and high-profile founders (Robert
DeNiro and esteemed producer Jane Rosenthal among them), the festival still
manages to feel like a neighborhood affair. Area hotels transform into green
rooms and interview spaces; downtown theaters forego commercial programing to
spotlight the obscure and avant-garde; and Spring Studios’ Tribeca digs sets
the stage for a cinematic meet-cute, where filmmakers, artists, journalists,
and audiences all come together for the love of movies.
Known as the global capital of cultural diversity, one of New
York City’s signature characteristics is also what distinguishes TFF from the
nearly 3,000 film festivals currently in rotation around the world. Where else
can you engage in post-film discussions about archaic Mauritanian marriage
practices (Flesh Out), a Bolivian
cuisine revolution (A Taste of Sky),
or an historic reggae reunion tour (Inna
De Yard: The Soul of Jamaica) over traditional meals from each of the
film’s countries — all in the same day? (Check out Berber Street Food, Bolivian
Llama Party, and Miss Lily’s, if you don’t believe me). On a particularly
Eurocentric Friday, I grabbed a raspberry-packed “Hindbærsnitter” from Danish
café Ole & Steen before an interview with Claus Meyer, the co-founder of revered
Scandi restaurant Noma, and recovered from a French (note: racy) reimagining of
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs —Blanche
Comme Neige starring Isabelle Hubbert — over a glass of Gamay at the NYC
outpost of Parisian wine bar Compagnie des Vins Sur Naturels.