On Location at the Tribeca Film Festival

Written By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

May 5th:
Out with a Bang

All good things must come to an end, of course, and so this past Saturday, the time had come for the Tribeca Film Festival. The screenings for the press actually ended on Thursday the 3rd, which is why you haven't heard from me in a few days. I wanted to catch one last flick though, so I scoured the schedule of public screenings.

The one I chose was a short film program called Short Attention Span, part of the "Tribeca Family" program, and featuring shorts revolving around the lives of undoubtedly angst-filled teenagers. I always have a soft spot for stories focusing on those awkward years, and I always enjoy short films (apparently I have a Short Attention Span myself), so I gave it a shot.

There was also a devious alterior motive for my choice. One of the shorts in the program, entitled Thorndike, I had worked on as a production assistant last year, and the director and I are from the same hometown.

Luckily, Thorndike was the first film in the program, so instead of spending the entire afternoon anticipating my name appearing on the screen (buried deep in the credits), I got it over with quickly. So while this is biased, I can tell you that Thorndike is a remarkably sweet-natured story, directed with an assured turn by recent Columbia graduate Chris Teague. It tells the simple story of a teenage boy whose true love is moving away the next day, and his attempt to give her one last going away present. The present involves sneaking onto a golf course with his friends in the middle of the night, and at the Q&A session following the program, Teague mentioned that the story was "based on an actual prank my friends and I did in high school."

The next film was Lines, directed by Sonja Jasansky, a funny story about a goth high school chick forced to stay after class and "write lines" for her over-the-top annoying teacher. I can't even begin to describe what happens, except to say that the girl has magical powers and ultimately leaves the teacher a sobbing mess. I could make myself feel old and say the girl is almost as unlikable as the teacher, but I imagine any kid in high school would find her perfectly justified.

Dear Lemon Lima and Wooden Soul, directed by Suzi Yoonessi and Rehana Rose Khan, respectively, are both melancholy stories about young girls. Lima's heroine works at an ice cream stand and is constantly berated by her former boyfriend, a gigantic tool who's hilarious in his utter despicability. Soul, meanwhile, features a girl in London who works tirelessly in her shop class making wooden tables while her father lies dying in the hospital.

Look Both Ways, directed by Daniel Oron, is a story that starts out rather humorously - computer- and videogame-obsessed kids in a ...