BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN, MANHATTAN, USA — I woke up today and, like all days, checked my email. Being a member of the press covering the festival at Tribeca I receive numerous emails every day. Today was no exception. As a member of the press, my job is to attend the press conferences, the press screenings and the general audience screenings. All three have a different feel or nuance.
The press conferences allow the press to ask questions of the writers, actors, producers and directors. It can be a more intimate setting that allows you discuss the motivation of the actors and filmmakers. It can also be far less intimate because, at these conferences, the goal is to sell the film. The passion and commitment to the film can create a stir and, as press, we can influence the ultimate success of a film by the films we choose to cover.
The press screenings allow the press to view a movie without the distraction or influence of the paying audiences. The oddest thing is that press screenings at Tribeca are extremely small. Most are very poorly attended with just a handful of press present. While it encourages objectivity, it doesn’t do much to promote enthusiasm because the theater is so “dead.” At other festivals, the press screenings tend to be better attended. We have been at Tribeca press screenings with as few as four (4!) members of the press in a theater that holds 400.
The audience screenings are typically packed. You can feel the excitement and anticipation for the film. A lot of this excitement or lack thereof, has been created by what the press has written or not written about the film. The press can and does influence the interest and support of film. So you would think allowing the press to do their job would be a priority. (See Cyndi’s post about the value of the press from a distributor’s point of view for more on this.)
Today our email from Tribeca informed the press of a new procedure to acquire tickets to an audience screening. So far we have been unable to even get into a single general audience screening. The new process is that we need to ask 24 hours prior to a screening for tickets. They let us know in the morning if we will be blessed with tickets. Oh boy. Since there wasn’t enough time to request tickets, we decided to play it safe and go to a press screening of a film we’d heard really good things about. (Sundance pal, Levi Elder, told us THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES was one of the best films he’d seen.) We can always get into press screenings so we decide “better safe than sorry.” At least we could be certain we’d have something to write about.
The screening was set for a new venue, the Clearview Chelsea West. Being a little tight for time, we hailed a cab headed north. We arrived with at least 15 minutes to spare. We were informed, however, for unknown reasons, that the film ad been removed from the list for press. We were curtly informed that it would not screen. Would have been nice to know. Could have saved 10 bucks on the taxi and slept in. But, then, a blessing in disguise, we wanted somewhere to sit so we went to the TOWARDS DARKNESS Press Conference (see blog entry) and talked with some very talented folks. It all turned out in the end.
PORTRAIT addresses Eisner’s contribution not only to animation but to young animators. Many artists including 
Any eating establishment that has several limos out front and chauffeurs waiting under the awning seems like a safe bet. It took a bit of convincing for me to seriously consider the money side but Cyndi can be convincing about enjoying life in the moment. When will we be in New York again?
After viewing this movie, we both needed to take a moment and absorb the information and the graphic images of the film. We walked, in the rain, to our next venue, a film workshop. This workshop discussed the different digital cameras and how they all are transferred to film. We were able to view short clips of current films (like CONTROL ROOM and IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS and JESUS CAMP) with details on the cameras and methods used by their filmmakers. We were really able see the benefits and shortcomings of different cameras and formats in the process of converting a film to (literal) film. This made me feel confident and relieved for our feature, which was shot on a Sony HD HVR-Z1U. The documentary, however, was made using four different cameras and four different formats. What a nightmare that puppy will be to blow up! OOOPS.
Tonight we rode the subway up to Broadway. I am getting really good at swiping my subway card. You would think I was a local. I am amazed at the night life of this town. Everyone is out walking around. Broadway was sooooo cool. We had a Mary Tyler Moment without the hat!
There were two moments that made me realize the truth of the saying “Ignorance is bliss.” In viewing our trailers both producers commented how ambitious it was for our crew to think we could go to another country and start the film industry there. Both producers had to swallow their amusement at our naiveté. Seeing our situation through their eyes made us laugh at ourselves and also smile because we didn’t know what we couldn’t do and so we ended up doing it. It all began with Jabbes. He didn’t know what he was asking for when he approached Cyndi requesting her to help him shoot a movie in Zambia. None of us did, but we did it.
He was a young man, probably in his early twenties. He was so small and thin he seemed more like a child than a man. He was dying. One of the actors told us that at one time he was a vibrant young man, full of life and mischief. I spoke with this woman about her life, her dreams, her hopes. She professed not to have any. I asked her if she was happy. “No, I am not. I have so many problems.” She has lived a hard life providing for her family. She lives day to day, but she lives. After the shoot, Cyndi offered her financial compensation for her home, a “location fee.” We were told the family could live for a year on that location fee. We also gave her two bags of candy to pass out to the neighborhood children. It was then that we saw a smile beneath her sad eyes. We have been back in the U.S. for many months but this woman’s eyes still haunt me in the darkness and in the light.