Day 10 (Friday, 6/14) of the 2024 Tribeca Festival featured world premieres, rousing performances, and talks. It also officially kicked off De Niro Con with a special reception at the Greenwich Hotel including Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Quentin Tarantino, Billy Crystal, David O. Russell, Melissa McCarthy, JR, and Nas.
De Niro and Tarantino were joined at the SVA Theatre by Uma Thurman and Rosenthal for a retrospective of Jackie Brown, followed by a lively conversation between the filmmaker and actor. Later in the afternoon, De Niro and Crystal attended the screening of Analyze This at the Indeed Theater at Spring Studios and participated in an engaging fireside chat.
At the OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC, Kevin Bacon walked the red carpet for the 40th-anniversary screening of Footloose. In a post-event talk, Bacon confirmed that then-studio head Dawn Steel called him “not fuckable” during the film’s casting. He remarked, “Yeah, that’s true. I think it’s true that I’m not fuckable, but it’s also true that she said that. She definitely said that.”
Melissa Etheridge took the stage at the Beacon Theatre performing an acoustic set of her hits after the world premiere of Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken.
The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award was awarded to Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aja Monet, Aloe Blacc, Carmen Perez, Matt Post, RodStarz, and Sean Pica by Angela Davis at the SVA Theatre following the world premiere of Following Harry.
Day 9
Day 9 (6/13) of the 2024 Tribeca Festival featured world premieres, talks, and reunions across New York City. The Beacon Theatre hosted the 25th-anniversary reunion of The Sopranos with the world premiere of Wise Guy’David Chase and The Sopranos. David Chase, Michele Chase, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Steve Buscemi, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Joey Pantaloni, Matt Weiner, and others came together to participate in a lively panel after the screening, moderated by director and Tribeca alum Alex Gibney. Reminiscing about the series, Chase admitted, “I was so lucky to work with these guys, and I really saw today what a family this is.” He added, “If it wasn’t for the word ‘fuck,’ where would we be?”
Serena Williams attended the OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC for the world premiere of the documentary series In the Arena: Serena Williams. Williams was joined by Jess Sims, Amber Ruffin, and co-directors Gotham Chopra and Lauren Fisher.
The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios welcomed Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg for an intimate conversation. In the evening, Chazz Palminteri attended the world premiere of A Bronx Tale, The Original One Man Show.
Over at AMC 19th St. East 6, former Governor of New York George Pataki joined director Ryan Smith for the world premiere of Soldiers of Song. Meanwhile at Village East by Angelika, Anna Camp attended the world premiere of Nuked and Jason Schwartzman supported the New York premiere of Between the Temples.
Director Dawn Porter celebrated back-to-back events at the SVA Theatre. Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, and Angel McCoughtry supported the world premiere of Power of the Dream, while Al Roker and Deborah Roberts were at the New York premiere of Luther: Never Too Much.
Dawn Porter
Luther: Never Too Much takes an in-depth look into the life and career of Luther Vandross as he overcomes personal and professional challenges to become an all-time great vocalist. And Power of the Dream follows a WNBA story where activism and sports converge, helping to profoundly change the course of U.S. politics.
Porter is no stranger to Tribeca–though this marks the first time she’s brought two features to the festival in the same year. At the 2011 Tribeca Festival, her Gideon’s Army–which introduced us to three Black public defenders in the South–received the Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award For Documentary. Also making the Tribeca cut over the years have been Porter’s Trapped, and The Lady Bird Diaries. Trapped, which won the Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2016, explored TRAP Laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) that regulated abortion clinics in the South. The Lady Bird Diaries tapped into Lady Bird Johnson’s audio diaries to tell the story of one of the most influential and least understood First Ladies in history.
As a native New Yorker, Porter earlier told SHOOT that the Tribeca Festival holds a special place in her heart. Being able to share her films in theaters with New York audiences has meant a great deal to her in the context of the festival. And to be able to share two films this year is especially gratifying.
Power of the Dream was a late addition to the Tribeca lineup. Porter said it wasn’t clear at one point if there would be a festival window for the film. To have it at Tribeca is akin to “the icing on the cake” for Porter who noted that it and Luther: Never Too Much are decidedly different films, which speaks to the power of the documentary discipline that can take so many varied forms.
Porter is an unabashed WNBA fan, particularly of the New York Liberty. Power of the Dream presented the opportunity to tell a sports story which is also a political story. She described the WNBA players as “fearless” on the court and off with social justice being an essential part of their DNA. When Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream franchise, objected to the basketball league’s support of Black Lives Matter (BLM), star players pushed back. They condemned Loeffler’s stance–which included her appearance on Fox News denouncing BLM as “divisive” and “Marxist”–and then they dedicated the WNBA season to the memory of Breonna Taylor, the Louisville, Ky. medical worker killed by police. Next, assorted WNBA players showed their support for the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic Party candidate who was in a runoff election against incumbent Republican Loeffler. Star players–initially from the Atlanta Dream and Phoenix Mercury–began wearing black shirts with an all-caps message in white on the front: “VOTE WARNOCK.” The garb spread through the WNBA like wildfire and generated a social media buzz, bringing momentum to the Warnock campaign. In many circles the WNBA movement was cited as being a key contributor to what became an historic win for Warnock. Coupled with Democrat Jon Ossoff’s win against incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue in the state’s other runoff race, Georgia flipped from red to blue in 2021 and gave control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.
Porter noted that Warnock himself credited the Atlanta Dream with putting him on the map. Power of the Dream chronicles the activism of the WNBA. Porter described the WNBA players as “regular people, not politicians” and they simply did “what they thought was right.” They are living examples, she continued, who counter many people’s notion that their voice or vote doesn’t matter. Their voices do count and can have a positive impact.
Meanwhile the draw of the Vandross documentary for Porter was self-evident. Sony Music Entertainment has a deep history with so many artists in its catalog. And when Vandross’ name came up, Porter was immediately intrigued based on “how important his music is not just to R&B but to all American music.” When she got a look-see at the archival cornucopia available to her, including interviews and rehearsal footage, she realized, “Luther can star in his own film even though he’s not with us here anymore.”
Vandross’ story is multi-dimensional, continued Porter. “He struggled so much, more than people know” and he contributed “to so many different kinds of music. He sang backup for Bette Midler, Carly Simon, James Taylor, was discovered by David Bowie. In the early days it was clear he had been inspired by Black women vocalists” like Dionne Warwick. “He gave credit to them for inspiring him. He was clear about celebrating the music that influenced him.”
There was a lot to discover about Vandross, continued Porter, who learned, among other things, that he was on Sesame Street, and that he sang jingles. Having the archival resources enabled her to bring viewers “back in time” to connect with a virtuoso artist.
Power of the Dream and Luther: Never Too Much add to Porter’s body of work which ranges far and wide–from the News & Documentary Emmy-nominated Gideon’s Army to Trapped as well as to Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (a four-part Showtime series), The Way I See It, about photojournalist Pete Souza who served as chief official White House photographer for President Ronald Regan and President Barack Obama, the docuseries Bobby Kennedy for President, and Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net, highlighting the return of Cirque du Soleil after the Montreal-based entertainment company was shuttered during the COVID pandemic.
In 2020 Porter received the Critics Choice Association’s Impact Award which recognizes documentarians whose work has resulted in tangible societal changes. That came just two years after she was a Critics Choice Documentary Award nominee for John Lewis: Good Trouble, which examined the late Congressman Lewis’ pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement and decades of political and social activism on vital issues including voting rights and immigration laws. Porter said she saw Lewis’ spirit among the rank and file of the WNBA during the course of making Power of the Dream.
Porter was celebrated at AFI Docs, the American Film Institute’s documentary film festival, as the 2021 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree. The Guggenheim Symposium honors a master of the nonfiction art form. That year AFI Docs screened Porter’s Rise Again: Tulsa And The Red Summer followed by an in-depth conversation with the documentarian. Rise Again: Tulsa And The Red Summer followed award-winning Washington Post journalist DeNeen Brown as her investigation into a mass grave in her home state of Oklahoma led her to dig deeper into the racial violence of the early 20th century. The film came 100 years after the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, during which hundreds of Tulsa’s Black residents were murdered and thousands were displaced.
Porter is also exploring shorter form endeavors in the commercialmaking and branded content world via Institute, filmmaker Lauren Greenfield’s production company which is designed to open up opportunities in the advertising space for women directors and other underrepresented voices spanning different ethnicities. Porter looks forward to her work in this field and discovering how it may inform her ongoing documentary filmmaking. She at press time was directing a short for A&E Television.
Porter has been involved in short-form fare over the years. Her Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance for MTV explores Breonna Taylor’s legacy from the artwork she inspired. That artwork has helped Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, to heal after her daughter’s death. Bree Wayy also introduces us to artist Amy Sherald and a portrait she created that became the centerpiece of an art exhibit in a Louisville museum paying tribute to Taylor. The film examines how art can serve as a means of protest as well as a way to realize some measure of comfort in the midst of grief.
