The Discovery, Narrative and Documentary competition lineups for the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival have been announced, and as indieWIRE reports, it’s going to be a much smaller festival this year. This would seem like good news: last year, Tribeca was streamlined down to 100-something features, and as I noted in my festival recap, the quality of the programming hardly suffered. Here are some of the films that, on first scan of the lineup, I’m excited to see:
- About Elly — This Iranian drama won the Silver Bear at last month’s Berlinale, and amongst its more controversial competition, Elly was a critical favorite. Likening it to an Iranian L’Avventura, Kevin Lee noted at The Auteurs Notebook that “the film suggests a post-Kiarostami Iranian cinema capable of achieving much within a mainstream idiom.”
- The Exploding Girl — Another Berlin premiere, this narrative directed by Bradley Rust Gray (husband of Treeless Mountain creator So Yong Kim) stars Zoe Kazan as a “Cherubic college student” whose “relationship with her boyfriend slowly disintegrates via cell phone.”
- Outrage — the latest doc from Oscar nominee Kirby Dick is said to offer “a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to.”
- Con Artist — I’d ordinarily be wary of anything described as a “punk-fueled docu-comedy,” but Tribeca has an excellent track record when it comes to art docs, so I’ll give this nonfiction portrait of Mark Kostabi a shot.
- Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench — I’ve heard a few good words on the street about Damien Chazelle’s debut feature, described as a “black-and-white, verite-style relationship drama with all that jazzy romance of an old-Hollywood musical.”
- P-Star Rising – Director Gabriel Noble spent four years following hip hop producer/ex-con Jesse Diaz and his young daughter Priscilla, an aspiring rapper who also goes by the name P-Star.
