Crains New York - April 8, 2013 - (Page 26)
Continued from Page 25
media projects that go beyond traditional screens. Six of those documentaries will be shown at the festival, which runs from April 17
through April 28.There also will be
workshops and panel discussions
about new filmmaking trends.
“As a film festival, we have to be
part of the conversation about how
technology is changing and how
we [filmmakers] use it creatively,”
said Jane Rosenthal, one of the festival’s founders.
Distinguishing features
The increased emphasis on nontraditional filmmaking is one way
the festival—which was started by
Robert De Niro and Ms. Rosenthal
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to
bring people back downtown—can
set itself apart from others.Over the
years, it has experimented with its
size and breadth of offerings in an
effort to find its niche in the crowded film festival circuit, and the
mammoth event has been criticized
in the past for lacking a distinct personality. This year, the festival will
screen 89 feature films—the same
number as last year—at theaters in
lower Manhattan.
“To me, focusing on technology
is a sign that the festival is forwardthinking,” said Josh Braun, copresident of Submarine, which is
representing six films at Tribeca.
Even without the new programming, the festival highlights how
much technology has transformed
‘People really
just want
to be part of
the process’
filmmaking. At least 10 of the
movies that will be shown were
made using funds raised through the
Internet. And for one movie, called
Tricked, director Paul Verhoeven
wrote only the first four minutes,
and used crowdsourcing to find 85
different writers to finish the rest.
Much of the experimentation
with technology at Tribeca this
WHAT TO WATCH AT TRIBECA
There are 89 feature films set for screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Here are some with big names attached that are generating buzz.
Before Midnight. The third chapter in a popular saga of two lovers, played
by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who met on a train in Europe when they
were young in the first installment and reunited years later in the second.
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Big Men. A documentary produced by Brad Pitt that explores the toll of oil
exploration by big corporations in Africa.
Distributor: In the market for one
Bridegroom. Former President Bill Clinton will introduce this timely
documentary about the ongoing debate over the right of same-sex couples
to marry.
Distributor: In the market for one
Byzantium. The latest film by Interview With the Vampire director Neil
Jordan, which has the undead wreaking havoc on mere mortals.
Distributor: IFC Films
Gasland Part II. The follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Gasland, which
continues to explore the controversy around hydraulic fracturing.
Distributor: HBO
I Got Somethin’ to Tell You. Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg makes her
directorial debut with a documentary about the late comedian Moms
Mabley. The presumably wealthy co-host of The View generated controversy
by using Kickstarter to help raise funds for the movie.
Distributor: In the market for one
In God We Trust. A documentary about swindler extraordinaire Bernie
Madoff’s longtime personal secretary, Eleanor Squillari, and her obsession
with the case.
Distributor: In the market for one
Lenny Cooke. A documentary about one of the most hyped basketball
players ever, who was supposed to be an NBA star but never played in the
league. It is the first documentary by brothers Bennie and Joshua Safdie,
whose fictional films like Daddy Long Legs have won critical praise and
been shown at other festivals, such as Cannes.
Distributor: In the market for one
Mistaken for Strangers. This documentary, which follows the rock band The
National on the road, will open the festival. It’s directed by Tom Berninger, a
roadie with the band and the younger brother of its lead singer.
Distributor: In the market for one
Reluctant Fundamentalist. The latest film from director Mira Nair (Monsoon
Wedding, The Namesake) who adapts the best-selling book about how a
young Pakistani-born man’s cushy life is upended after 9/11.
Distributor: IFC Films
—THERESA AGOVINO
26 | Crain’s New York Business | April 8, 2013
year, however, is meant solely for
education. None of the Storyscapes
exhibits were designed for theatrical release.Each already existed,but
festival sponsor Bombay Sapphire
Gin paid an undisclosed amount to
underwrite new elements of each
especially for Tribeca.
In fact, some question whether
these new interactive methods of
storytelling will ever find a way to
make money. With funding from
the National Film Board of Canada, Hugues Sweeney and his team
video-recorded people talking
about their insomnia. For Tribeca,
they used some of those experiences
to create A Journal of Insomnia,
which invites festivalgoers to sample someone else’s specific struggle
with sleeplessness via the Internet.
He was uncertain if it would have
attracted independent financing or
if viewers would pay to watch it.
“We are still looking for the economic model, and there is no magic recipe,” Mr. Sweeney said. “We
wanted to build an audience.”
Drawing interest seems to be
the easy part. All of the Storyscapes
initiatives triggered significant
outside participation. In one, a
team created a multimedia archive
of people’s Superstorm Sandy experiences, which will offer festivalgoers a chance to add their own recollections. Meanwhile, thousands
of people have added their imprint
to The Exquisite Forest. Started by a
Google creative director and an independent filmmaker, it is a usergenerated online gallery of animation. Its popularity already has led
to having it on display at the Tate
Modern in London, and wannabe
artists will be able to add to it at
Tribeca.
‘Luke, I am your tabby’
Similarly, when Casey Pugh put
out a call on the Internet for people
to re-create a 15-second portion of
Star Wars in any way they wanted,
he got 900 responses, with fans
using everything from their cats to
liquor bottles as stand-ins for characters. The film now has a cult following on YouTube. Star Wars Uncut will be shown at the festival, and
people also will get a chance to act
out a scene.
“People really just want to be
part of the process,” Mr. Pugh said.
That’s what Alexander Reben
hopes. He will bring to the festival
about 20 cardboard robots that ask
pointed questions, in hopes that
people will divulge some interesting
stories. At the end of the festival, a
film will be created from the
footage.
Experts say that there always
will be people who simply want to
sit back and watch a film, but that
finding ways to engage an audience
in the process is critical for the new
generation.
“This generation has been
brought up on being able to control
the medium where they get their information,” said Albie Hecht,
founding director of the Macaulay
Honors College New Media Lab at
the City University of New York. Ⅲ
newscom
SOURCE
Lights, camera, interaction LUNCH:
DAN BIEDERMAN
by Annie Karni
Public park, meet
private partnership
B
ryant Park Corp. President Dan Biederman
was just 26 and a recent
Harvard
Business
School graduate when
he started his career in 1980. Over
the past 33 years,he has expanded his
empire of business improvement
districts—public-private partnerships that fund upgrades in neighborhood retail strips—to most of
midtown Manhattan: the 34th
Street Partnership, Chelsea Improvement Co. and the Grand Central Partnership. His latest idea is a
plan to create Boulevard 41, a privately funded effort to transform the
block of West 41st Street between
Broadway and Bryant Park into a
leafy green space with bistro tables
and chairs.
In your opinion, what’s the advantage of
private management of public space?
I like to do things without
any public money. Our
sanitation workers never
leave voluntarily, and we
know this is the bestpaying job they can get.
They start a little above the
minimum wage, and they
go up very quickly. We
have guys in Bryant Park
who are making close to
$20 an hour, plus benefits
and overtime.We don’t cap
the salaries. That’s still
lower than what the city
would have to pay for
equivalent jobs because the
[city] pension plans are so
expensive. That’s the genius of privatization.
What are you doing there
instead?
neighborhood. Bryant Park could
still be done in another borough,
but it would be harder. Here, the
Durst Organization [which runs 1
Bryant Park] is the single biggest
contributor in terms of money it
gives to the park. The Grace Building on Sixth Avenue is the secondbiggest contributor. The second
thing is you have to have someone
doing the day-to-day work that really wants to be private. Governments spend in a way that the private sector wouldn’t.
Do you have a favorite Business
Improvement District, like a favorite
child?
My favorite is the 34th Street
Partnership.
Has the loss of Fashion Week
hurt Bryant Park?
It’s been great, actually. We insisted
they move. We had them
for 15 years, but we
couldn’t run the park the
way we wanted to, including the long winter ice season. They also came back
BRYANT PARK
in August, and it didn’t
GRILL
work with our summer
25 W. 40th St.
season. We gave up $3 milOn the west side
lion in revenue a year when
of Bryant Park,
next to the New
they left, but we made it up
York Public Library
from other sources, so it’s
headquarters
been good.
(212) 840-6500
WHERE
THEY
DINED
arkrestaurants
.com/bryant_
park.html
AMBIENCE: The
best seats offer a
view of the park
and office towers
behind it. The
crowd is a mix of
tourists and
businesspeople.
WHAT THEY ATE:
Ⅲ Bryant Park
chicken Cobb
salad
Ⅲ Pan-roasted
salmon filet
TAB:
$52.26, plus tip
We’re talking with the
French about an event
called the Taste of France.
It’s looking very likely that
the event will locate in
Bryant Park this year. Last
year, we had square dancing for three nights, and it
was hugely successful. That will be
expanded to seven nights this year.
We have 65 programs here a year.
That’s a lot of programming for a
public park.
Could another borough sustain a
privately managed park like Bryant Park?
First, you have to be in an area
where there’s some concentration
of real estate and where the commercial [interests] care about the
Do you feel competitive with
other parks?
Yes. Worldwide, we want
to be thought of as better
than Luxembourg [in
Paris] and the Queen’s
Park and Hyde Park in
London.
Are you concerned about who
will be the next mayor?
Mayor Bloomberg had
very strong commissioners.
We’re
quite
worried
because all the decisions
could be made out of City
Hall, and that’s not the case
now. Reversing the work [city
Department of Transportation
Commissioner] Janette Sadik-Khan
and [former Department of Parks
Commissioner] Adrian Benepe did
would be very bad. There are people
out there still ranting about bike lanes
and plazas, and those have been
immensely good for the city. I can’t
see them taking the plazas out, but
I’m a little worried it will go back in
the other direction. Ⅲ
INSIDE TIP: Request a table by the window
for gorgeous views of Bryant Park.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 8, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: BANKING
THE LISTS
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE DEALS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS
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