Tribeca 2023 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SOMEWHERE QUIET (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 23, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Jennifer Kim, Marin Ireland, Olivia West Lloyd, Somewhere Quiet, Tribeca 2023

Weaving passive aggression, casual racism and a whole lot of indefinable but omnipresent bad vibes, Somewhere Quiet is a masterclass in suspense – not the big, bombastic Hitchcockian sense, but that awful, insidious lo-fi rumbling kind that suffocates with an insidious yet persistent creep. Jennifer Kim once again proves that she is a cult superstar waiting to happen in this career-defining performance, perfectly embodying the long tail of trauma as it ricochets through her body and mind.

Commentaries Festivals

Tribeca 2023 Women’s Performances To Watch – Liz Whittemore reports

June 16, 2023September 4, 2023 Liz Whittemore female filmmakers, gabriela cowperthwaite, gender parity, tessa thompson, Tribeca 2023, TRIBECA FILM FEST 2023

The 2023 edition of The Tribeca Film Festival upped the ante for female filmmakers. Femme-centric storytelling gave us innumerable outstanding performances from women of all ages. As usual, I begin my annual roundup with the caveat that this list pertains solely to the films I watched. You can read more about the festival lineup in our collective AWFJ coverage, and it is aplenty this year. Here is my 2023 list of Women to Watch from Tribeca.

Festivals Reviews

JE’VIDA (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 16, 2023June 18, 2023 Sherin Nicole Agafia Niemenmaa, Heidi Juliana Gauriloff, Je’vida, Katja Gauriloff, Niillas Holmberg, sami films, Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Seidi Haarla, Skolt Sámi, Tribeca 2023

Filmed in black & white, with dialogue in the Skolt Sámi dialect (a global first), director Katja Gauriloff, alongside co-writer Niillas Holmberg, explores the destruction of original cultures at the feet of forced assimilation. The Sámi are an indiginous people who are native to Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Today roughly 300 people still speak the Skolt Sámi dialect and hold fast to their traditions. Je’vida may be fiction but it is their story

Festivals Reviews

THE SPACE RACE (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 14, 2023June 14, 2023 Leslie Combemale African American astronauts, Arlaldo Tamayo Méndez, Charles Bolden, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Ed Dwight, Guion Bluford, Jessica Watkins, lisa cortes, NASA history, Nichelle Nichols, Ronald McNair, Space Race, Stephanie Wilson, Tribeca 2023, Victor Glover

Space Race, a new documentary released at Tribeca about the heretofore too hidden history of contributions to NASA and space exploration from the Black community. For anyone who is interested in American history or the space program, this film is a must-see. When asked what they hope this film might inspire in terms of conversation and action, Lisa Cortés had this to say. “I hope people will walk away from the film recognizing the importance of knowing your history. To feel inspired to advocate for these stories to be included in history books. No matter how much people try to rewrite or obliterate history, films like this are very important. They’re correctives to a narrative that has, at many times, excluded important contributions of people of color.”

Festivals Reviews

I.S.S. (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 14, 2023September 4, 2023 Valerie Kalfrin Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, gabriela cowperthwaite, I.I.S., International Space Station, Masha Mashkova, sci fi, Tribeca 2023

For most of its roughly 90 minutes, the sci-fi thriller I.S.S. creates a meaty, suspenseful story, exploring not aliens from other worlds but the monsters of distrust within ourselves.
The title is an acronym for the International Space Station, a real-life research facility orbiting the Earth where astronauts collaborate on research involving physics, astrobiology, and other disciplines. The station typically has a crew of seven and involves five space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe.

Festivals Reviews

FRESH KILLS (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 14, 2023June 30, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Annabela Sciorra, Emily Bader, female-centric, Fresh Kills, Jennifer Esposito, mob film, Odessa A’zion, staten island, Tribeca 2023

Named after the Staten Island landfill of the same name, Fresh Kills is a satisfying up-close-and-personal twist on the traditional New York mob movie by actress-turned-filmmaker Jennifer Esposito. Seen through the eyes of quiet, watchful Rose (Emily Bader), this primarily 1990s set family crime drama focuses on her intense and sometimes fraught relationship with her mother Francine (Esposito) and older sister Connie (Odessa A’zion) as their lives are thrown into disarray in the aftermath of her father’s involvement in organized crime.

Festivals Reviews

THE PERFECT FIND (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 14, 2023June 18, 2023 Sherin Nicole gabrielle union, Gina Torres, Keith Powers, netflix, Numa Perrier, The Perfect Find, Tribeca 2023

I am in love with love. And romantic comedies are candy. Devouring them is what I do. Yet, lately, they haven’t been as tasty as they once were. Outside of K-dramas, it’s been a long time since a rom-com has delighted me. So, I have good news: The Perfect Find is what its title suggests. Based on the novel of the same name by Tia Williams (who also makes a cameo appearace), director Numa Perrier and writer Leigh Davenport kept me giggling but also delivered a couple I could cheer for.

Festivals Reviews

SCREAM OF MY BLOOD: A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 14, 2023September 4, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas documentaries, Eugene Hütz, Gogol Bordello, Nate Pommer, punk rock music, Roma heritage, Scream of My Blood, Tribeca 2023

Through Nate Pommer’s exhaustive archive, Scream of My Blood is an immersive step back in time that allows us to travel through the Gogol Bordello band’s development and evolution as they attained international fame, appearing in the US on shows like Conan and Letterman, collaborating with pioneering producer Steve Albini, and hanging with Iggy Pop. The centrality of the immigrant experience to the core of what makes the project so unique is seen from the perspective of an impressive array of past and present band members, but it is of course Eugene Hütz’s story that remains central.

Festivals Reviews

CYPHER (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 14, 2023September 4, 2023 Sherin Nicole Chris Moukarbel, Cypher, documentary, fandom, Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, Tierra Whack, Tribeca 2023

Cypher is a high-concept docudrama that transmutes into an occult-tinged thriller. It has no genre. Instead, Cypher culminates in a sort of filmic mix-media, a mélange of documentaries, music biopics, and paranormal thrillers, that blends but keeps its flavors distinct. In discussing its multiplicity, we’re going to need a new portmanteau. Let’s go with ‘docu-thriller’ or ‘metamentary’ and hope they are articulate enough.

Festivals Reviews

YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 14, 2023June 14, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Brendan Rock, Indianna Bell, Jordan Cowan, Josiah Allen, Tribeca 2023, You'll Never Find Me

The set up is elegant in its simplicity; an unnamed barefoot young woman knocks at the door of a trailer on a violently stormy night, looking for shelter. A middle-aged man, Patrick, answers and hesitatingly invites her in. Waiting for the weather to settle enough for her to be able to continue on her way, the two fall into awkward conversation as the rain pelts down on the tin roof above them, providing an abstract and disorienting drumbeat of sorts to the unfolding psychodrama taking place beneath it

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