Tribeca 2026 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MINESHAFT: THE CRUISING MURDERS (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 13, 2026June 14, 2026 Leslie Combemale Addison Verrill, al pacino, documentary, gay history, Jeffrey Schwartz, LGBTQ history, Mineshaft, Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, Tribeca 2026, William Friedkin

No matter what you think you know about director William Friedkin’s movie Cruising, or, for that matter, about New York City in the late 1970s, you’ll learn more by watching Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders. Acting as director, producer, and editor, Jeffrey Schwartz offers up a fascinating, (albiet “kitchen sink”) documentary that explores the 1979 thriller starring Al Pacino, the gay history happening around the making of the film, and the real-life murder that “inspired” his film.

Festivals Reviews

SAD GIRLZ (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 12, 2026June 16, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Darana Álvarez, Fernanda Tovar, mexican films, Rocío Guzmán, Sad Girlz, teen drama, Tribeca 2026

Sad Girlz, the moving, assured feature debut from writer-director Fernanda Tovar, captures their undeniable, believable friendship before and after trauma, with naturalistic performances from its young leads. Paula and La Maestra have an easy, affectionate bond. Both sixteen, they have other warm relationships with men in their lives, but they’re clearly each other’s anchor. How they navigate something more wrenching than they know how to handle makes Sad Girlz a delicately affecting coming-of-age story and a thoughtful exploration of how fragile and elastic some friendships can be.

Festivals Reviews

MARCH FORTH (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 11, 2026June 14, 2026 Leslie Combemale A Performance of Felon: An American Washi Tale, award-winning poet, Brian Tyree Henry, Freedom Reads, March Forth, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Robe Imbriano, Tribeca 2026, Valerie Hong, Yale Law School

Emmy Award-winning director Robe Imbriano partnered with Emmy-nominated director Valerie Hong to tell the story of Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sent to an adult prison at 16 years old for armed carjacking. After serving 8 years, much of it in a maximum security prison, Betts went on to become an award-winning poet, a graduate of Yale Law School, an acclaimed author and activist, and a MacArthur Genius Award winner. There are so many moments when Betts is raw and authentic as he is interviewed, but it’s never hard to watch him. In March Forth, one man’s experience, which has been neither easy nor simple, reveals the power of perception and the value of hard work to become who we want to be.

Festivals Reviews

JAIL TIME RECORDS (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 11, 2026June 12, 2026 Leslie Combemale Cameroon, Dione Roach, Jail Time Records, New Bell prison, Steve Happi, The documentary, The Promise of Music, Tribeca 2026

New Bell prison in Douala, Cameroon was built for a capacity of 800, but now houses nearly 6000 men. This overcrowded location is wall to wall with inmates from all walks of life, and is the backdrop of a story of creativity, artistic expression, and emotional authenticity that is Dione Roach and Steve Happi’s Jail Time Records. The documentary expertly juxtaposes cinema verité scenes of prison life with musical interludes using songs created behind the walls of New Bell. It’s a beautiful, visceral, invigorating movie that is as dynamic and hopeful as it is rage-inducing and heartbreaking. There isn’t a moment in Jail Time Records that isn’t compelling, equally drawing viewers in with the performances and the profiles of specific artists/inmates.

Festivals Reviews

HOLLYWOOD DOES ABORTION (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 11, 2026June 14, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Barbara Attie, documentary, Gillian Robespierre, Hollywood Does Abortion, Janet Goldwater, Mike Attie, norman lear, Rachel Bloom, roe v wade, Shonda Rhimes, Tribeca 2026, Zoanne Clack

The thought-provoking documentary Hollywood Does Abortion is more like “how Hollywood portrays abortion,” which is to say, skewed toward white teenagers in trouble, if at all. Directed by Emmy nominees Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, along with Mike Attie, the documentary argues that political pressures have shaped depictions of abortion onscreen for decades, creating a cycle of stigma and misinformation. It’s not as if a particular show or film led to certain legislation, the film argues, but that the potency of abortion as a political issue has influenced storylines time and again. It’s a strong and sobering take.

Festivals Reviews

HUMAN THEORIES (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 11, 2026June 14, 2026 Leslie Combemale female perspective, Human Theories, Jess Zeidman, NYC vignettes, Tribeca 2026

Part of life for city dwellers is the occasional eavesdropping on public transit, or the bizarre experience of running into someone you know, even in a different part of the city. Those are just two of dozens of occurrences captured in writer/producer/director Jess Zeidman’s fast paced and often amusing 70-minute indie comedy Human Theories. It is made up of 40 vignettes that might and often do happen in city life, in this case specifically New York City life.

Festivals Reviews

SUMMER WAR (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 11, 2026June 15, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Alicia Scherson, chilean films, Dan Beirne, David Gaete, Lux Pascal, Roberto Bolaño, summer war, Tribeca 2026

A board game champion sinks deeper into his obsession while on vacation at a Chilean seaside resort in Summer War, director Alicia Scherson’s second adaptation of a book by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. Summer War has the laid-back feel of a summer vacation at first, with warm cinematography from Alejo Maglio and deliberate pacing. Unfortunately, there’s a less-than-compelling protagonist, one of those insufferable American tourists myopic about his own behavior and the politics of the nation he’s visiting. While that might have been Bolaño’s point, it doesn’t make for a riveting watch.

Festivals Reviews

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

June 11, 2026June 14, 2026 Leslie Combemale Alisa Kolosova, german films, I Spy With My Little Eye, Judith Rose Gyabaah, Rahel Hutter, suicide, Tribeca 2026

Oof. Grief is messy. Like me, probably many of you out there know that. But do you know about the grief of someone you love taking their own life? That’s part of the premise of the German release I Spy With My Little Eye, but it doesn’t automatically make this indie the downer it sounds. In the case of this film, writer Judith Rose Gyabaah and director Alisa Kolosova wrap the experience of loss around enduring female friendship. It is joy and pain and fun and frustration. It is all the very real complications, like petty jealousies, varied levels of closeness, misunderstandings made and corrected, and everything else that makes up the way woman friends love each other.