2021 Tribeca Festival: More highlights you can stream at home (Part 4)
The 2021 Tribeca Festival, ostensibly held in New York City, is this year also an online affair, with many features available to home viewers across the U.S. Narrative films, documentaries, shorts programs, TV features and filmmaker Q&As will be available to stream from their premiere dates through June 23.
Highlights
Of the films previewed at press time, here are some highlights premiering June 17-20. [You can read about more film recommendations in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, which are also available to watch at home through June 23.]
“LFG” (World Premiere) – In 2019, on International Women’s Day, members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team announced a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation demanding equal pay with male players, especially considering the women’s success on the field compared to the U.S. men’s team. The athletes were able to garner widespread support from fans for their cause, as they won their fourth World Cup title, but would that be enough? While reps from the U.S. Soccer Federation refused to be interviewed for “LFG,” their silence is pretty loud compared to the voices of the female players (including Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press and Becky Sauerbrunn), who make their case not just with their impassioned stories, but also their feet. Directed by Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine. Screens at the Battery June 17; available At Home June 18-23. Streams on HBO Max beginning June 24.
Watch a trailer for “LFG”:
“Ailey” (New York Premiere) – Jamila Wignot’s rapturous profile of dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey (which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year) includes archival performance footage of such pieces as his quintessential “Revelations,” and energetic rehearsals of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, led by mentees who are pursuing Ailey’s vision years after his death. It also features interviews with numerous dancers and collaborators who speak to Ailey’s gifts as a leader, and as an artist who found a way to blend the aesthetics of classical and modern dance with the sensibility of a young Black boy from Depression-era Texas who dreamed of becoming a dancer, and made it to the heights of the performing arts. Screens at Hudson Yards June 17; available At Home June 18-23. Neon will release “Ailey” in theatres July 23.
Watch a trailer for “Ailey”:
“The Neutral Ground” (World Premiere) – In December 2015 the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments, but there were impediments to taking them down from their pedestals. “Daily Show” producer C.J. Hunt follows the history of Confederate memorials, and how (for a certain sector of the public) maintaining and preserving testaments to the “Lost Cause” is itself a zealous cause. Told with tongue in cheek and an eye for the absurd (including his participation in a Civil War reenactment as one of the “bad guys”), Hunt’s film is also mournful in how the glorification of historical hate manifests itself today, as in Charlottesville, where he witnesses the racists’ deadly attack on counterprotestors – and talks with one White supremacist who claims he only came for the “fun.” Screens at Pier 76 at Hudson River June 19; available At Home June 20-23. Will air on PBS’ “POV” July 5, and stream at pov.org.
Watch a trailer for “The Neutral Ground”:
“The Death of My Two Fathers” (U.S. Premiere) – Sol Guy, a producer, hip hop artist and activist, embarked on a personal film/life testament to show his young children, and in the process, overcame the difficulty he’d had in watching the home video recordings that his father, William Richard Guy (an African American who sought peace by moving to Vancouver), had made prior to dying of cancer twenty years earlier. After years of estrangement, Sol reunites with his several siblings and half-siblings, in order to better understand his father’s childhood and the man he became; the hold of his extended family (including his White mother and stepfather); and the Black experience in America in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. A touching self-portrait that should encourage anyone with a video camera about the value of turning it on and preserving their own story, while they can. Screens at Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place June 19 and 20; available At Home June 20-23.
Watch a trailer for “The Death of My Two Fathers”:
“How It Ends” (New York Premiere) – A whimsical comedy about the apocalypse? Co-writers and co-directors Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones use the impending collision of a comet that will wipe out all life on Earth as the trigger point for a poignant, personal film about expectations, regrets and solitude. Lister-Jones stars as Liza, who wanders the empty streets of L.A. with a companion closer to her than anyone: her younger self (played by Cailee Spaeny), who gives sage advice and prompts her to resolve issues and relationships before it’s too late to do so. With a winning screenplay and deft comic timing, the film features cameos by Fred Armisen, Helen Hunt, Lamorne Morris, Bradley Whitford and Olivia Wilde. Screens at the Battery June 20; available At Home June 21-23. Available in select theatres and On Demand beginning July 20.
Watch a trailer for “How It Ends”:
See also:
- Opening highlights from Tribeca Festival (Part 1)
- More highlights from Tribeca Festival (Part 2)
- More highlights from Tribeca Festival (Part 3)
For more info:
- 2021 Tribeca Festival (through June 20)