Myself and Online are very pleased to announce that I will be doing very extensive coverage of this year's Tribeca Film Festival! The prestigious NYC festival runs from April 13th-24th for 10 days. The festival will be premiering indie and foreign films, new experiences like virtual reality (VR), and so much more. Tribeca could very well be considered the Sundance of the East, and this year's lineup proves that notion all the more.

We'll be doing some immediate coverage that'll get posted almost instantly, and others will roll out as the weeks go on. This will, in a way, be like "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," in that I get one shot a week to cover film related things, but you'll be getting the more important stuff first. I'll be doing some red carpet coverage, interviews with directors, film reviews, and coverage of the Director's Talks series.

There are a lot of films that I am super excited to check out, a lot of which you will be able to see, but I also want to see the films that probably won't make the "cut," and will get little distribution, if any at all. That's the beauty of film festivals--you can see films that you can't see normally, which also sometimes end up being a lot better than the movies that get picked up and distributed worldwide.

I can tell you from some press screenings that this is definitely the case with a lot of films this year. So, I'd like to share with you the films that won't get noticed by traditional means that you should actually go buy a ticket to and enjoy, because you might not get a chance to see them at all.

(Please note these reflect narratives both domestic and international):

"Junction 48"
After a car wreck kills his father and critically injures his mother, music is the thing to which he clings. But as his hip-hop ensemble begins to rise in the ranks of acclaim, we begin to question whether his lyrics can really be divorced from his politics. The title of the film refers to the 1948 Palestine War, the aftermath of which still looms large over successive generations. The film has its share of sudden and senseless violence, deploying the single crack of a pistol to explore the intersection of personal and political tragedy.

"El Classico"
Alan is deeply in love with Gona and has been keeping it a secret for years. When he finally works up the courage to ask Gona’s father for her hand in marriage, his proposal is denied because of his small stature. Crushed by this verdict, Alan convinces his brother Shirwan, a huge Real Madrid fan, to join him on a mission to deliver a pair of handmade Kurdish soccer shoes to famed Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. With the hope that the attention of Ronaldo will change Gona’s father’s mind about their relationship, the two brothers hit the road and set out on an epic journey of self-discovery and adventure.

"Parents"
Kjeld and Vibeke, a middle-aged Danish couple, aren’t entirely certain who they are without their son. Esben has recently moved away from home; their identities unmoored in his absence. Attempting to recapture the vigor and magic of their younger days, they move out of their house and into the old, pre-parenthood apartment where they first fell in love. Recapturing their youth is changing them in strange and unexpected ways. Told with deadpan Nordic humor and just a touch of surrealism, Parents is ultimately a droll rumination on family identity and how to grow old gracefully.

"Kicks"
In director Justin Tipping's feature debut "Kicks," nothing is as simple as it seems. Fifteen-year-old Brandon longs for a pair of the freshest sneakers that money can buy, assuming that merely having them on his feet will help him escape the reality of being poor, neglected by the opposite sex, and picked on by everyone—even his best friends. Working hard to get them, he soon finds that the titular shoes have instead made him a target after they are promptly snatched by local hood Flaco. Seemingly the embodiment of menace, Flaco harbors complexities of his own that will be revealed when Brandon goes on a mission to retrieve his stolen sneakers with his two best friends in tow. Boasting a strong ensemble cast, and featuring a memorable lead performance by newcomer Jahking Guillory, the film transcends a deceptively traditional hero's journey to deliver an entertaining and sobering look at the realities of inner-city life, the concept of manhood, and the fetishization of sneaker culture.

"Bad Rap"
Hip-hop music originated as the voice of Black America, bubbling up through the cracks in the concrete of urban life. Since its inception, the music and the culture surrounding it have been spread far and wide, often touching the lives of those who may have been considered outsiders to the once insular community. Salima Koroma's Bad Rap takes us inside the lives of one such group of so-called outsiders—Asian-American rappers.

The film follows the lives and careers of four artists trying to break into a world that often treats them with disdain or indifference. From the tongue-in-cheek lyrics of Awkwafina to the no-nonsense battle rap of legendary West Coast MC Dumbfoundead, Koroma’s documentary checks all of the boxes, looking at the role of Asian Americans in the entertainment industry with a keen observational eye. Sharing dynamic live performance footage and revealing interviews, the artists profiled will make even the most skeptical critics into believers. Crafted with humor and insight, the film paints a memorable portrait of artistic passion in the face of an unsung struggle.

"Here Alone"
After a terrible virus ravages human civilization, Ann finds herself living alone in a forest, foraging for supplies, and accompanied only by a radio that broadcasts a single transmission in French. Few animals even remain; the only survivors seem to be the roving hordes of infected creatures with a taste for human flesh. One fateful day, Ann crosses paths with two more survivors, Chris and Olivia. But after surviving on her own for so long, she struggles to relate to them and and their desire to settle down and start a new community. As Ann tells Chris, “Those who stay, die.” Though a stomach-clenching thriller, Here Alone is less about the threat itself than the people who are surviving it. For Ann, killing the infected is an easier proposition than connecting with her new companions in a world where intimacy, jealousy, and your fellow man can be just as dangerous.

"Women Who Kill"
Morgan (Jungermann) and Jean (Ann Carr) work well together as hosts of their semi-famous true crime podcast because they didn’t work, at all, as a couple. When Morgan strikes up a relationship with the mysterious Simone (Sheila Vand, importing substantial menace from her breakout role in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) their professional interest boils over into a cycle of suspicion, paranoia, and fear. Thankfully, Morgan has a confidant (maybe not her first choice given that she is in prison for murder). Women Who Kill is an adept and wry comedy on modern romance’s hollow results set in an LGBTQ Brooklyn that pulls ample humor from awkward and, perhaps to confirmed Park Slopers, all-too-familiar situations.

"Mother"
This darkly comic crime mystery set in small-town Estonia centers on Elsa, the mother and full-time caretaker of Lauri, a teacher who has been in a coma since being shot under shadowy circumstances. Attentive in her duties but at the end of her tether, Elsa receives Lauri’s visitors—friends, students, his girlfriend, his boss, and others—who come to update the unconscious Lauri on their lives and unburden themselves of their troubles. But as the police inquiry into the crime progresses, some of his closest ties are called into question.

"The Fixer"
Leaving behind his life as a fixer for Western journalists reporting on the war in Afghanistan, Osman (Dominic Rains) lands in a small bohemian town in Northern California, living on the couch of his friend’s mother (Melissa Leo) and working as a crime reporter for the local newspaper. Restless and eager to find purpose in the context of his new life, he befriends a couple of locals—the eccentric and unstable Lindsay (James Franco) and the elusive Sandra (Rachel Brosnahan)—recruiting them to help him penetrate the town’s peculiar subculture. When Lindsay mysteriously goes missing, Osman gets drawn into the backwoods of the town in order to find him. As things begin to take a dangerous turn, Osman is forced to confront the untenable reality of his situation.

"Adult Life Skills"
Anna (Jodie Whittaker) is stuck: She’s approaching 30 and has just moved back to her rural hometown, and into a shed in her mother’s backyard. She spends her time working a menial job at a local boating center and hides in the depths of her imagination, making movies with her thumbs. Irritated by her childish behavior, Anna's mother insists that she move out of her shed and on with her life. When a troubled young boy starts hanging around, the two form an unlikely bond. Through their strange yet mutually beneficial friendship, Anna slowly begins to confront her perpetual state of arrested development. Expanded from her BAFTA-nominated short, Rachel Tunnard's striking feature debut is a dry-witted, charming, dark comedy that mixes dreamlike flourishes with dramatic action. Adult Life Skills is an off-beat comedy about a lost woman finding herself.

"Madly"
Madly explores love in all its permutations in six short films from a vibrant group of filmmakers representing Japan, Argentina, the UK, the US, India, and Australia. All forms of love are on display in this anthology. And all manners of feelings expressed from jubilance to depression are done so strongly. In Afterbirth, actress Mia Wasikowska goes behind the camera to tell the story of a young mother’s postpartum struggles; Gael García Bernal explores how pregnancy affects one couple’s already ambivalent relationship in Love of My Life; and ghosts of past relationships are resurrected in Natasha Khan’s I Do. These stories of love never shy away from taboo either: Sion Sono’s Love of Love delves into underground sex clubs in Japan, and Anurag Kashyap’s Clean Shaven uncovers the social relevance of a woman’s pubic hair. Love can even be delightfully irreverent at moments, Dance Dance Dance from Sebastian Silva features an eye-roll from Jesus. Madly, after all, is a contemporary portrait of love in all its glorious, sad, ecstatic, empowering, and erotic manifestations.

That's a lot of films, I know, but getting the chance to see something that's different in a world with tentpole blockbusters coming out every month is important. Even though Tribeca, like Sundance, is flooded with larger star studded films like "Elvis and Nixon," "Equals," and "A Hologram for a King", Tribeca still has a great knack for picking really good and different films. And for crying out loud, all of these screenings are in the evening; they are the price of a regular movie ticket, and you get to be a part of the Tribeca Film Festival. There is virtually no risk, apart from not necessarily enjoying the movie, which has happened to me, but I don't regret attending those screenings. Go challenge yourself, go see a real indie film.

Now finally, with the festival line up and tickets available (link below), I know what I'm going to cover but what do YOU, my readers, want me to cover? Is there a director you are dying to ask a question to? Is there a film you are going to miss but want to know if its worth seeing? Curious about VR? Ask away! Leave a comment below and ask me what you want me to write about!

Tickets For Tribeca Film Festival can be found here: https://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets