Two Audience Awards, one for narrative and one for documentary, were bestowed this evening upon King Jack and TransFatty Lives, respectively, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Each honor comes with a cash prize of $25,000.
“The awards go to two powerful and charming stories of young men facing their deepest fears and overcoming their own challenges,” said Genna Terranova, Festival director. “These fiction and non-fiction stories of triumph and resilience clearly resonated with audiences this year.”
Directed and written by Felix Thompson, King Jack introduces us to Jack who has grown up in a rural town filled with violent delinquents. Jack has learned to do what it takes to survive, despite having an oblivious mother and no father. After his aunt falls ill and a younger cousin comes to stay with him, the hardened 15-year-old discovers the importance of friendship, family, and looking for happiness even in the most desolate of circumstances.
TransFatty Lives was directed by Patrick O’Brien, who wrote the film with Scott Crowningshield, Lasse Jarvi and Doug Pray. O’Brien is TransFatty, the onetime NYC deejay and Internet meme-making superstar. In 2005, O’Brien began to document his life after being diagnosed with ALS and given only two to five years to live. TransFatty Lives is a brazen and illustrative account of what it’s like to live when you find out you are going to die.
Runners-up
The runners-up were Song of Lahore, directed by Andy Schocken and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, for the Documentary Audience Award, and Sleeping With Other People, directed by Leslye Headland, for the Narrative Audience Award. Throughout the Festival, which kicked off on April 15, audiences were able to vote by completing nomination ballots upon exiting screenings of Tribeca Festival films. Films in the World Narrative Competition, World Documentary Competition, Viewpoints, Spotlight, and Midnight sections were eligible.
Sleeping With Other People stars Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie as two romantic failures whose years of serial infidelity and self-sabotage have led them to swear that their relationship will remain strictly platonic. But can love still bloom while you’re sleeping with other people? This sexy romantic comedy, an IFC Films release, co-stars Amanda Peet, Adam Scott, and Natasha Lyonne.
As for the runner-up documentary, until the late 1970s the Pakistani city of Lahore was world-renowned for its music. Following the Islamization of Pakistan, many artists struggled to continue their life’s work. Song of Lahore turns the spotlight on a group of stalwart musicians that kept playing and ultimately attracted listeners from around the world.
Recap
The Audience Awards capped a Tribeca Festival which two nights earlier bestowed jury award honors on several films, the big winners being Virgin Mountain and Bridgend. The former won Best Narrative Feature distinction at Tribeca. An offbeat Icelandic romantic comedy about a 43-year-old virgin, Virgin Mountain, which was directed by Dagur Kari, also won Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Gunnar Jonsson).
Bridgend, a drama by the Danish director Jeppe Ronde about the recent teen suicide epidemic in the eponymous Welsh county, took the other narrative awards. The film won best actress for Hannah Murray, as well as best editing and cinematography.
Best documentary went to Democrats, Camilla Nielsson’s examination of the Zimbabwe government under president Robert Mugabe. Democrats was a Tribeca Film Institute-supported documentary. Nielsson was awarded the Tribeca Film Institute’s 2011 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund in 2011, which provides finishing funds to feature-length documentaries that highlight and humanize issues of social importance from around the world.
Beyond the many films which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, there were also some Works in Progress shown, a prime example being director Alma Har’el’s LoveTrue. Select scenes from the film were screened for Tribeca attendees followed by a discussion session with Har’el and executive producer Shia LaBeouf.
LoveTrue follows real people and actors, weaving through three challenging relationships. Har’el tells three love stories, making for a poetic journey through the thoughts, feelings, soul, imagination and dysfunctional, flawed aspects we take into relationships. SHOOT’s coverage of LoveTrue (SHOOTonline, 4/22) featured insights from Rhea Scott, president of production company Little Minx. Scott serves as a producer on LoveTrue (Little Minx’s second feature film) along with Delirio Films’ Christopher Leggett and Rafael Marmor.
Tribeca also walked down memory lane with a tribute to Frank Sinatra, part of a yearlong centennial celebration of Ol’ Blue eyes. On Tuesday night, Tony Bennett sang his renditions of such iconic Sinatra-performed songs as “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.” Also performing in celebration of Sinatra were dancer Savion Glover, singers Alice Smith, Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers, Ne-o and Lea DeLaria. The latter, who stars in Orange is the New Black, crooned “Luck Be a Lady.” The cinematic tribute to Sinatra that same evening was a screening of the 1949 classic musical On the Town about three sailers on shore leave in the Big Apple for 24 hours. Starring alongside Sinatra in On the Town was Gene Kelly who also directed the film in tandem with Stanley Donen.
The Tribeca Festival also showcased more than 20 projects in the Tribeca Film Institute's Interactive Playground, now in its second year. Virtual reality was an integral part of the digital experience with projects like “Confinement” and “One Dark Night” appearing in the playground.
And approximately 1,350 public school students attended screening events at Tribeca Film Festival, including Tribeca Teaches, Youth Screening Series and Our City, My Story.
