April 28, 2013
Meera Menon Wins Inaugural Nora Ephron Prize
NEW YORK–The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) presented its first ever Nora Ephron Prize to first-time writer/director Meera Menon for her feature “Farah Goes Bang.” Menon was selected out of eight 2013 TFF filmmakers to receive a cash prize of $25,000 for work and talent that embody the spirit and vision of the late, legendary filmmaker and writer Ephron.
Farah Goes Bang, playing in the Festival’s Viewpoints section, follows an awkward 20-something who hits the road with her buddies to stump for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, hoping the trip will also be her opportunity to finally shed the long-unwanted virginity that still clings to her despite her best—and most uncomfortable—efforts. Crisscrossing the culturally divided nation at this decisive post-9/11 moment, these multicultural girls find themselves and their politics unwelcome in many parts of the country. They take inspiration from their friendship and press on in their campaign, even as Farah’s efforts on both political and sexual fronts are continuously thwarted.
“As a filmmaker I had always been inspired by Nora, she emblematized how to take pain and suffering and turn them into laughter and joy. Those qualities inspired me and my co-filmmakers. Receiving this incredible honor in her name means more than I could ever articulate. Tribeca has been such a special experience and the lady love is resounding,” said Menon.
“Newton’s Laws of Emotion” Wins Sloan Filmmaker Prize
NEW YORK–The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced the winner of the first ever TFI Sloan Filmmaker Prize, Newton’s Laws of Emotion. The project will receive a $10,000 cash prize that will be used to help bring the film closer to completion. The prize was awarded by a jury comprised of film and science luminaries in order to further support a project that has the most potential to succeed in fulfilling the program’s mission of advancing a greater public understanding of science.
The project was chosen from the four 2013 Sloan Filmmaker Fund recipients. Those recipients were awarded a total of $140,000 in grants earlier in the month. Each of the projects integrates science and technology themes and characters into their storylines. The grant recipients will also receive year-round mentorship from science experts and members of the film industry in order to complete their projects.
Newton’s Laws of Emotion (Eugene Ramos, Screenwriter; Andeep Singh, Producer) follows a young Isaac Newton as he pursues the affections of a headstrong princess and seeks to uncover the principles of love using his new system of mathematics. However, his equations start to break down when her former lover enters the scene.
The 2013 jury members included actors Clark Middleton (Kill Bill: Vol. II, Sin City), Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers), Dean Winters (Oz, 30 Rock, Rescue Me), Helen Fisher, PhD, biological anthropologist; and John Quackenbusch, Harvard professor of computational biology and bioinformatics.
“Isaac Newton is a remarkable figure in the scientific community and we are proud to champion a project that explores Newton’s brilliance and character,” said Tamir Muhammad, Director of Feature Programming, TFI. “This prize will give the project additional resources to bring an interest in his work to a wider audience.”
Tribeca All Access Program Winners, Grantees Announced
NEW YORK–The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced the winners of the 10th Annual Tribeca All Access (TAA) Creative Promise Awards presented by the Time Warner Foundation at a ceremony earlier tonight. The narrative The Lobbyists and the documentary (T)ERROR were selected from 11 projects based on the strength of their vision and filmmaking promise. Each project received $10,000 to help bring their films to completion. The Institute also announced this year’s TAA alumni grants and fellowships during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. The grants, all presented at tonight’s event, total over $90,000 in funds.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, TAA was created to help foster and nurture relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Since its founding in 2003, TAA has championed 227 films and over 500 filmmakers who identify as members of a minority group. Past TAA-supported films have gone on to premiere at film festivals around the country, received distribution deals and garnered critical acclaim.
The 2013 TAA Creative Promise narrative jurors were Ruben Blades, John Forte and Tea Leoni. The award’s documentary jurors were Shola Lynch, Sol Guy and Rachel Dratch.
This year’s Tribeca All Access Creative Promise winners were:
Narrative Award Winner:
* The Lobbyists
A conman with no past and a former CIA agent join forces to “lobby” politicians by blackmailing them into voting for progressive legislation.
Directed by Terence Nance; Produced by Chanelle Pearson and Andrew Corkin
Documentary Award Winner:
* (T)ERROR
(T)ERROR captures the spectacular unraveling of an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation, and the dramatic aftermath that occurs when the target of the investigation realizes that a government informant is setting him up.
Directed & Produced by Lyric R Cabral and David F Sutcliffe
Special Jury Mention (Documentary):
* Time is Illmatic
Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film, told through the lens of rapper NAS and his bluesman father OLU DARA, which deconstructs
Nas’ indelible rap album Illmatic and the socio-economic and cultural conditions that inspired it.
Directed and Produced by One9; Produced by Erik Parker
TAA’s programming and support for alumni this year included grants and fellowships for past TAA projects in development or new works by program alumni. The following grant recipients were announced:
TAA Alumni Documentary Grants
Support made possible by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for TAA alumni that display a palpable creative vision in the execution of their story, and undertake a riveting journalistic approach in their film’s subject matter.
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Turn it Around
Despite the odds being stacked against them, Joe, Deprece, and Sergio undertake the arduous process of becoming classroom teachers with grace and courage by enrolling in an ambitious experiment in public education in California. Hoping to revitalize a system and a society that has only ever failed them, Joe, Deprece, and Sergio seek to break the cycle of high teacher turnover and outsider teachers in their communities’ schools.
Produced and Directed by Dawn Valadez; Produced by Katherine Saviskas
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Untitled Colorado Documentary
The film follows a landmark case in Colorado, where a 6-year-old male-to-female transgender girl is banned from using the girls’ bathroom at her elementary school.
Produced and Directed by Eric Juhola; Produced by Jeremy and Randy Stulberg; Edited by Jeremy Stulberg
TAA Alumni Feature Narrative Awards
Grants to support TAA alumni that display creative vision in the execution of their scripted story and undertake a compelling cinematic, stylized, or dramatic approach to their characters.
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A Pebble of Love in the Shoe of My Life
An anti-coming of age drama about a young couple figuring out love and loyalty as they organize a rally in support of immigrant rights.
Written and Directed by Hossein Keshavarz; Produced by Chad Burris
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Untitled Colombia Project
A story following three women whose interlocking stories shed light on the horrific reality of sexual assault in the context of Colombia’s decades long armed conflict.
Written and Directed by Paola Mendoza; Written by Gloria La Morte; Produced by Joseph La Morte and Liz Manne
TAA On-Track Grants
Grants to further assist TAA alumni with the completion of their past TAA project or further the development of a new work-in-progress.
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Evolution of a Criminal (Documentary)
Ten years after robbing a Bank of America, filmmaker Darius Monroe returns home to examine how his actions affected the lives of family, friends… and victims.
Directed by Darius Clark Monroe; Produced by Jen Gatien; Executive Produced by Spike Lee
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Los Valientes (Narrative)
Struggling to find work and recover from a break-up, Felix, a gay and undocumented Mexican, leaves San Francisco for a small town in Pennsylvania where his undocumented sister promises steady work and the comfort of family. Once there, alienated by the town’s newly proposed anti-immigration law and forced into silence around his sexuality, Felix finds unexpected solace in the company of one person, his sister’s husband.
Directed and written by Aurora Guerrero
TAA Adrienne Shelly Foundation Filmmaker Grant
A grant to aid in the advancement of talented women filmmakers to further their projects towards completion or distribution.
* Afia Nathaniel – Director/Writer/Producer
Dukhtar (based on her TAA screenplay formerly “Neither the Veil nor the Four Walls”)
A mother goes on an extraordinary journey to save her ten year old daughter from an arranged marriage.
TAA Marketing & Web Fellowship
A collaboration between TAA and Push Creative, a full service branding agency, to encourage audience development – including a newly-designed website.
* Oscar’s Comeback
Through the lens of an annual mom-and-pop film festival in rural South Dakota –beleaguered amidst escalating racial and economic tensions — witness an 8-year behind-the-scenes chronicle of how worlds collide for a motley band of dreamers, as their dwindling all-white small-town champions their unsung black ‘native son’: early 1900s homesteader-turned-unlikely-film-pioneer, Oscar Micheaux — known to some as the “Godfather of Independent Cinema.”
Directed and Produced by Lisa Collins and Mark Schwartzburt
Tribeca Hacks TAA/Games 4 Change
Tribeca Hacks Games
In partnership with Games 4 Change, TAA filmmakers will be selected to participate in a special game-design workshop during the Games for Change Festival in June as part of the Tribeca Hacks initiative.
TAA Packaging the Pitch Grants
Grants to support alumni who need assistance developing a visual-based pitch for their project (i.e. trailer, location shooting, sample scene).
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The Odyssey of Al Sharpton (Documentary)
Al Sharpton tells his story and takes us on a journey through his colorful life – and through that journey, the viewer experiences the shifting river of American race relations and how racial politics have transformed.
Produced and Directed by Yoruba Richen
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Hound Dog (Narrative)
A 50’s heartthrob plays Russian Roulette, killing himself and the crossover dreams of R&B mogul Don Robey. Police investigate the tragedy exposing adultery, betrayal, libel, larceny and other vices leaving the police and fans asking, “who killed Johnny Ace?”
Written and Directed by Crayton Robey; Written and Produced by Letitia Guillory
During this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (April 17-28), TFI filmmakers from TAA participated in one-on-one industry meetings on Tuesday, April 23 and Wednesday, April 24 to network with film industry executives, potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.
The TAA Creative Promise Awards and the alumni grants were presented at an evening reception at MEGU in Manhattan on April 24, 2013.
TAA is made possible with major support from the Time Warner Foundation and additional support from, Heineken, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), New York State council on the Arts (NYSCA), The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts.
A dramatic turn for Will Forte–first at Tribeca, then CannesBy Jake Coyke, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Putting celery in one’s butt is not the traditional pathway to coveted dramatic roles and illustrious international film festivals.
But three years after the “Saturday Night Live” spinoff “MacGruber” — and that infamous moment of vegetable prop comedy — Will Forte finds himself starring in an Irish drama playing at the Tribeca Film Festival (“Run & Jump”) ahead of his starring role in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska,” an entry to this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“I have no idea how I found myself in this position,” says still bewildered Forte.
Though known for ridiculously over-the-top characters on “SNL” (a hermit falcon-owner, a whiskey-swilling morning talk show band leader, a potato-chip obsessed NASA scientist), the 42-year-old comedian is more earnest than you’d expect. In a recent interview during Tribeca, a wide-eyed Forte peppered nearly every answer by adding how genuinely thankful he is for his good fortune.
In “Run & Jump,” Steph Green’s feature debut, Forte plays an American psychologist who moves in with an Irish family (a radiant Maxine Peake plays the mother) to study and document how they adjust to living with a father (Edward MacLiam) brain damaged from a stroke.
“It was interesting to not hide behind these big, bold characters and just kind of act like a normal person,” he says. “You feel very vulnerable. Frankly, it was hard to watch the first time. I’m a neurotic person. It’s just really scary. You almost feel like: Now people are seeing what I’m kind of like as a normal person. I’m surprisingly kind of a private person, but that’s coming from a person who put celery in their butt.”
Forte, a California native, came up as an improv performer with the Groundlings before finding success as a comedy writer, notably for David Letterman’s “Late Show.” He arrived at “SNL” relatively late, at the age of 32, but stayed for eight years performing wide-ranging, bug-eyed lunatics, as well as a stint as President George W. Bush.
Forte has never been shy about pushing himself as a comedian. When he auditioned for “SNL,” he performed a sketch he had done with the Groundlings as a gold-painted street performer who sings a stirring anthem that devolves into a confession of prostitution. Tina Fey admired his boldness not just on “SNL,” but in his memorable cross-dressing cameos on “30 Rock.”
“Will is so deceptively all-American handsome, but his taste in comedy is so wonderfully weird and unafraid to be arbitrary, dark or occasionally even filthy,” Fey said in an e-mail. “He also has this sweetness that always comes through. He seems absolutely incapable of malice.”
The “MacGyver” parody “MacGruber” helped Forte transition away from “SNL.” While a box-office disappointment, earning just $8.5 million, the absurdist comedy has its cult adherents.
Green, whose 2007 short “New Boy” was Oscar-nominated, says she thought of Forte early on for her Ireland-set drama, having glimpsed from press interviews that Forte was “a thoughtful, in some ways shy, self-deprecating, deep individual.”
“People did think I was slightly … they didn’t think I was crazy, they knew how talented he was,” says Green. “But he had not done a role like this and there were other actors that were either available or the company felt I could get. I was greeted with some funny reactions, especially in Europe. A lot of people didn’t know who Will Forte was and when they Googled him, they found a naked man with a piece of celery up his butt.”
Green urged Forte to grow out his beard (the classic calling card of a “serious” performance for a comedian). Forte, drawn to the project by Ailbhe Keogan’s script, took some convincing from Green that he could play the doctor.
“It took me a while to get out of my own head,” he says. “I didn’t go to acting school. I took a drama class with Mr. Eggerson in high school.”
Accustomed to either amplifying characters to the extreme (like his enthusiastic but airheaded ESPN commentator Greg Stink) or making them comically soft-spoken (like his slow-talking politician Tim Calhoun), Forte often felt out of his depth calibrating a more subtle dramatic character: “I don’t have any kind of internal monitor that I trust,” he says.
Forte found out he had landed the part in “Nebraska” on his way to Ireland to shoot “Run & Jump.” He had sent an audition tape to Payne, but didn’t get called back to meet with Payne for four months. “I just assumed that they hated it,” he says, still in disbelief.
In it, Forte plays the estranged son of aging alcoholic (Bruce Dern). The two drive from Montana to Nebraska so the father can redeem a winning sweepstakes ticket. “Run & Jump,” Forte says, helped him prepare to be in a more dramatic environment. He also recently finished shooting a starring role in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s “The Switch,” with a cast including Tim Robbins and Jennifer Aniston.
“I somehow was able to get this opportunity to do these movies that never in a million years would I think I’d get a chance to do,” says Forte.
But he also still hopes to make a sequel to “MacGruber,” and says he and director Jorma Taccone have planned a rough story line. They realize getting funding for such a sequel poses challenges, but he says they plan to make it, somehow, “whether somebody lets us do it or not.”
“I don’t think any more celery will go in my butt,” says Forte. “I feel like I’ve put my family through enough celery. Asparagus?”
Pat Summitt’s life chronicled in film ‘Pat XO’
By Doug Feinberg, Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Pat Summitt smiled, laughed and shook her head at times.
The Hall of Fame coach, who has early onset dementia, was part of the audience watching a screening of a documentary about her career. “Pat XO.”
“It’s a wonderful film and they did a great job with it,” Summitt told The Associated Press. “It was really incredible to see all those people share their stories.”
The show is part of ESPN Films’ Nine for IX documentary series. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday and will air July 9.
Summitt’s son, Tyler, was the lead storyteller, spending time with his mother on a couch in their home going through a scrapbook of her life. The film starts from Summitt’s earliest days and goes through her retirement last April.
The 60-year-old former Tennessee coach acknowledged in her recently released book that at times she may not remember all the milestones of her career. This project will provide a reminder.
To tell Summitt’s story, the filmmakers sent cameras to those who knew her best and had them record testimonials.
Former players Tamika Catchings, Chamique Holdsclaw, Michelle Marciniak and Candace Parker all told stories of their mentor. Longtime friends and rival coaches, including Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma, also talk about Summitt.
“It was an honor to be a part of this film,” Catchings wrote in an email. “For all that Pat has done and continues to do, it’s a blessing to give back to her and celebrate the great things she has done on and off the court.”
Catchings called the filming technique — using a camera to self-record her thoughts — “kind of a weird but neat concept.”
“It’s not hard to talk about someone who has helped mold me into the woman I am today,” she said.
Marciniak and her parents recalled the famous story of a pregnant Summitt breaking water as she was paying a recruiting visit to their home. Summitt left the recruiting trip early and wouldn’t let the plane land anywhere but Tennessee.
In one the most poignant moments, Summitt was talking to Tyler about having to step down from coaching last year. She called it the right thing to do.
As the two were discussing it, Summitt started to tear up — one of the rare times she has shown emotion about her decision. Her two dogs, Sally Sue and Sadie, sensing their owner was saddened, came over to the couch to console her. Summitt wound up providing the consolation, petting the labs and letting them up on the couch.
Summitt received a long ovation from the crowd when she was introduced before the premiere by executive producer Robin Roberts. Roberts called the project a “labor of love to produce and a testament to her lasting friendship” with Summitt.
Summitt devotes much of her time now to the Pat Summitt Foundation, which works to provide grants to nonprofit organizations to help educate, fund research and fight Alzheimer’s.
Ava DuVernay wins Tribeca’s 1st Heineken Affinity Award
NEW YORK–Heineken USA and the Tribeca Film Institute๏ฟฝ (TFI) announced the winner of the inaugural Heineken Affinity Award. The award, given to an African-American filmmaker (age 21 and over) to empower and encourage them to continue to craft stories through film, was awarded to Ava DuVernay. In addition to a $20,000 cash prize awarded at an event on Saturday (4/20), DuVernay will receive year round support and professional development from TFI for her future projects.
DuVernay, of Los Angeles, won the Best Director Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film, “Middle of Nowhere.” A writer, director and distributor of independent film, her directorial work also includes the critically-acclaimed dramatic feature “I Will Follow,” as well as the music documentaries “This is the Life” and” My Mic Sounds Nice.” Her upcoming project “Part of the Sky,” is currently in development. She is also the founder of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM). DuVernay was chosen as the winner by public vote on a website dedicated to the Heineken Affinity Award. Hundreds of thousands of visitors cast their votes from January 15 to March 31, 2013.
Filmmakers were nominated for the award by a survey of industry executives. From the list of submissions, Heineken and TFI invited ten finalists to apply for the award based on their prior work and the amount they’ll benefit from extra exposure and resources. Submissions were reviewed on how well they fulfilled the mission of the Tribeca Film Institute, the quality and strength of the proposal, the potential for international and US distribution, as well as the filmmakers’ previous body of work.
In addition to DuVernay, the finalists were Andrew Dosunmu, Cheryl Dunye, Nelson George, Kahlil Joseph, Victoria Mahoney, Terence Nance, Akosua Adoma Owuso, Yvonne Welbon, and Ross Williams. Each of the filmmakers will receive a $1,000 grant.
“Our partnership with Heineken on the Affinity Award allows TFI to broaden our support of working filmmakers from communities that are underrepresented in the film industry,” said Beth Janson, Executive Director, TFI. “We were excited to see such an incredible range of talent and diverse voices in this inaugural group of filmmakers. We look forward to supporting many more artists in the years to come and we thank Heineken for their dedication to the field.”
“Wrecked” Kicks Off “Picture Show Originals”NEW YORK–Tribeca Enterprises and Maker Studios, an independent YouTube network with over 2.8 billion monthly views, announced the launch of “Wrecked,” the first in a slate of short films part of “Picture Show Originals,” a new series on YouTube channel Picture Show (www.youtube.com/PictureShow). Tribeca Enterprises and Maker Studios entered into a partnership last year and this month—timed to Tribeca’s yearly festival—the channel has begun rolling out its slate of original programming on the collaborative network.
“Wrecked” centers on a fighter pilot that crashes in the desert. Battling severe dehydration and stranded in a mysterious environment, the pilot grapples with the metaphysical musings of a voice crackling from his radio.
“Wrecked” is written and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the team behind last year’s Tribeca Film Festival breakout hit RESOLUTION. Wrecked is a 13-minute drama, which premiered Friday, April 19, on Picture Show. Upcoming “Picture Show Originals” are set to include such established talent as Danny DeVito and Shiri Appleby (“Girls,” “Roswell”) along with such emerging talent as Shay Butler (ShayCarl) and Sam Macaroni.
The Picture Show YouTube channel is a home for web series and short films along with an aspirational channel where the talent of tomorrow can be discovered. The channel’s diverse line-up of programming features collaborations between Tribeca and Maker Studios’ talent and creatives also includes:
* “Really Fast Films” (Monthly Series, Mondays)
A monthly reality-documentary series, “Really Fast Films” follows director, actor, producer, writer Michael Gallagher as he works to create an entire short film—from inspiration to post production—in only 48 hours. YouTubers from around the globe will also be able to participate in this exciting format, contributing inspirations and even their own versions of the shorts based on the same parameters. All-star guests may also appear to handout the challenge at the beginning of each episode.
* “Picture Show Presents” (Bi-Weekly Series, Mondays)
A bi-weekly series curated by Tribeca’s head short film programmer Sharon Badal, “Picture Show Presents” features imaginative, creative and sometimes just plain weird, one-off short films, which Badal hand-picks for the audience.
* “The Bigger Picture” (Weekly Series, Fridays)
A weekly playlist series based on cinematic themes and featuring everything from trailers to movie clips to how-to videos, “The Bigger Picture” is delivered to fans every Friday by the Tribeca Film Institute.
* “Remix the Movies” (Bi-Weekly Series, Wednesdays)
“Remix the Movies” is a bi-weekly series that imagines alternative takes on some of Hollywood’s most iconic moments. Written and directed by many Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) and College Humor alums, the series is set to include Maker talent including Evan Gregory of The Gregory Brothers (/Schmoyoho), Iman Cross (/AlphaCat), Bart Baker, Alex Farnham (/DamItsGood808), and Ed Bassmaster, among others.
Elaine Stritch takes a bow at Tribeca
By Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Elaine Stritch would rather get on with it.
The 88-year-old Broadway legend and New York icon — as much a fixture as the Statue of Liberty, but with a whole lot more to say — has made her way slowly into the Chelsea theater where the documentary “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” was premiering Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Led to a green room before the show starts, she’s displeased about the seating options, and, coming off a hip surgery, would prefer to go directly into the theater. She isn’t shy about it. First, though, she grips a reporter by the forearm, fixes her gaze on him, and says in that unmistakable, feisty voice:
“There are ways around my life, if you know what I mean.”
She has lived a full one, from defining performances of Stephen Sondheim tunes on Broadway to the Tony- and Emmy-winning one-woman show “Elaine Stritch: At Liberty” to her memorable guest appearances on “30 Rock.” She’s New York show business, personified.
“Shoot Me,” directed by Chiemi Karasawa, captures Stritch off the stage, but no less theatrical. Just walking down the street on her Upper East Side neighborhood, Stritch is entertaining. The film — one of the best at Tribeca — follows her around as she makes plans to move back home to Michigan, thinks about winding down her career, and generally reacts with anger, frustration and acceptance at her increasingly evident mortality.
As in everything else, Stritch makes no bones about her opinion of the unadorned portrait of her in “Shoot Me.”
“I’m not going to comment,” she says, before doing so. “It’s not my cup of tea on a warm afternoon in May. I’d like to be do doing something else but complaining about my life, and that’s a lot of what I was doing. But I think I had a right to.”
Karasawa, a veteran documentary producer and former script supervisor, came to make the film (her directorial debut) through sharing a hairdresser with Stritch. It was the hairdresser who first suggested Karasawa make a documentary on the cabaret grande dame. An introduction was made. Others vouched for her.
“It took some prodding,” says Karasawa. “She’d tell me to call and then I’d call and she wouldn’t remember who I was.”
Along with interviews with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin (who has joined the film as a producer), and her longtime musical companion, Rob Bowman, “Shoot Me” is mostly just Stritch — irascible and vulnerable — going about her days with brassy humor and undaunted energy.
Stritch’s “At Liberty” was memorably documented in an award-winning HBO film, and D.A. Pennebaker’s “Company: Original Cast Album” (1970) showed her wildly wrestling to record “The Ladies Who Lunch.” But Karasawa wanted to an inversion of that, an off-stage picture of Stritch.
“She is not ashamed to present herself at any stage in her life as she is and be honest about what she’s going through,” says Karasawa. “When you see someone that’s that liberated, it inspires the same thing in you. I think that’s why she has so many fans, because they wish that she was the person on their shoulder giving them courage and the strength to do and say what they feel.”
There are some remarkably intimate moments. When Stritch, a diabetic, landed in the hospital, she called for Karasawa to come quickly with her camera. Sitting in a hospital bed, she says: “It’s time for me, and I can feel it everywhere.”
Then, with a flash of resilience, she says: “This is the time in my life where I’m going to behave like an elegant human being, or not. Because I can be a lot of things.”
“Elaine is extremely critical of it,” Karasawa says of the film. “If you’re a performer and an entertainer and you’re used to performing and entertaining, then you see yourself not performing and entertaining, it can be very difficult. It makes her a little bit nervous because she’s not used to presenting that side of herself and I don’t think she’s aware of how entertaining she is when she’s not performing.”
Stritch doesn’t plan to retire from show business, but take it slower: “Easy does it is what I’m looking for,” she says.
Earlier in April, Stritch performed a farewell series of shows at the Cafe Carlyle, ahead of her planned move to her hometown of Birmingham, Mich. — the same town she left to come to New York some 70 years ago. She moves next week, she says.
What will she miss most about New York?
After careful thought, she answers: “I love holidays in New York. I love ’em. I want to celebrate something all the time and New York has holidays for every day of the week, practically. I like holidays in New York City.”
“And days off!” she adds, before making her way to the theater for yet another adoring audience.
