Crains New York - April 8, 2013 - (Page 26)

Continued from Page 25 media projects that go beyond traditional screens. Six of those documentaries will be shown at the festival, which runs from April 17 through April 28.There also will be workshops and panel discussions about new filmmaking trends. “As a film festival, we have to be part of the conversation about how technology is changing and how we [filmmakers] use it creatively,” said Jane Rosenthal, one of the festival’s founders. Distinguishing features The increased emphasis on nontraditional filmmaking is one way the festival—which was started by Robert De Niro and Ms. Rosenthal after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to bring people back downtown—can set itself apart from others.Over the years, it has experimented with its size and breadth of offerings in an effort to find its niche in the crowded film festival circuit, and the mammoth event has been criticized in the past for lacking a distinct personality. This year, the festival will screen 89 feature films—the same number as last year—at theaters in lower Manhattan. “To me, focusing on technology is a sign that the festival is forwardthinking,” said Josh Braun, copresident of Submarine, which is representing six films at Tribeca. Even without the new programming, the festival highlights how much technology has transformed ‘People really just want to be part of the process’ filmmaking. At least 10 of the movies that will be shown were made using funds raised through the Internet. And for one movie, called Tricked, director Paul Verhoeven wrote only the first four minutes, and used crowdsourcing to find 85 different writers to finish the rest. Much of the experimentation with technology at Tribeca this WHAT TO WATCH AT TRIBECA There are 89 feature films set for screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival. Here are some with big names attached that are generating buzz. Before Midnight. The third chapter in a popular saga of two lovers, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who met on a train in Europe when they were young in the first installment and reunited years later in the second. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics Big Men. A documentary produced by Brad Pitt that explores the toll of oil exploration by big corporations in Africa. Distributor: In the market for one Bridegroom. Former President Bill Clinton will introduce this timely documentary about the ongoing debate over the right of same-sex couples to marry. Distributor: In the market for one Byzantium. The latest film by Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan, which has the undead wreaking havoc on mere mortals. Distributor: IFC Films Gasland Part II. The follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Gasland, which continues to explore the controversy around hydraulic fracturing. Distributor: HBO I Got Somethin’ to Tell You. Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg makes her directorial debut with a documentary about the late comedian Moms Mabley. The presumably wealthy co-host of The View generated controversy by using Kickstarter to help raise funds for the movie. Distributor: In the market for one In God We Trust. A documentary about swindler extraordinaire Bernie Madoff’s longtime personal secretary, Eleanor Squillari, and her obsession with the case. Distributor: In the market for one Lenny Cooke. A documentary about one of the most hyped basketball players ever, who was supposed to be an NBA star but never played in the league. It is the first documentary by brothers Bennie and Joshua Safdie, whose fictional films like Daddy Long Legs have won critical praise and been shown at other festivals, such as Cannes. Distributor: In the market for one Mistaken for Strangers. This documentary, which follows the rock band The National on the road, will open the festival. It’s directed by Tom Berninger, a roadie with the band and the younger brother of its lead singer. Distributor: In the market for one Reluctant Fundamentalist. The latest film from director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) who adapts the best-selling book about how a young Pakistani-born man’s cushy life is upended after 9/11. Distributor: IFC Films —THERESA AGOVINO 26 | Crain’s New York Business | April 8, 2013 year, however, is meant solely for education. None of the Storyscapes exhibits were designed for theatrical release.Each already existed,but festival sponsor Bombay Sapphire Gin paid an undisclosed amount to underwrite new elements of each especially for Tribeca. In fact, some question whether these new interactive methods of storytelling will ever find a way to make money. With funding from the National Film Board of Canada, Hugues Sweeney and his team video-recorded people talking about their insomnia. For Tribeca, they used some of those experiences to create A Journal of Insomnia, which invites festivalgoers to sample someone else’s specific struggle with sleeplessness via the Internet. He was uncertain if it would have attracted independent financing or if viewers would pay to watch it. “We are still looking for the economic model, and there is no magic recipe,” Mr. Sweeney said. “We wanted to build an audience.” Drawing interest seems to be the easy part. All of the Storyscapes initiatives triggered significant outside participation. In one, a team created a multimedia archive of people’s Superstorm Sandy experiences, which will offer festivalgoers a chance to add their own recollections. Meanwhile, thousands of people have added their imprint to The Exquisite Forest. Started by a Google creative director and an independent filmmaker, it is a usergenerated online gallery of animation. Its popularity already has led to having it on display at the Tate Modern in London, and wannabe artists will be able to add to it at Tribeca. ‘Luke, I am your tabby’ Similarly, when Casey Pugh put out a call on the Internet for people to re-create a 15-second portion of Star Wars in any way they wanted, he got 900 responses, with fans using everything from their cats to liquor bottles as stand-ins for characters. The film now has a cult following on YouTube. Star Wars Uncut will be shown at the festival, and people also will get a chance to act out a scene. “People really just want to be part of the process,” Mr. Pugh said. That’s what Alexander Reben hopes. He will bring to the festival about 20 cardboard robots that ask pointed questions, in hopes that people will divulge some interesting stories. At the end of the festival, a film will be created from the footage. Experts say that there always will be people who simply want to sit back and watch a film, but that finding ways to engage an audience in the process is critical for the new generation. “This generation has been brought up on being able to control the medium where they get their information,” said Albie Hecht, founding director of the Macaulay Honors College New Media Lab at the City University of New York. Ⅲ newscom SOURCE Lights, camera, interaction LUNCH: DAN BIEDERMAN by Annie Karni Public park, meet private partnership B ryant Park Corp. President Dan Biederman was just 26 and a recent Harvard Business School graduate when he started his career in 1980. Over the past 33 years,he has expanded his empire of business improvement districts—public-private partnerships that fund upgrades in neighborhood retail strips—to most of midtown Manhattan: the 34th Street Partnership, Chelsea Improvement Co. and the Grand Central Partnership. His latest idea is a plan to create Boulevard 41, a privately funded effort to transform the block of West 41st Street between Broadway and Bryant Park into a leafy green space with bistro tables and chairs. In your opinion, what’s the advantage of private management of public space? I like to do things without any public money. Our sanitation workers never leave voluntarily, and we know this is the bestpaying job they can get. They start a little above the minimum wage, and they go up very quickly. We have guys in Bryant Park who are making close to $20 an hour, plus benefits and overtime.We don’t cap the salaries. That’s still lower than what the city would have to pay for equivalent jobs because the [city] pension plans are so expensive. That’s the genius of privatization. What are you doing there instead? neighborhood. Bryant Park could still be done in another borough, but it would be harder. Here, the Durst Organization [which runs 1 Bryant Park] is the single biggest contributor in terms of money it gives to the park. The Grace Building on Sixth Avenue is the secondbiggest contributor. The second thing is you have to have someone doing the day-to-day work that really wants to be private. Governments spend in a way that the private sector wouldn’t. Do you have a favorite Business Improvement District, like a favorite child? My favorite is the 34th Street Partnership. Has the loss of Fashion Week hurt Bryant Park? It’s been great, actually. We insisted they move. We had them for 15 years, but we couldn’t run the park the way we wanted to, including the long winter ice season. They also came back BRYANT PARK in August, and it didn’t GRILL work with our summer 25 W. 40th St. season. We gave up $3 milOn the west side lion in revenue a year when of Bryant Park, next to the New they left, but we made it up York Public Library from other sources, so it’s headquarters been good. (212) 840-6500 WHERE THEY DINED arkrestaurants .com/bryant_ park.html AMBIENCE: The best seats offer a view of the park and office towers behind it. The crowd is a mix of tourists and businesspeople. WHAT THEY ATE: Ⅲ Bryant Park chicken Cobb salad Ⅲ Pan-roasted salmon filet TAB: $52.26, plus tip We’re talking with the French about an event called the Taste of France. It’s looking very likely that the event will locate in Bryant Park this year. Last year, we had square dancing for three nights, and it was hugely successful. That will be expanded to seven nights this year. We have 65 programs here a year. That’s a lot of programming for a public park. Could another borough sustain a privately managed park like Bryant Park? First, you have to be in an area where there’s some concentration of real estate and where the commercial [interests] care about the Do you feel competitive with other parks? Yes. Worldwide, we want to be thought of as better than Luxembourg [in Paris] and the Queen’s Park and Hyde Park in London. Are you concerned about who will be the next mayor? Mayor Bloomberg had very strong commissioners. We’re quite worried because all the decisions could be made out of City Hall, and that’s not the case now. Reversing the work [city Department of Transportation Commissioner] Janette Sadik-Khan and [former Department of Parks Commissioner] Adrian Benepe did would be very bad. There are people out there still ranting about bike lanes and plazas, and those have been immensely good for the city. I can’t see them taking the plazas out, but I’m a little worried it will go back in the other direction. Ⅲ INSIDE TIP: Request a table by the window for gorgeous views of Bryant Park.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 8, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: BANKING
THE LISTS
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE DEALS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - April 8, 2013