Congratulations to the following NYWIFT members included in the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival line up!
The festival takes place June 9 – 20, 2021 virtually and live in New York. Tickets and packages can be purchased from the official website.
You can click on each title for the festival schedule and tickets to the incredible films featuring work by NYWIFT members. Projects below are sorted by competition category.
Spotlight Documentary
Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Amy Entelis
LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story takes viewers on an immersive journey through the trailblazing life of novelist Jackie Collins. Spinning together fact and fiction, this feature documentary reveals the untold story of a ground-breaking author and her mission to build a one-woman literary empire. A documentary about Anthony Bourdain and his career as a chef, writer and host, revered and renowned for his authentic approach to food, culture and travel.
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Amy Entelis
A documentary about Anthony Bourdain and his career as a chef, writer and host, revered and renowned for his authentic approach to food, culture and travel.
U.S. Narrative Competition
Catch the Fair One
Actress – NYWIFT Member Kimberly Norris Guerrero
A Native American woman embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister. The former boxer intentionally gets entangled in a human trafficking operation in order to retrace the steps of her kid sister and work her way up the chain of command to find the man responsible.
Movies Plus
Paper & Glue
Producer – NYWIFT Member Sara Bernstein
An inside exploration into the work of legendary French artist JR, whose large-scale photographs have covered structures across the globe for almost two decades. Using his projects as a bridge to span our many cultural divides, the film explores art’s greater ability to challenge perspectives and unite communities.
Shorts: Acting Out
Coded
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Sara Bernstein
Coded tells the story of illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, whose legacy laid the foundation for today’s out-and-proud LGBTQ+ advertisements.
Shorts: New York, New York 2021
Cracked
Director/Producer/Screenwriter/Editor – NYWIFT Member Lin Que Ayoung
Toya (Tatum Marilyn Hall), a feisty young girl, falls in love for the first time. After a series of disturbing events, her affection for Poochy (Meliki Hurd) compels her to face her past.
Tribeca Online Premieres
Asking for It
Cinematographer – NYWIFT Member Jendra Jarnagin
After small town waitress Joey (Kiersey Clemons) is sexually assaulted after a date with her old friend Mike (Casey Cott), she befriends mysterious stranger Regina (Alexandra Shipp). Regina introducers her to The Cherry Bombers, an all femme gang including Beatrice (Vanessa Hudgens), Lily (Leslie Stratton), Sal (Radha Mitchell), Jett (Leyna Bloom), Angie (Lisa Yaro), Fala (Casey Camp-Horinek), and Rudy (Gabourey Sidibe). All suffering from past traumas, together they fight a misogynistic society by targeting violent frat boys, a corrupt police force of human traffickers led by Sheriff Morel (David Patrick Kelly), and the dangerous alt-right group MFM (Men’s First Movement) headed by Mark Vanderhill (Ezra Miller). As Joey is drawn further into their chaotic world, Sal’s old flame, Logan County Sheriff Vernon (Luke Hemsworth), investigates MFM, leading to a thrilling showdown.
Viewpoints
Sisters on Track
Editor – NYWIFT Member Cheree Dillon
A coming-of-age story set in New York, Sisters on Track is about hope, belonging, and the metaphorical and literal sisterhood of young athletes Tai, Rainn, and Brooke Sheppard. Excelling in their Junior High School Track and Field team while living in a homeless shelter with their single mother Tonia, they were chosen in 2016 to be the Sports Illustrated Kids of the Year. The film follows the sisters for two years as they navigate sudden fame and come into their own as young adults and athletes, guided by coach Jean Bell.
The Death of My Two Fathers
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Jane Rosenthal
Toward the end of his battle with kidney cancer, William Richard Guy filmed himself being interviewed over the span of six VHS tapes. The tapes were meant to serve as a record of his life for those he was leaving behind. He was born in the small town of Waterloo, Iowa, and soon left with his mother for bustling Kansas City. He got married at 18 and had two children. Soon after, he moved to Washington, D.C., and fought for civil rights, before heading north, where he had three more children in an idyllic enclave of rural Canada.
2020 Official Selection: Features
Women in Blue
Director/Screenwriter – NYWIFT Member Deirdre Fishel
After a high-profile police shooting rocks the Minneapolis Police department, its first female chief is forced to resign. Women in Blue takes a look at policing in America, as it follows the stories of the women officers who carry on the effort to reform the department and restore trust in the community.
I Carry You With Me
Director/Screenwriter/Producer – NYWIFT Member Heidi Ewing
Acclaimed documentarian Heidi Ewing’s narrative debut is a cross-border romantic drama about a gay New York chef reflecting back on his experiences coming of age in Mexico.
**This film is co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television. See details.
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show
Director/Screenwriter – NYWIFT Member Yoruba Richen
While the country was embroiled in a divisive election with racial tensions flaring, civil rights activist Harry Belafonte guest hosted The Tonight Show for one week in 1968 transforming it into a multicultural political experience.
**This film is co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television. See details.
Stateless
Director/Screenwriter/Producer – NYWIFT Member Michèle Stephenson
In 2013, the Dominican Republic stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, rendering over 200,000 people without nationality, identity or homeland. Stateless explores this complex history and politics through one young woman’s fight to protect the right to citizenship for all people.
La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla
Editor – NYWIFT Member Sonia Gonzalez-Martinez
In 1970’s NYC, while the Bronx burned, beloved matriarch Lorine Padilla claimed her rightful place as “First Lady”of the legendary gang The Savage Skulls. As wife to one of its founders, her no nonsense attitude and nurturing presence helped to strengthen the surrogate family that so many of their young members longed for. Now, over 40 years later, she looks back at the impact that she has had in the intervening years: as a mother, spiritual advisor, community activist, and keeper of a complex legacy. Celebrating the overlooked female pillars of a male-dominated community, La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla is a love letter to those unsung heroines.
Materna
Producer – NYWIFT Member Emily McEvoy
Jean (Kate Lyn Sheil), Mona (Jade Eshete), Ruth (Lindsay Burdge), and Perizad (Assol Abdullina) are four radically different women whose lives are separated by race, culture, religion, and class but connected by the complexities of motherhood. When they face a threat on the New York City subway, their shared isolation suddenly becomes a shared connection, inextricably bounding their lives together.
Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Alexandra Serio
In the early 90s, Tom Hargrove, a celebrated environmental journalist, moved his wife Susan and two sons, Miles and Geddie to Cali, Colombia. Despite the political unrest and dangers posed by the guerilla war, the Hargroves built a lovely life amid the rich culture of Cali. Their tranquility was shattered on September 23, 1994 when Tom was kidnapped by the FARC in a process called Miracle Fishing. With a ransom demand for six million dollars, the government and Tom’s employers refused to engage, throwing the lives of this tight-knit family into chaos and isolation. Supported only by family and friends, Susan dealt with the kidnappers directly and assembled a motley rescue group led by a skeptical FBI agent, a retired hostage negotiator, and most critically, a local friend of Miles and Geddie, Robert Clerx. Only 18 at the time, Clerx was nominated to handle the incredibly dicey dance of securing Tom’s release through multiple rounds of negotiations.
Socks on Fire
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Julie Goldman
Executive Producer – NYWIFT Member Carolyn Hepburn
Executive Producer –NYWIFT Member Christopher Clements
When the matriarch of a large Southern family passed without a written will, her children became embroiled in a bitter fight over their mother’s estate. The fracas prompted director Bo McGuire to return home to Hokes Bluff, Alabama, to document the mounting standoff between his two childhood idols—his now-homophobic aunt and his out-and-proud gay uncle—in a battle that threatens to tear apart multiple generations of a formerly tight-knit tribe. In the process of investigating this epic family feud, McGuire also reflects on his own coming-of-age as a queer youth in the rural South.
This is Paris
Editor – NYWIFT Member Jill Woodward
Paris Hilton was the original influencer and first celebrity to be adored simply for being famous. This Is Paris takes you into the complex reality of her life. Much more than a global brand or a reality star, Hilton is anxious, at times lonely, and tough as nails. Surviving childhood abuse, violent relationships, and extraordinary exposure in the media, Hilton projects a character of herself to the world to protect what is left of her youthful innocence. Haunted by the past and driven by an exceptional work ethic, Hilton is determined to make her own fortune and chart her own path.
