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[New York, NY – March 19, 2010] – The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced the 24 projects selected for Tribeca All Access (TAA).  Now in its seventh year, TAA was created to cultivate relationships between filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities and film industry executives. TAA, will present the projects throughout a six-day program taking place during the annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by American Express, held from April 21 – May 2, 2010. TAA is made possible by Bloomberg with major support from Time Warner and additional support provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Twenty-four filmmakers from across the country were selected from a pool of more than 453 submissions to participate in TAA this year. For the third year, four international participants are also included through the program’s partnerships with the UK Film Council and Canadian Film Centre.  From April 19 – 24, women and minority directors and screenwriters will participate in workshops, as well as present their upcoming projects in one-on-one meetings with more than 100 potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.

“Through TAA, we provide woman and minority filmmakers professional connections they might not otherwise have access to,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of TFI. “But equally important to the valuable networking opportunities and guidance we provide our participants, is furthering our goal of bringing diverse voices and stories to audiences.”

As part of the TAA program, a jury comprised of industry professionals, including actors, writers, producers and directors, will review script excerpts and work samples from all TAA participants and deliberate on the most promising projects, both in the narrative and documentary film categories.  The Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards will then be announced at the TFI Awards Ceremony on April 23. The 2010 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award Narrative jurors are Anthony Anderson, Anika Noni Rose, Hill Harper, Michael Kang, Kadeem Hardison, Victoria Rowell, and Kelly Rutherford. The 2010 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award Documentary jurors are Rebecca Cammisa and Linda Goode Bryant.

“The strength of our jury speaks to the support the industry has given this program over the past seven years,” said Tamir Muhammad, Director of Tribeca All Access.   “As a result of this support, TAA participants have been able to flourish, and we look forward to continued success with this year’s projects, which show incredible promise.”

Two TAA alumni will debut their films during the 2010 Festival.  Alexandra Codina will premiere Monica & David, which is also making its broadcast premiere on HBO this fall. Codina participated in TAA in 2007, where she had the opportunity to pitch her project to Nancy Abraham, HBO’s Senior Vice President of Documentary Programming, and received post production support through TAA.  2008 TAA participant Rodney Evans will also premiere his short film, Billy & Aaron, a narrative based on the life of African American composer Billy Strayhorn and Buddy Bolden. Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) is on board to play Strayhorn and Idris Elba is slated to play Bolden.

“Bloomberg is proud to continue our support of Tribeca All Access’ mission to promote the work of filmmakers traditionally underrepresented in the film industry,” said Lex Fenwick, CEO of Bloomberg Ventures. “We commend TAA’s longstanding commitment to provide these filmmakers with unprecedented access to the industry professionals necessary to bring their films to fruition. We are delighted after seven years to resume our partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute and help give talented filmmakers unparalleled access to the film community during the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.”

2010 Tribeca All Access Program Schedule

TAA will kick off with a celebration on Monday, April 19 at Hiro Ballroom which will include a tribute honoring the 20^thanniversary of the film House Party, featuring a special performance by guests of honor and original cast members Kid & Play and Full Force. Producer Warrington Hudlin and DJ Whiz, the official DJ of the night, will be amongst the honorees.  TAA alumnus K’naan, whose Canadian Film Center supported project The River of Blood participated in last year’s program, will also perform his song Wavin’ Flag.  Wavin’ Flag is the official song for the upcoming 2010 FIFA/Coca Cola World Cup.  On April 20, participants will gather for a welcome lunch at Megu, followed by practice pitch sessions at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, where they will talk through their projects in front of a panel of established producers. From Wednesday April 21 – Friday April 23, TAA participants will have one-on-one industry meetings at Tribeca Cinemas Gallery. The Canadian Film Centre will celebrate its successful partnership with TAA with a cocktail party on April 22 at the Bubble Lounge.

The TAA jury will deliberate on the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards on Friday, April 23 at The House before the TFI Award Ceremony held later in the evening at Union Square Ballroom.  The 2010 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards will grant a total of $35,000 in juried cash prizes to selected TAA winners.

TAA will officially conclude on April 24 with a panel that challenges the filmmakers to continue to engage audiences with their stories through new models of distribution.

During the Festival, Tribeca All Access will team up with David Bouley’s Test Kitchen to present Key Ingredients, a cinematic and culinary experience dedicated to creating, developing, and extending advanced approaches to food & film. The lunch will include a presentation and discussion of select work from program alumni. This showcase is part of the year-round support provided by the TAA program. Year- round support also includes access to camera, lighting and sound equipment, as well as use of editing equipment.

TAA: Films in 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and Success Stories

Since its inception in May 2004, TAA has supported the careers of more than 184 filmmakers and has facilitated 2,870 one-on-one meetings between its program participants and key industry professionals. These women and minority filmmakers have gone on to enjoy successful careers, both within TFF and beyond. This year, two TAA alumni are included as official selections of the Tribeca Film Festival:

·         Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina (2007 TAA participant) Feature Documentary in World Documentary Competition Category – North American Premiere at TFF, Broadcast premiere on HBO October 2010-- Monica and David are in love. Truly, blissfully in love. They also happen to have Down syndrome. Alexandra Codina’s affectionate and heartwarming documentary is an intimate, year-in-the-life portrait of two child-like spirits with adult desires. Supported (and, for more than 30 years, sheltered) by endlessly devoted mothers, Monica and David prepare for their fairy tale wedding and face the realities of married life afterward.

• Billy and Aaron, directed by Rodney Evans (2008 TAA participant) – Billy and Aaron is a short drama about African-American composer Billy Strayhorn and the personal and professional consequences of his decision to live as an openly gay man within the homophobic jazz milieu of the 1940’s.

Additional TAA alumni successes in the past year include:

• 2009 TAA juror Fenton Bailey has signed on to become the Executive Producer for La Muneca Fea (Ugly Dolls). Co-directors and 2009 TAA alumni George Reyes and Claudia Lopez were the recipients of last year’s Creative Promise Award for Documentary.

• Lydia Dean Pilcher will serve as Producer of The Sisterhood of Night after meeting TAA Alumni, Caryn Waechter (Director) and Marilyn Fu (Screenwriter), at the 2008 Festival. The film was the TAA Creative Promise Award winner for Screenwriting.

• Victoria Fredrick (LAF Studios and Manager of Terrence Howard) recently optioned 2009 TAA alumni Kat Candler’s,Spider in the Bathtub, which she co-wrote.

• After meeting writer Stephanie Sanditz at TAA, Greenestreet Films has hired her to write an upcoming movie. 

About the Tribeca Film Institute:

The Tribeca Film Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving audiences and artists year-round. While TFI’s mission remains grounded in the heart of its New York City founding, its reach and influence in the film community has expanded to capture international acclaim and participation.  Since its inception in 2001, TFI has become an industry-recognized institution.  Administering a dozen major programs annually, TFI reaches 10,000 people through its year-round programming in New York City as well as its featured initiatives at the Tribeca Film Festival.

For more information and a list of all TFI programs visit http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/

About Tribeca Film Festival:

Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of the lower Manhattan district through an annual celebration of film, music and culture.

The Festival’s mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center.   Tribeca Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors. 

The Tribeca Festival has screened over 1100 films from over 80 countries since its first festival in 2002. Since its founding, it has attracted an international audience of more than 2.3 million attendees and has generated an estimated $600 million in economic activity for New York City

About the 2010 Festival Sponsors:

As Founding Sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival, American Express is committed to supporting the Festival and the art of film making, bringing business and energy to New York City and offering Cardmembers and festival-goers the opportunity to enjoy the best of storytelling through film.

The Festival is pleased to announce the return of its Signature Sponsors: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Apple, Bloomberg, Brookfield, Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), Delta Air Lines, Heineken USA, NBC 4 New York, NCM Media Networks, New York Nonstop, The New York Times, RR Donnelley, and Vanity Fair.  The Tribeca Film Festival is also honored to welcome the following new Signature Sponsor: Stolichnaya Vodka.

2010 Project Line up (20 U.S based projects and 4 international)

NARRATIVE FILMMAKERS:

Ghazi Albuliwi (Co-Director, Screenwriter)

Peace After Marriage

Desperate for companionship, a lonely, young

Palestinian-American man agrees to marry an

Israeli woman in need of a Green Card, forcing them to re-examine their respective cultural and familial traditions. 

Other Listed Crew: Bandar Albuliwi (Co-Director, Co-Producer) Faruk Ozerten (Co-Producer)

Cheryl Dunye (Director, Screenwriter, Prod)

Adventures in the 419

A thrilling portrait of 4 people involved in 1 scam 9 days before it happens. An international web of fraud, greed and mistrust set in the world of Nigerian con artists based in Amsterdam.

Other Listed Crew: Sarah Schulman (co-writer)

Nisha Ganatra (Director, Screenwriter)

Raga Beats

East-Indian and Latino hip-hop musicians compete inside a world within New York City, a cross-cultural love story.

Other Listed Crew: Jasmine Jaisinghani (Co-Prod) David Blackman (Co-Prod.) Laurence Mark (Co-Prod.), Linda Cohen (Composer)

Rashaad Ernesto Green (Director, Screenwriter)

Gun Hill Road

After serving 3 years in prison, a father returns to his family in the Bronx with a struggle between him and his bi-curios teenage son that leaves his wife stuck in the middle.

Other Listed Crew: Ron Simons (Executive Producer), Michelle-Anne Small (Producer)

J S Mayank (Screenwriter)

Marathon

An FBI Agent takes on a career defining case when the entire New York City Marathon is held hostage. 5 boroughs… 26.2 miles... 43,000 hostages…including his younger sister.

Annemarie Jacir (Director, Screenwriter, Co-Producer)

When I Saw You

Jordan, 1960s. An eccentric and unbounded boy runs away from home knowing full well that his young mother will follow in this search for freedom.

Other Listed Crew: Ossama Bawardi (Co-Producer)

Andrea Janakas (Director, Co-Screenwriter)

Faded Giant

Evacuated to a Howard Johnson's motel, an unfulfilled housewife finds unexpected strength guiding evacuees through seven harrowing days of the Three Mile Island crisis.

Other Listed Crew: Justine Cogan (Co-Screenwriter)

T.J. Morehouse (Screenwriter, Producer)

Plastic Indian

John Calf Roper drifts restlessly between dead end jobs, honky-tonks and hard drinking; Tom Badger lives suspended between Cherokee traditions and the modern world; Intertwined by fate, both men seek a meaningful existence.

Other Listed Crew: Chris Eyre (Director), J Spencer (Executive Producer), Wes Studi (Actor/Co-Producer), Steven A. Jones (Executive Producer), Robert Conley (Author)

Lucy Mulloy (Director, Screenwriter, Producer)

Una Noche

In Havana, Cuba amongst heat, sweat and desperation, ninety miles of treacherous ocean stand between Raul and his dream - Miami.

Other Listed Crew: Yunior Santiago Riveron (Producer), Daniel Mulloy (Producer)

Julius Onah (Director, Co-Screenwriter, Co-Producer)

The Girl is In Trouble

A lower east side bartender becomes entangled in a dark NYC murder mystery involving a desperate woman, a missing drug dealer, and the scion of New York's most powerful investment firm.

Other Listed Crew: Mayuran Tiruchelvam (Co-Screenwriter, Co-Producer), Sabine Hoffman, (Editor), Rob Hauer (DP), Spike Lee (Executive Producer)

Sasie Sealy (Director, Co-Screenwriter)

SarahN_12

Desperate to find her boyfriend’s killer, Sarah Nilson discovers that his online doppelganger was murdered just before his death. Consumed, she dives into two parallel investigations – real and virtual.

Other Listed Crew: Mark Heyman (Co-Screenwriter, Co-Producer), Krista Parris (Co-Producer)

NARRATIVE FILMMAKERS-INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS:

Sonia Castang (Director, Screenwriter)

Windward

* UK Film Council Supported 

When her estranged mother dies, an angry Lucy discovers a family she never knew she had and eventually comes to understand that love is always more powerful than anger.

Meneka Das (Director, Screenwriter)

Summer of Our Lives

* UK Film Council Supported 

Set to the backdrop of contemporary London, two sisters travel from a broken home in India with dreams of a music career that takes them on a journey of hope, love, betrayal and finally one of self-discovery.

Other Listed Crew: Andrew T. Mackay & Bombay Dub Company (Composer), Temple Clark (Storyboard and Visual Artist)

Julia Kwan (Director, Screenwriter)

Portraits from the Other Side

* Canadian Film Centre Supported

The life of a Chinese-Canadian law student takes an unexpected turn when she inherits a mobile photography studio and discovers her true passion through taking family portraits.  

Other Listed Crew: Shan Tam (Co-Producer), Michael Parker (Co-Producer)

Clement Virgo (Director, Co-Screenwriter, Co-Producer)

Enter the Cipher

*Canadian Film Centre Supported

A young Princeton-educated, Jewish journalist befriends a Brooklyn gangster/would be rapper, and is drawn, moth-like, into the flames of his seductive criminal underworld.

Other Listed Crew: Damon D'Oliveira (Co-Producer), Douglas Century (Co-Screenwriter)

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS:

Chihiro Amemiya (Director, DP, Editor)

Grandpa's Erection

A 75-year-old Japanese man, who has secretly been acting in adult videos for the past 15 years, wants to reveal his true life to his family and friends.

Other Listed Crew: Robert La Rocca (Content Consultant/Assistant Editor), Katsumi Funahashi (Editor)

Daniele Anastasion (Director, Co-Producer)

The Redemption of General Butt Naked

A brutal African warlord turned Christian preacher seeks redemption from the skeptical survivors of Liberia and the rest of the international community.

Other Listed Crew: Eric Strauss (Co-Director, Co-Producer), Jeremey Siefer (Editor), Ryan Hill (DP)

Angad Bhalla (Director, DP)

The House that Herman Built

Art student Jackie Sumell asks Herman Wallace, a black panther activist who’s been imprisoned in solitary confinement longer than anyone in American history, to describe his ideal house.

Other Listed Crew: Lisa Valencia-Svensson (Producer), Ed Barreveld (Exec. Producer), Loring McAplin (Exec. Producer), Ricardo Acosta (Editor)

Samba Gadjigo (Co-Director, Co-Screenwriter)

Sembene!

A freedom fighter that used stories as his weapon: meet Ousmane Sembene, the father of African cinema.

Other Listed Crew: Jason Silverman, (Co-Director, Co-Screenwriter)

Kathy Huang (Director)

Tales of the Waria

Three transgender individuals in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, search for love and acceptance with unexpected results.

Other Listed Crew: Carla Gutierrez (Editor)

Idil Ibrahim (Director, Producer)

Displaced

When Young Somali-American men begin to disappear in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, a federal investigation discover the recruitment of local teens for war efforts in Somalia; leaving their families to deal with the tragic aftermath.

Other Listed Crew: Anna Fahr (Producer)

Miguel Martinez, (Co-Director, Co-Editor)

Farewell, Ferris Wheel

The small Mexican town of Tlapacoyan is responsible for one third of America's carnival labor; a fact that may make this favorite past time extinct.

Other Listed Crew: Jamie Sisley (Co-Director, Co-Editor, Co-Producer), Sam Baker (Co-Producer)

Jason Perez, (Director, Producer)

Sweet Hands

At seventeen, she was being celebrated as a promising boxer until an unexpected life change threw her dreams against the ropes.

Other Listed Crew: Mike Ellis (Producer), Daniel Patterson (DP)

PJ Raval (Director, Co-Producer)

Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary

Set against the backdrop of various LGBTQ-friendly retirement communities, several LGBTQ seniors navigate the adventures, challenges and surprises of their "golden years."

Other Listed Crew: Sara Giustini (Co-Producer), Kyle Henry (Editor)

**Credits not contractual

Tags: Tribeca Film Festival