Christina Ricci said that her looks played a part in nabbing a role in Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brothers first film since The Matrix trilogy. "Everyone told me I should play Trixie because they think I look like anime," Ricci explained at the movie's Tribeca Film Festival premiere on Saturday.
A live action adaptation of the 1960s Japanese anime series,
Paraiso Travel is the story of a young Colombian couple who brave the dangers of crossing illegally into the United States to find a better life, only to discover the truth about where they're going -- and each other. Director Simon Brand, a native Colombian, discusses the realities of illegal immigration and the human condition with amctv.com.
Q: What inspired you to do this movie?
A: I read the book about six or seven years ago when it came out, and I thought it was a great book. I came to the US about 15 years ago, and I identified with the main character -- not because of the way he came in, I didn't go that route -- but the culture shock and the love story really attracted me. I stayed in the US because of a girl, so it was a great story to tell. At the same time, it dealt with a very hot topic, the whole immigration issue. Most of the movies I've seen, they're always very vague about what really goes on.
Q: Why do you think most films shy away from the horrors of illegal crossings?
A: I think it is ignorance in a way. People in the US talk about immigration all the time, and they talk about closing the borders and building a wall, but they really don't realize that most people are just trying to find a better life. I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I was just trying to see it from the human standpoint. Going from the south of Mexico to the border is actually extremely dangerous. People lose their limbs; they have to deal with gangs -- it's just one thing after another.
Continue reading "Tribeca Film Festival - Interview with Paraiso Travel Director Simon Brand" »
Today is Sports Day at the Tribeca Film Festival. That means not only will the ESPN/Tribeca dream team be screening stories of competition and triumph, there will also be a variety of games and demonstrations for fans to check out.
Movie-wise, the day's top picks include Kicking It, an inspirational documentary narrated by Colin Farrell about the soccer matches of the 2006 Homeless World Cup, and Fighter, about a high school student who goes against the wishes of her family to study martial arts. The girl is Turkish, the setting is Copenhagen, but the film is universally appealing. Also on the schedule is Bigger, Stronger, Faster (pictured), a documentary about sports and steroid use.
If you're looking for a different arena of competition, try The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab, which follows the Olympics of haute cuisine, the Bocuse d'Or. Expect to be horrified and hungry at the same time.
• Variety lists off the festival's big winners -- puppy love and blood lust, it seems, is a winning combination.
• Tennessee director Aaron Woodley tells Variety's Micheal Jones that the film's star, Mariah Carey, was his second choice after Janet Jackson.
• Variety's John Andersons says the documentary I Am Because We Are is little more than a public service announcement starring Madonna about the horrors of AIDS .
For more exclusive Tribeca news, check out Variety's Festival Central.
On Thursday, the Tribeca Film Festival handed out the awards for the in-competition films. Festival founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, as well as jurors Mathew Modine, Whoopi Goldberg and Oliver Platt were among those handing out the prizes at the Target Tribeca Filmmaker Lounge located at Parsons School for Design.
The Swedish coming-of-age vampire film, Let the Right One In (pictured) picked up the prize for best narrative feature. Its director, Tomas Alfredson, won a $25,000 cash prize and an art awards crafted by Stephen Hannock. The documentary feature prize, also worth $25,000, went to Pray the Devil Back to Hell, by Gini Reticker.
Richard Ledes, who took home the Made in New York narrative award and $5000, admitted that he was nervous throughout the duration of the festival. "I am from New York City, so people came to my premiere not only from the festival but people who know me as the neighbor down the hall. It was nerve wracking."
Want to go behind the scenes and on the red carpet of this year's Tribeca Film Festival? Check out AMC's exclusive photos from the Savage Grace and Yonkers Joe parties at The Supper Club, as well as the Guest of Cindy Sherman party at The Film Room.
•Variety's Winter Miller reports that Magnolia Pictures has acquired the rights to Finding Amanda, Peter Tolan's semi-autobiographical dark comedy starring Matthew Broderick.
•John Anderson reviews Milosevic on Trial for Variety, saying that while covering basic Balkan history, the documentary stirringly recaps one of the most repugnant title subjects in movie history.
•Tom McCarthy says Tribeca's closer, Speed Racer, is like cotton candy -- entirely non-nutritious, but too sweet to resist.
For more exclusive Tribeca news, check out Variety's Festival Central.
The Auteur director James Westby takes the camera for an inside look of his film's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Click here for more video of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
Click here for more Shootout info.
Click here for IFC's comparison of upcoming films featuring Mariah Carey and Dave Matthews.
Isabella Rossellini's directorial debut, Green Porno, makes science sexy -- but that wasn't her intention. "My goal is not to educate people," she said. "It's to make them laugh."
Last night as part of her Filmmaker Talk at the Tribeca Film Festival, Rossellini screened episodes of her short film series, in which she appears dressed as a giant insect in each one in order to illustrate how they mate.
"I didn't even think -- Oh, I'm a female, I can only play a female spider. It was just so far out, I didn't think I had to respect gender," said Rossellini about casting herself against type. "I'm a ham... I'm going to play male when I can because it was just the extra little laugh."
•Is it time for a fiesta? Variety's Dave McNary reports that Filmax has acquired international sales rights and theatrical rights for Spain to Simon Brand's immigrant drama Paraiso Travel, while John Hopewell delivers news that IFC has picked up North American rights to the Spanish-language film Fermat's Room.
•Melvin Van Peebles tells Variety that the plot of his film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha is all in the title.
•Alissa Simon says the William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines vehicle Bart Got A Room is a refreshingly PG take on coming-of-age films like Superbad.
For more exclusive Tribeca news, check out Variety's Festival Central.
Robert Downey, Jr. was an unlikely leading man for a superhero movie, but his past battles with addiction gave him the world-weary air necessary to bring Iron Man's Tony Stark to life.
The Festival's two co-founders, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, discuss how the festival's original goals have evolved from its post-9/11 days to the present.
Movie stills from David Mamet's Redbelt, Tina Fey's Baby Mama, and the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer.
