Tribeca 2012 Daily Recap: April 19th

Thursday was my first day at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. After passing by the location twice, I finally found the fairly well hidden Tribeca Cadillac Press Lounge. I quickly checked in with the very friendly Tribeca staff. Despite the time, I went on to enjoy one of my favorite perks of the festival: Magnum Ice Cream. After killing a few minutes flipping through the press & industry film guide, I made my way over to the Clearview Cinemas Chelsea for my first screening.

SIDE BY SIDE is a serious documentary on the film vs. digital debate hosted by Keanu Reeves. Yes, seriously. Even more shocking; how thoroughly entertaining and informative of a doc it is. I am not quite sure what kind of release this film will eventually get but it is highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in filmmaking or technology.

Off to a good start, I decided to waste some time walking around the theater a bit since the press lounge is a little more of a hike than it was last year. While wandering, I bumped into Alan LaFave from the Hell’s Half Mile Film + Music Festival in Bay City, Michigan. For those of you who read my previous Tribeca coverage, I hung out with Alan often last year. My first feature STUCK LIKE CHUCK played his festival in 2009 and we have kept in touch online since. It turned out he was heading into the same screening as me.

DEATH OF A SUPERHERO has a lot more to do with death than superheroes. It is a visually interesting but ultimately disappointing dram. One of the highlights of the film is the acting, including a fine supporting performance by Andy Serkis, one in which he is not painted over with cgi.

Following the screening, Alan and I went to a nearby bar to catch up and talk a bit about our expectations for this year’s festival. After an hour or so, I made my way over to Rye House to meet Chris Bourne, Ben Umstead, Alexander Thebez & several other guys from TWITCH for dinner. Nearly 3 hours of delicious food and lively cinematic conversations followed. The only drawback to this wonderful meal was that it meant I would miss COMMUNITY. However, even that wasn’t so bad since Danny Pudi showed up at the restaurant & ate just one table away from us. Despite being such a fan that I have Abed & Troy as Batman & Robin wallpaper on my iPhone, I decided not to bother him during his meal. We all said our goodbyes and I made my way home exhausted after an extended first day at the festival.

Lesson of the Day: Keanu Reeves is actually a pretty good interviewer and watch COMMUNITY Thursday nights on NBC.

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com