Good luck trying to get into many of the Tribeca Film Festival’s special events, including James Franco’s postscreening discussion with SNL cast members about his new documentary, SATURDAY NIGHT, since AmEx cardholders and downtown residents have already scarfed up most, if not all, of the tickets
SVA Theater, 323 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Barnes & Noble, 33 East 17th St. at Union Square
Apple Store SoHo, 103 Prince St.
www.tribecafilm.com
Individual tickets for the Tribeca Film Festival go on sale to the general public Monday morning, April 19, at 11:00 am, and we were going to recommend that you focus your attention on this year’s Tribeca Talks: After the Movie panel discussions, ten special screenings followed by conversations with such actors, directors, producers, and politicians as Guy Pearce, Joan Rivers, James Franco, Joel Klein, Jonathan Nolan, André Leon Talley, Ronit Avni, Alex Gibney, and Morgan Spurlock, but it appears that the festival has already sold just about every ticket in its presale to American Express cardholders and downtown residents, which doesn’t exactly seem fair to us. There might be rush tickets available sixty minutes before each screening (Christopher Nolan’s MEMENTO, Deborah Scranton’s EARTH MADE OF GLASS, Madeleine Sackler’s THE LOTTERY, Franco’s SATURDAY NIGHT), but you’ll have to battle long lines, we’re guessing.
Fortunately, there will be two sets of Tribeca Talks that are free and open to the public, first come, first served. The Industry section, held at the SVA Theater, features such panel discussions as “Is the Sky Really Falling? A Closer Look at the Future of Film Distribution” with Eamonn Bowles, Ted Hope, and others (April 23); “Checking Up on Docs: A Conversation with Sheila Nevins,” with the longtime head of HBO documentary programming (April 25); and “Talking with Pictures,” with Lee Isaac Chung and other filmmakers and cinematographers (April 29). The Pen to Paper series, taking place at the Union Square B&N, includes three noontime events centering on the written word: “Illustrating History,” hosted by Caryn James (April 24); “New York Stories,” with Dana Adam Shapiro, Joey Arias, and others, moderated by Budd Mishkin (April 25); and “Authors at the Helm,” with Edward Burns, Carmel Winters, and Omar Rodriguez Lopez, moderated by Susan Orlean (April 26).
Patricia Clarkson will be at the Apple Store SoHo on April 24 for a free discussion about her TFF film, CAIRO TIME, with director Ruba Nadda
Finally, the Apple Store in SoHo will be holding free Meet the Filmmaker workshops and talks throughout the festival, including such can’t-miss groupings as Ruba Nadda with Patricia Clarkson (April 24), Rodrigo Garcia with Kerry Washington and Naomi Watts (April 25), Mat Whitecross with Andy Serkis (April 25), Nicole Holofcener with Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt (April 26), Thomas Ikimi with Idris Elba (April 28), Neil Jordan (April 29), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (April 30), all discussing their films that are part of the festival.