film C COMING OFAGE

A CROWD-PLEASING FESTIVAL MARKS U ITS NEW PLACE IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

by Renée Alfuso / CAS ’06

here’s no doubt park set up for movies premiering (HON ’96), her that the on TriBeCa/ESPN Sports Day. film partner of more than 20

L Film Festival has Since it was launched from the years, is retooling the festival to T had something of a ashes of 9/11—in just 120 days— be both a neighborhood carnival Willy Wonka ef - more than two million visitors and a serious cinematic con - fect on its community. Each have flocked to the festival, and it tender. In 2007, she created a spring, it temporarily transforms has screened over 1,100 films year-round industry department

T the neighborhood into a giant from more than 80 countries. It to put those who acquire films di - playground where movies come has also generated more than $530 rectly in touch with the artists to life—blankets and lawn chairs million in economic activity for who make them. That same year, lined the Hudson for a lavish luau lower Manhattan. 34 films that premiered at when the animated comedy Surf’s The purpose of most film fes - TriBeCa were acquired for distri - Up screened, and thousands joined tivals, however, is not just to bution—almost double the num - in a zombie dance disco to cele - screen movies but to sell films to ber from the previous year. brate the 25th anniversary of distributors and reach the broadest Documentaries have found the Michael Jackson’s Thriller . of audiences. With this in mind, most success, with Taxi to the Dark There’s also the basketball shoot - Jane Rosenthal (GAL ’77), who Side taking home the 2008 Oscar UR ing contests and football theme co-founded TriBeCa with and Pray the Devil Back to Hell E

EACH SPRING, TRIBECA TAKES OVER THE STREETS OUTSIDE THE FESTIVAL’S FILM SCREENINGS WITH (COUNTERCLOCKWISE) PERFORMERS, GAMES, AND A DRIVE-IN ON THE HUDSON. landing on the short list this year was able to separate itself from its or exposed,” adds Sharon Badal cus on its community audience. after both premiered at TriBeCa. uptown neighbor. The New (TSOA ’80, GAL ’92), who pro - This year’s festival kicks off with “Our birth was about what we York Film Festival, which The grams short films for the festival the world premiere of Woody could do for our community, so Times has described as in addition to her role as associate Allen’s Whatever Works , which that will always be our roots,” “elitist,” selects just 28 features teacher at the Tisch School of the marks his cinematic return to New Rosenthal says. But the festival is each year with no competitive Arts. Those voices come from all York after shooting his last four making its name by striking an un - categories or prizes. In contrast, over the world, in foreign films films abroad. And there are still usual balance among the fun, art, TriBeCa recognizes outstanding that would otherwise have a diffi - special neighborhood events like and business of film. films with an array of awards for cult time reaching U.S. audiences, the TriBeCa Drive-In outdoor Seven years old, TriBeCa is still features, shorts, and documen - but also from the festival’s own screenings and the Family Festival the new guy amidst a sea of well- taries, and a handful of prizes for backyard with community-based Street Fair, where costumed char - established film festivals: Cannes films made in or about New York. cinema like those discovered acters and performers roam along began back in 1946, the New For viewers, the NYFF feels through the TriBeCa All Access rows of tents offering local food, York Film Festival is approaching like a private Upper West Side program, which connects film - arts and crafts, puppet and magic its 50th run, and even the hip in - cocktail soiree to TriBeCa’s rau - makers from underrepresented shows, and face painting. “[Here] die-fest Sundance started out as cous downtown block party, groups with industry professionals. you don’t have to just be an in - the United States Film Festival in where the box office hit Star Wars As they’ve found their equilib - dustry insider to have access to the 1978, before Robert Redford Episode II: Attack of the Clones pre - rium over the years, Rosenthal world of the film festival,” Rosen - transformed it years later. The miered alongside the chick-flick says, the festival has refocused its thal says. “Anybody can come.” media was quick to compare Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sister - program by cutting down the And this won’t change because TriBeCa to these predecessors hood , just blocks from the Oscar- number of features it screens to 85 while TriBeCa is finding its place, and early on criticized it for being nominated Norwegian film Elling from as many as 174 in 2006. it hasn’t lost the spirit of why it too broad and lacking a clear during the inaugural festival. “It’s Many critics took note of the came into being. Rosenthal ex - enough identity. “We had so New York and there’s not just one change, as Stephen Holden of The plains: “As there were steel work - much focus on us and everybody type of filmgoer here,” director of New York Times wrote last year, ers and firefighters and police who was looking at us and saying, programming David Kwok ex - “A sign of the festival’s confidence did their jobs, as filmmakers, the ‘What are you going to be? What plains. “You have your cinephiles, is its willingness to shrink. No only thing we knew how to do are you going to be? ’ ” says Rosen - but you also have the recreation - longer does it project the panicky was to put on a show.” thal, adding that it took years al filmgoer, so our hope is to be sense of an event grabbing too be fore Sundance established itself able to cross those audiences.” many things offered to it in a mad The 2009 with the 1989 screening of sex, “The key is to have as many scramble to demonstrate its size runs from April 22-May 3. For the lies, and videotape . voices as you can and especially and importance.” full lineup, visit www.tribecafilm Right away, though, TriBeCa voices that are not often explored What hasn’t changed is the fo - .com/festival. P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y T H E T R I B E C A F I L M F E S T I V A L

LEFT: MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER COMES TO LIFE WITH A ZOMBIE DANCE DISCO. RIGHT: FESTIVAL CO-FOUNDERS ROBERT DE NIRO (RIGHT) AND JANE ROSENTHAL, WHO HAS PRODUCED MANY OF THE ACTOR’S FILMS, INCLUDING .

NYU / SPRING 2009 / 23 C U L T UR E

documentary A House Reunited

LEFT : TO ESCAPE SUBURBAN SPRAWL, A NEW FILM FOLLOWS THE MOVE OF A SOUTHERN MIDWAY PLANTATION WAS TRUCKED TO QUIETER PASTURES. RIGHT : HISTO - PLANTATION—AND RECKONS WITH ITS COMPLICATED PAST RIAN ROBERT HINTON (LEFT) AND FILMMAKER GODFREY CHESHIRE by Kathryn Robertson / CAS ’09 CONSIDER THE MOVE’S MEANING. R I n 2004, historian Robert home, which was now lapped by a with remarkable empathy, wit, graveyard where Hinton's rela - G H T P

Hinton received a nervous new highway and suburban subdi - and learning,” and New York mag - tives were buried were testaments H O T O

voicemail from one Godfrey visions, was to hoist the 280-ton azine named it runner-up for best to what they endured. “My peo - © C O

Cheshire, a filmmaker and building onto wheels and slowly documentary film of 2008. ple built the house, and I wanted N R A D

I R critic based in New York roll it to a new, nearby resting Central to the film is the ten - it to be preserved as proof of their I C H

City. In a lilting North Carolinian place. Cheshire knew that he could sion between the perspectives of labor and their skill,” he says. “As A R D J

accent, Cheshire, who is white, not tell the home’s full story with - Cheshire, the writer, director, and long as it exists, no one can say that O R D A

explained that he had seen Hinton’s out discussing slavery. He needed co-producer, and Hinton, chief they weren’t enslaved.” N recent letter to the editor in The Hinton’s help, both as a scholar and historian and associate producer. In a final scene, Cheshire’s New York Times Book Review , in as someone intimately connected For Cheshire, and many of his rel - cousin hosts an uncommon and which he talked about growing up to Midway. atives, the film was an opportuni - unlikely family reunion at Midway, black in Raleigh. He was working The resulting documentary, ty to indulge in nostalgia, to revel now located three miles north of on a project related to a plantation Moving Midway , presents a region in seven generations of family lore the original site on a spread of 46 near there called Midway. Could full of complexity, emotion, and about ghosts and outsize charac - acres. “I would like to think there’ll they talk? quirk as it follows the home’s ters. Though the house was built be further contacts between the Hinton knew Midway Planta - physical move and contemplates in 1848, it stood on land granted two branches of the family and tion; he’d long suspected his the mythology surrounding these to the family by the English crown maybe even some shared reunions grandfather had been born a slave icons of the Old South and the liv - in 1739. “As a kid, it was fun for in the future,” Cheshire says. “I feel there around 1860 and been giv - ing legacy of slavery. (During the me to go out there on the week - a strong kinship, literally, through en the surname of its owners, the project, filmmakers discovered ends,” he remembers. “The place our shared interest in family his - Hintons. Intrigued, he invited another branch of black Hintons had an old and magical feeling.” to ry.” Both he and Hinton con - Cheshire to his office in NYU’s who, because of a liaison between The project linked Hinton sider the film just the first words of Africana Studies department, and an owner and a plantation cook, with a past not so easily retraced. a longer, more difficult conversa - quickly realized that he was sitting are not only descendents of Mid - “I was walking on floors that my tion, which they plan to continue, before the descendant of his way’s former slaves but also blood great grandmother had swept,” he perhaps in a book, about Midway grandfather’s former owner. He relations of Cheshire and his kin.) explains. “I slept in a bed she had and the reconciliation between the wanted to dislike him but instead On balance too is the South’s probably made a thousand times, family’s black and white branches. found himself gladly pulled into hunger for both modernization, in and I ate at a table where she had “I want to encourage people— Cheshire’s new film about the re - the form of strip malls and inter - served the white folks, and so, black and white—to talk about location of the 160-year-old plan - states, and its antebellum past. The while it wasn’t an ideal situation, slavery,” Hinton says. “Because tation house. Cheshire’s cousin, New York Times ’ A.O. Scott wrote it felt like I was reconnecting.” neither want to, and we can’t make the current owner, had decided that the film “takes up the agonies The big house, the land once sense out of racism unless we talk that the best way to preserve the and ironies of Southern history filled with tobacco fields, and the about slavery. ”

24 / SPRING 2009 / NYU gallery view CREDITS A REAL HOME NYU STARS LIGHT UP FOR ART RED CARPETS AND THE SILVER SCREEN

by Megan Doll / GSAS ’08 P H O T O C O U

Not known for its art scene, Averaging five to six exhibi - R T E S

the Upper West Side is never - tions a year, Eley’s gallery offers an Y W A R

theless where Susan Eley eclectic stable of early- to mid-ca - N E R B

(STEINHARDT ’91) decided reer artists, from North America, R O S . to open her eponymous art , Asia, and Latin America. P I C T U

gallery in 2006 Her mission also R E S —in the town includes facilitat - WATCHMEN house where she ing in-depth dis - lives. “I wanted cussions about the ALEC BALDWIN (TSOA ’94) took Ghost , penned the screenplay for more of a home art being displayed. home Best Actor statues from the The Time Traveler’s Wife , starring environment, A 2007 show, for Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana… something more example, which Actors Guild awards for his role as BILLY CRUDUP (TSOA ’94) intimate,” Eley was titled “Europe the overbearing network exec brought graphic novel super hero says of the sa - Redrawn” and ex - Jack Donaghy on NBC’s 30 Dr. Manhattan to life in last lon-style setting, hibited the pho - Rock … Set decorator VICTOR J. month’s Watchmen and will be where the for - tography of Jay ZOLFO (TSOA ’85) won Best back in theaters this July along- mer profession - Hochheiser, also Achievement in Art Direction at side Johnny Depp and Christian al ballet dancer featured a talk from the for his work Bale in Michael Mann’s Public En - acts as an articu - critic Stephen on The Curious Case of Benjamin emies … Fellow alumni CHANCE late yet approachable Virgil, Perloff, the founder and editor of Button … For her film The Betrayal KELLY (WSC ’90) and JOHN guiding visitors through the of - The Photo Review . “The average (Nerakhoon) , nominated for Best LAVELLE (TSOA ’04) can be seen ten intimidating world of con - person tends to stay in a gallery for Documentary at both the Oscars in this summer’s remake of The temporary art. “I wanted to be a half an hour, 45 minutes,” Eley and Film Independent’s Spirit Taking of Pelham 123 , which fea - gallerist who could really offer says. “I really want people to come Awards, ELLEN KURAS (GAL ’88, tures Denzel Washington as an service, so everybody who walks in and stay and have a cup of cof - ’90) followed a refugee family NYC subway dispatcher caught in here gets me full-on.” fee and ask questions. ” from Laos for 23 years… Writer- up in a hostage situation… Red CHARLIE KAUF -

P turned-director Tails , which George Lucas has H O

T MAN O (TSOA ’80) was honored been develop ing since 1989 and S : T

O with the Robert Altman Award for details the Tuskegee Airmen, the P ©

M Synecdoche, New York at the Spirit first African-American pilots who A R I A Awards, where he also picked up flew in World War II, will finally P A S

S ETHAN REIFF JOHN RIDLEY

A Best First Feature… be written by (GAL R O

T CYRUS VORIS GLEN WHITMAN

T (TSOA ’86) and ’87)… (GSAS I ; B O

T (TSOA ’85) co-wrote last sum - ’00) puts the science in sci-fi T O M mer’s Kung Fu Panda , which thriller , working behind the C O U

R earned an Oscar nod for Best Ani - scenes to provide research T E S Y mated Feature, as well as Ridley and plausibility to the new Fox S U S A

N Scott’s upcoming Robin Hood , star - show… Former Queer Eye for the E L

E TED

Y ring Russell Crowe… Director Straight Guy cast member F I N TOM HOOPER ALLEN E (TSOA ’94) scored (GSAS ’90) is the host of A R T an Emmy nomination for the HBO two new shows on the Food Net - miniseries John Adams and next work: Chopped and Food Detec - turns to the big screen with an tives … NICK SPANGLER (TSOA adaptation of the John Steinbeck ’07) returned to the off-Broadway best-seller East of Eden … Writer show The Fantasticks after winning BRUCE JOEL RUBIN SUSAN ELEY'S UPPER WEST SIDE GALLERY OFFERS FIVE TO SIX CONTEMPO - (WSC ’65), the $1 million prize on CBS’s The RARY EXHIBITIONS EACH YEAR. best known for the 1990 film Amazing Race .— Renée Alfuso

NYU / SPRING 2009 / 25 urban art GRAFFITI INNOVATION JAMES POWDERLY WALKS THE LINE BETWEEN INVENTOR AND “ANTIGOVERNMENT ZEALOT”

by Kolby Yarnell P H O T O S © G R A F F I T I R E S E A R C H L A B

JAMES POWDERLY OUTFITS GRAFFITI ARTISTS WITH PLAYFUL OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS L.A.S.E.R. TAG, WHICH USES A LASER POINTER AND PROJECTOR.

ike many artists, James passengers justifiably took the inci - chief-Making: A Conversation urban artist into the 21st century. Powderly (TSOA ’02) dent for a terrorist attack. Powder - about Rogue Artists, Pranksters, and After graduating from Tisch is in touch with his ly called it a “prank” and believes Other Trouble-Makers.” In keep - School of the Arts’ Interactive L inner adolescent. In a a little fear is good: “I think that’s ing with the night’s theme, Pow - Telecommunications Program in project called “Train a useful place to put someone in.” derly strolled in 15 minutes late and 2002, Powderly took a job at Hon - Bombing in Europe,” he helped Yet Powderly isn’t so eager to noted that he is not, and never has eybee Robotics. The company organize dozens of people in Linz, explore the usefulness of any fear he been, a graffiti artist, the label most worked on contracts for NASA and Austria, one evening to surround a experienced while in police custody often applied to him. In fact, his the military, but with the start of the city train and hurl magnets at it, ter - in China last summer, after being ar - work is far geekier: He writes com - Iraq war, Powderly felt conflicted. rifying both passengers and con - rested for “upsetting the public or - puter code, rigs fire extinguishers to “It was really hard to do good things ductors. Attached to these magnets der” during the 2008 Summer spray house paint on hard-to-reach for bad people,” he says. “There are were colorful LED lights, a Pow der - Olympics. Powderly spoke about surfaces, and fashions lasers that can so many auxiliary uses for a tech - ly invention called the “throwie,” the episode in December at an Eliz - project words onto buildings from nology.” This tough lesson has been which transformed the train into abeth Foundation for the Arts event far away. He’s a graffiti inventor, deeply entrenched in his work ever a moving Christmas tree. Some titled “DIY Law-Breaking & Mis - as it were, ushering the outlaw since. Whether it’s benign, like a

26 / SPRING 2009 / NYU magnet, or benevolent, like a fire ex - moments later called himself an questioning before the U.S. State killed my ass,” he says, tinguisher, what Powderly seems to “antigovernment zealot.” So long as Department arranged his release. adding that at the be demonstrating with his “re - you aren’t in marketing or advertis - He appreciates the irony that being moment he’s planning search” is that technologies have no in g— and especially if you’re a little American in China is both what to create 3-D models C

fixed application. bit of a villai n— GRL will help you led to his arrest and what got him of the cell he was in. U

In 2005, he was awarded a with your high-tech art project. out of jail much sooner than his Powderly will be trav - L

residency at the Chelsea-based art That goal took him to Beijing cell mates. In hindsight, he said what eling for a number T and technology center Eyebeam, last August, to work with the he regrets mos t—more than the in - of projects this year UR where he met and collaborated organization Students for a Free terrogations, the money lost (they while also producing E with Evan Roth. During this resi - . He admits that he flew there charged him for his deportation the film GRL: The dency, they founded the Graffiti Complete First Season 2 . Research Lab (GRL), dedicated to The lab’s policy of turning down outfitting graffiti artists with tech - What Powderly seems to commercial work has become nologies for urban communication. be demonstrating with his financially more problematic They adhere strictly to an open “research” is that technologies for Powderly and Roth, so they source, anticapitalist philosophy. plan to do more projects with All of their ideas, from codes to paint have no fixed application. FAT Lab, the Free Art and Tech - guns to throwies, are up for grabs, nology space where GRL is locat - and GRL relies on art galleries without knowing much about ticket), and the fate of those who ed, including “assisted technology and dona tions for funding. On the the region’s troubled history, but were also arreste d— was his failure for disabled peopl e—with a graffi - GRL Web site, under the videos he was willing to help the group in the role of wily mischief- maker. ti twist.” Powderly is trying to that document each project, is a create a laser stencil to project the “I probably wouldn’t wear a kaffiyeh make the public domain a more link to instructions on how to do words “Free Tibet” in Tiananmen and sleeveless shirt again if I were playful, anarchic plac e— at least to it yourself. Square. The Chinese police, how - trying to go incognito,” he says. a point. “I might be a model, but “Only in the art world can you ever, had been monitoring his cell Going forward, Powderly not a role model,” he says. “If work without slavish dependence on phone calls and text messages, and is hoping to throw a little fear everyone was doing what we copyright,” says Powderly, who de - Powderly spent five days in jail, back at the Chinese government. are, it would be really hard to scribed his work as “neutral,” yet en during sleep deprivation and harsh “They are going to wish that they get attention.”

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