This year, the Tribeca Summer Series moves away from documentary to focus on up-and-coming short filmmakers who premiered at Tribeca this year who have been asked to select a feature the inspired them with directing their short film.
BIG ELVIS
Directed by Paul Stone | 2018 | 12 mins
Pete is an Elvis Presley impersonator in Las Vegas, but Pete is not like any Elvis impersonator you may have in mind. Pete is BIG ELVIS! At his peak, Pete tipped the scales as a 960-pound performer, but not only is Pete preternaturally talented (one fellow impersonator asserts that he has a better voice than The King himself), he also believes himself (with good reason!) to be Presley’s actual, living son.
On why they chose TRUE ROMANCE:
“When I was 29, I started my commercial production and editorial company called Firebrand Films and ran it out of Ridley and Tony Scott’s New York SoHo office for 8 years. They were my mentors early on, and being at RSA was my film school. I digitized, studied and re-edited their films on an Avid to crack the code of their genius. TRUE ROMANCE was my favorite Tony Scott film, and I have watched it at least a hundred times. I was inspired by the way that Tony used Elvis Presley as a spiritual character in TRUE ROMANCE and was fascinated to discover that Pete ‘Big Elvis’ Vallee had the same spiritual qualities.”
TRUE ROMANCE
The Quentin Tarantino penned TRUE ROMANCE certainly isn’t your run-of-the-mill love story but the passion (borderline obsession) between Clarence and his reformed hooker wife Alabama sure is palpable. A modern day Bonnie and Clyde, they meet, fall in love, and then proceed to steal a whole lot of drugs from her pimp. As with most things in love and life, things are never easy (there’s murders and mobsters), but the one thing that remains true is their romance.
This year, the Tribeca Summer Series moves away from documentary to focus on up-and-coming short filmmakers who premiered at Tribeca this year who have been asked to select a feature the inspired them with directing their short film.
CRIME CUTZ
Directed by Ben Fries and Alden Nusser | 2017 | 17 minutes
A short film that blurs the line between documentary and music video. Crime Cutz profiles four amateur performers from New York City, inviting them to interpret a track from Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz EP in their own unique style. Using these performances as the foundation of their section, each character is showcased as both subject & collaborator.
On why they chose AMERICAN MOVIE:
“AMERICAN MOVIE is an example of documentary filmmaking that proves real people can be more compelling and hilarious than anything you could write.”
AMERICAN MOVIE
In this cult-favorite documentary, Mark Borchardt, an aspiring filmmaker from a working-class Wisconsin background, is set on finishing his low-budget horror movie, despite a barrage of difficulties. Plagued by lack of cash, unreliable help and numerous personal problems, Mark wants to complete the film to raise funds for a more ambitious drama. With the assistance of his bumbling but loyal friend Mike Schank, Mark struggles to move forward, making for plenty of bittersweet moments.
Starring: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Paul Gleason
You mess with the bull, you get the horns! Five very different high school kids connect when they spend their Saturday in school detention lockdown because a Jock, a Beauty, a Brain, a Rebel and a Recluse actually have a lot more in common than you’d think; they’re all messed up and have issues with authority! Directed by the master of the 1980s teenage comedy John Hughes’ and taking place during one day, The Breakfast Club really taps into the awkwardness of growing up, with all the sadness and hilarity that entails.
Starring: Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O’Dowd
Annie is stuck in a long-term relationship with Duncan, an obsessive fan of obscure rocker Tucker Crowe. When the acoustic demo of Tucker’s hit record from 25 years ago surfaces, its release leads to a life-changing encounter with the elusive rocker himself.
Based on the novel by Nick Hornby, JULIET, NAKED is a comic account of life’s second chances.
Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, John Turturro, Spike Lee
Salvatore “Sal” Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin’ Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin’ Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Cocktail partner
Starring: Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day
A young musician, tormented by an abusive situation at home, must contend with a rival singer, a burgeoning romance, and his own dissatisfied band, as his star begins to rise.
Starring: Robert Deniro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady’s rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Starring: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson, Blake Jenner, Ann Dowd
The unbelievable but entirely true story of four young men who attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history. The film centers around two friends from the middle-class suburbs of Lexington, Kentucky. Spencer is determined to become an artist but feels he lacks the essential ingredient that unites all great artists – suffering. His closest friend, Warren, has also been raised to believe that his life will be special, and that he will be unique in some way. But as they leave the suburbs for universities in the same town, the realities of adult life begin to dawn on them and with that, the realization that their lives may in fact never be important or special in any way.
Determined to live lives that are out of the ordinary, they plan the brazen theft of some of the world’s most valuable books from the special collections room of Spencer’s college Library. Enlisting two more friends, and taking their cues from heist movies, the gang meticulously plots the theft and subsequent fence of the stolen artworks. Although some of the group begin to have second thoughts, they discover that the plan has seemingly taken on a life of its own. Unfolding from multiple perspectives, and innovatively incorporating the real-life figures at the heart of the story, writer-director Bart Layton (The Imposter) takes the heist movie into bold new territory.
Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler
In a dystopian, not-too-distant future Oakland, black telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe of material glory. As his friends and co-workers organize in protest of corporate oppression, Cassius falls under the spell of his company’s cocaine-snorting CEO Steve Lift, who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams.
