Since the Tribeca Film Festival ended, I’ve been exhausted. Actually, I was exhausted for most of the time it was still happening. If you are a film buff at a film festival, and are given a pass to allow to watch as many films as you want (plus the journalistic obligation to see as many films as you can manage), then it’s like being an over-enthusiastic kid at Willie Wonka’s birthday party. It’s fine for a while, but eventually you get a bit queasy.
Add that a heavy schedule of interviews. One of my last was with the Australian producer and the Rwandan director of Grey Matter, Rwanda’s greatest-ever feature film (because so far, it’s their only feature film). Usually, I arrived at interviews on time, but this time I was running late because I was at a press conference that had also been running late. By then, I knew that all interviews ran late at Tribeca. Besides, I was in the front row, and Eva Mendes was still answering questions. I don’t care how wholesome and spiritual you are (as I am), or how faithful you are to your wife. When Eva Mendes is in front of you, little more than arm’s length away, it is not only rude, but physically impossible for a guy to walk away. If you don’t expect to be in that situation at any time this year, just take my word for it.
Down time was spent in the press lounge, where the main attractions were free wi-fi, bottomless Illy coffee and a freezer full of help-yourself Magnum ice-creams. They didn’t have Magnums in the US until now, so part of the marketers’ plan was to make us so excited that we would forget writing about movies and write only about Magnums. Judging by this paragraph, it seems to have work.
Or maybe not. I have two recording devices packed with interviews, mostly with directors and actors I’d never heard of before I went to Tribeca, but I now hope that they become famous. Their talent deserves to be recognised. More to the point, it would mean that someone will want to read these interviews. I even interviewed Panos Cosmatos, the Canadian director of Beyond the Black Rainbow, before I had a chance to see the film. It’s strange talking to a writer-director, without knowing what his film is all about. I saw the film the next day, but I’m still none the wiser. It’s the strangest, most disturbing, most confusing science-fiction film I’ve seen. Ever. It’s bound to win a huge cult following.
