Twelve movies also appear in the World Documentary Feature Competition and there is also an international feel as a range of countries and filmmakers are represented.The films range from political with Milosevic on Trial to musical success with Old Man Bebo.The films will compete for Best Documentary Film and Best New Documentary Filmmaker.
Baghdad High
With moving intimacy, Baghdad High affords an unprecedented glimpse into the lives of ordinary Iraqis attempting to lead ordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances. The film resulted from a terrific idea born in the minds of two Western journalist/filmmakers who had already worked in that country. Four high school seniors were given basic instruction in filmmaking, and then each was given a digital camera to record his life for the next year. Their school was in a middle-class, religiously mixed district, and they'd been raised by parents who saw themselves as Iraqis first and only secondarily as members of a particular religion or sect.
What's fascinating about the film that resulted is how very familiar and ordinary these kids are-they're not really all that different from your own teenagers or the kids you went to school with. - Tribeca Film Festival
Guest of Cindy Sherman
In the early 1990s, Paul H-O became a fixture of the New York art scene with his public access show GalleryBeat.
Armed with a video camera, he made his way around art openings and exhibitions, alienating some with his candid, witty assessments of their work but winning many fans in the process.
Among the latter was Cindy Sherman, the press-shy art superstar, who later-to Paul's surprise-invited him to her downtown studio for a series of exclusive interviews, which form the basis of Guest of Cindy Sherman.
During the course of these sessions, he not only gains unprecedented insight into her artistic process, but also develops a deep-seated romantic attachment to her. Cindy returns the sentiment, and a relationship blossoms between the two.- Tribeca Film Festival
My Life Inside
Mild-mannered 17-year-old Rosa Jiménez came to the United States for the same reason as thousands of other Mexican immigrants-to provide a better life for her family back home.
At first, America delivered on its promises. Rosa found work in Texas. She found a husband. She had a baby.
She sent money home to her doting mother and brothers in Mexico. But several years later the dream turned to a nightmare when a tragedy befell the two year-old boy Rosa was babysitting.
My Life Inside catches up with Rosa in Austin in August 2005. She has spent the last two years in a cell. Tomorrow she goes to trial.-Tribeca Film Festival
Milosevic On Trial
Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was the first incumbent head of state in history to be indicted by an international court.
His trial before the Hague Tribunal began in 2001 and lasted four years, rehashing the most disturbing aspects of the crimes perpetrated during the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, where three million people were displaced, 125,000 were killed, and the European community faced the reality of mass graves and ethnic cleansing for the first time since World War II.
Director Michael Christoffersen documented the entire serpentine path of the trial.-Tribeca Film Festival
Old Man Bebo
Legendary Cuban musician Bebo Valdés' career didn't really take off until well after he turned 80.
At 81 he won two Grammy awards and has since gone on to win four more and achieve international recognition.
This extraordinary portrait of the man and the musician, recognized as a key figure in the development of mambo, recounts his remarkable life and career.
Friends, relatives, and fellow musicians reminisce about the man who went on to become a living legend.-Tribeca Film Festival
Other films in this category include:
-Donkey in Lahore -Kassim The Dream -Omar Broadway Film -Pray the Devil Back to Hell -Theater of War -Two Mothers -War, Love, God & Madness
Tribeca Film Festival 23 April - 4 May