In 2019, I joined the Programming team at the Tribeca Film Festival. In this role I watch and evaluate diverse narrative films from emerging and established filmmakers. One of my missions is to support independent filmmaking, innovative creative expression and to provide a platform for filmmakers from around the world to show their work. As a programmer, I have evaluated more than 100 international narrative films, I also write reviews, edit film synopses and other curatorial texts. Below you can read my reviews for film in the International Narrative Competition, Spotlight Narrative and Viewpoints sections.
Reviews
My review: Asia
International Narrative Competition - World Premiere
FEATURE | ISRAEL | 85 MINUTES
Asia (Alena Yiv) and Vika (Shira Haas) are more like sisters than mother and daughter. Young mom Asia hides nothing about her work-hard, play-hard lifestyle, and expects the same openness and honesty from teenage Vika. But Vika is at an age where privacy and independence are paramount, and inevitably begins to rebel against her mom’s parenting style. With two stubborn and opinionated women under one roof, Asia finds herself in new territory and stumbles to achieve a balance between asserting her parental authority and respecting her daughter’s point of view. When health issues lead Vika to be confined to a wheelchair and her need for romantic experiences and sexual exploration becomes more urgent, Asia realizes she must get out of the way so that her daughter can live her life.
In her debut feature film, Israeli filmmaker Ruthy Pribar focuses on a pair of Russian immigrants in Israel, candidly exploring the challenges of motherhood and the desires of the differently-abled. —Miriam Garcia
My Review: Love Spreads
Spotlight Narrative - World Premiere
FEATURE | WALES | 93 MINUTES
To keep their recent successes fresh, all-female rock band Glass Heart seclude themselves in a remote cottage to work on their second album. The studio is brimming with inspiration; even a lowly wall in the garden has once inspired greatness (Oasis’s Wonderwall, according to legend). Faced with mounting pressure from studio executives, singer-songwriter Kelly (Alia Shawkat) shuts down. Tensions form between the band members and manager Mark (Nick Helm) as frustrations as days tick relentlessly on. Digs and accusations mingle with boredom and machinations as they wait for Kelly’s creative block to lift.
Shawkat’s wonderfully subtle performance succeeds in balancing ego and frailty, and leaves band members and viewers alike walking on eggshells. Love Spreads is a tight and humorous drama that explores the fragility of group dynamics and creative exhaustion. What does it mean to be creative, and are friendships, mental health, and even family worth sacrificing for a great album?—Miriam Garcia
My Review: Looking for a Lady Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache
Viewpoints - US Premiere
FEATURE | NEPAL | 113 MINUTES
Tenzin (Tsering Tashi Gyalthang) is a young musician and entrepreneur living in a fast-changing Nepal; he plans to open his own coffee shop, which he hopes will attract Western tourists. But even as he thinks he’s moving forward, he struggles with a disconnect from his culture and is destabilized by otherworldly visions of women who seem to follow him across Kathmandu. At a close friend’s behest, Tenzin confides in an eccentric monk (Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche), who interprets these hallucinations as death omens—that is, unless Tenzin commits to a journey of self-discovery and a reckoning with his spiritual skepticism.
Khyentse Norbu—whose Vara: A Blessing was awarded at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival—brings his experience as a Buddhist lama to bear on Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache. In this film, his fourth feature, he explores the tensions between capitalism and traditionalism that roil in a time when religion may be as commodified as a kitschy curio. But what emerges in Tenzin’s atmospheric music, and in the trancelike cinematography of Mark Lee Ping-bing (In the Mood for Love), is the need to cut through these distractions to truly reconnect with life’s fundamentals.—Miriam Garcia
My review: Pacified
Viewpoints - New York Premiere
FEATURE | BRAZIL | 120 MINUTES
Tati (Cassia Gil), is a 13-year-old living in a Brazilian favela. Her mother Andrea (Débora Nascimento) wants to escape with Tati but struggles due to her drug addiction. Her family and living situation changes abruptly when Jaca (Bukassa Kabengele), the former leader of the favela, is released from prison and returns. His presence creates tension between the community and the new leaders that have taken his place.
The film takes place during the Olympics in Brazil, when the country's police and government implemented an operation called pacification, aiming to quell violence in the favelas by sending armed police forces to these neighborhoods. What this policy created was a complex layer of violence that was mostly sustained by the criminalization of poverty. Pacified is the new film by American filmmaker Paxton Winters, produced by Darren Aronofsky. The film won the Golden Shell at the 2019 San Sebastian Film Festival.—Miriam Garcia