This is our 6^th year running Tribeca Film Festival; we are opening on April 25^th. The festival presents a very broad selection of every kind of film from all over the world, from student films to Hollywood productions. For example, we will be hosting a premier of Superman 3.  There is a strong international selection presented – that is always one of the festival credos.  There are also two competitions – one for a feature film, and one for a short, and all together more than 150 features and 100 shorts will be shown at the Festival this year.

2)   What are you looking at when selecting a movie?    Do you personally watch every film that is selected? 

The film selection is competitive. I am mostly involved in selecting international films. It involves a lot of traveling and a lot of movie watching. What I look for in a film is what I think every person looks for when going to the movies. I am looking to be amused, to be moved, to have an experience I have not had before. I want a movie that talks about what it is like to be a human being on planet earth.  I think movies are the best way to learn about the people who are not like us, and that’s one of the reasons there is such a diversity of film at the Festival. Of course, as anywhere in the movie industry, there must be a balance between commerce and art. If it is a pure form of either, that would be boring, wouldn’t it? So we always look for a combination of the two.   

3) There is a definite increased presence of films from Former Soviet Union republics. Is that incidental?  Anything that stood out for you?

I think it just happened that way – we got a lot of great entrees this year. We are excited to present two great films in the main narrative category - Playing the Victim, directed by Kirill Serebryanikov and Two in One, directed by one of my favorite Russian directors that I am sure your audience knows well – Kira Muratova. Playing the Victim has been named Best Film at Rome's inaugural film festival and this is an American premier. Two In One, is a world premier (the movie was shown in its native Ukraine only).
Some of the others we are screening this year are Between Heaven and Earth by Tussen Hemel en Aarde,  and a documentary by Armenian journalist Vardan Hovhannisyan - A Story of People of War and Peace. I would also like to mention the two films we are screening in our “restored” section, one by a great cinematographer – Sergey Urosevsky (The Crains are flying, I am Cuba) - The Letter Never Sent and another short by the great Sergey Paradjanov  - Memories About Sayat Nova. 





 4) For a first time viewer, what are the musts of Tribeca? How does one make the most of it?

Get plenty of sleep, eat healthy and see as many films as you can. I feel we have a very strong selection on Russian –language films this year that will give a viewer a great introduction to the world of old and current Russian film and its great talent. So see them all. As to the general “musts” of the festival, there is an unusual event happening throughout this weekend - Passio. It is set to the music of Arvro Part’s Passio and will be shown in two places of worship – Cathedral of St. John and Trinity Church.