Some of the most involving documentaries featured at previous Tribeca Film Festivals have creatively explored family histories, including The Flat and The Arbor, revealing and attempting to reconcile with the past. In two films this year, adult sons confronted their fathers, in memory and in person. In My Father’s House On Chicago’s South Side (President […]

Directed by Johannes Holzhausen Produced by Johannes Rosenberger Released by Kino Lorber German with English subtitles Austria. 95 min. Not rated America and Europe approach the past differently, and each can defy common sense in ways that make sensible people want to rip their hair out. European culture can overprotect tradition like a helicopter mom, […]

Directed by Douglas Kass and Roger Kass Produced by Roger Kass Released by Music Box Films English, Italian, French & German with English subtitles USA/Italy/Germany/France/Cyprus. 77 min. Not rated In 2010, famed novelist and occasional essayist Jonathan Franzen published a long piece in The New Yorker titled “Emptying the Skies,” about the illegal trapping of […]

For many documentaries, a strong subject matter is the main draw. Granted, directorial choices are crucial, but compelling interviewees or a topic that resonates with the public can help a film truly soar. The best of these films do just that, from a film about a father working to exonerate his son to a work […]

In general, documentaries tend to be the strength of the Tribeca Film Festival’s programming, and though there are many solid narrative films in this year’s edition, the nonfiction films take viewers on journeys that not only spanned the globe but also scrutinize many aspects of the human experience. Adolescence is explored in depth in a […]

In the 13 years since the founding of the Tribeca Film Festival, a handful of films have careened onto the world’s cinematic stage. Let the Right One In, Taxi to the Dark Side, and War Witch are a few of the more identifiable titles, but (relatively) mainstream success has not necessarily been the goal of […]

The Tribeca Film Festival is one of country’s largest showcases for a broad range of American and international documentaries, covering politics to culture and nostalgia, along with family journeys that reveal larger social issues. Those in New York this April are in luck; you can’t always count on postfestival theatrical, cable, or public television distribution. […]

Directed by Albert Maysles, Nelson Walker Lynn True, David Usui, and Ben Wu Produced by True and Walker USA. 76 min. World premiere The last documentary in the influential, 50 year-plus career of the late Albert Maysles, In Transit beautifully passes the baton of his “direct cinema” to co-directors Nelson Walker and Lynn True and […]

Written & Directed by Michael Obert Produced by Alexandre Tondowski and Ira Tondowski English and Yaka with English subtitles Germany/USA/Central African Republic. 96 min. Not rated As a young man, Louis Sarno loved classical music, being especially drawn to compositions rich in polyphony. He discovered a similar harmonization present in the music of pygmy tribes, […]