Nobody Puts Tribeca in the Corner

By S.T. VanAirsdale

The 14-year-old girl in me shrieked at the news that Tribeca is featuring a 20th anniversary screening of Dirty Dancing on April 26 as the keynote of this year's Tribeca Drive-In, complete with a "Dirty Dancing contest, movie trivia and karaoke." Bring the family -- it's free, and the sweaty humping and grim abortion allusions only last a few minutes. (Send the kids for popcorn, they'll never know). The screening takes place in the outdoor theater at the World Financial Center, followed April 27 by a preview of the animated film Surf's Up (featuring a free luau with limbo and hula lessons) and then a screening of Planet B-Boy hosted by Fab 5 Freddy, who will MC a break-dancing performance prior to the movie.

In other fest news, the Tribeca Talks discussion series is locked, with panels featuring everyone from Rosario Dawson to Terry George to Rachel Dratch to Bruce Dern and others talking about issues of varying relations to film (Tiki Barber of all people will talk to Jonathan Tisch about how his "tenure as the New York Giants' premier running back may prove to be the perfect training ground for a career in entertainment and news"). These were fun last year, particularly the downloading panel featuring Steven Soderbergh throwing down with the MPAA's Dean Garfield; we can only hope ex-CIA film consultant Milt Bearden challenges Syriana source Robert Baer to a torture-off in the espionage-movie panel discussion Spies Like Them.

Finally, the fest features another round of shorts from youth film programs around the city. It's separate from the Tribeca Teaches program we told you about last week; this one does include work from Ghetto Film School, Reel Filmworks and Educational Video Center among others, and Whoopi Goldberg will host the program (known as Our City, Our Story) on May 3 and 4.

Check out Tribeca's site for more info, and follow the jump for a full listing of the Tribeca Talks panels.

TRIBECA TALKS PANEL SERIES DISCUSSIONS

THE KID SLAYS IN THE PICTURE

If it bleeds, it leads. Blood, guts and severed limbs have historically been box office cash cows but as Capitol Hill turns up the heat on television violence, studios and filmmakers wonder…will the big screen be next on the chopping block?

PANELIST: Jim Steyer (CEO, Founder, Common Sense Media)
DATE: Thursday, April 26
TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

BRINGING HOME THE BACON

They act. They write. They produce. And they direct. We sit down with some of Hollywood’s super hyphenates—those multi-tasking film stars who have become media conglomerates of their own.

PANELISTS: Eva Mendes (Live!, Hitch), Julie Delpy (2 Jours A Paris, Before
Sunrise), Julia Stiles (Raving, Save The Last Dance,), Rosario Dawson (Kids, Descent)
and Mary Stuart Masterson (The Cake Eaters, Fried Green Tomatoes)
DATE: Friday, April 27
TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

AND THEN… HE ATE A SNAKE

Statistically, the person most likely to get attacked by a shark is the one with the most
flesh exposed. Get tips like this and more when we sit down with some seriously
adventurous filmmakers—those who immerse themselves in the elements, so that you don’t have to! Let’s compare scars.

PANELISTS: Josh Bernstein (Digging For the Truth) Les Stroud (Survivor Man) and
Philippe Cousteau, Jr. (President, EarthEcho International, Ocean’s Deadliest).
MODERATOR: Boyd Matson (Wild Chronicles, National Geographic Today)
DATE: Saturday, April 28
TIME: 1 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

SPIES LIKE THEM

Wondering what side that G-Man’s on? Or if she’s a sparrow? We join real life secret
agents and the ones that play them to crack the code behind the public’s fascination with espionage on the big screen.

PANELISTS: Milt Bearden (CIA consultant on The Good Shepherd), Robert Baer
(Syriana), and Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
MODERATOR: Christopher Isham (ABC News)
DATE: Saturday, April 28
TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: BMCC TribecaPAC 2

TRIBECA TALKS: TIKI BARBER, NO PAIN... NO GAIN

Broken bones, torn ligaments, concussions. Tiki Barber’s tenure as the New York
Giants' premier running back may prove to be the perfect training ground for a career in entertainment and news. Jonathan Tisch sits down with the master of rushing and
receiving to discuss what the future holds for this neo-renaissance man.

DATE: Sunday, April 29
TIME: 1 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

LOOK WHOSE LAUGHING

And they are not supposed to be. A recent study out of Stanford University suggests that women are not, well, funny. We beg to differ and our guests are hilarious proof.

PANELISTS: Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live), Rachael Harris (Notes From the
Underbelly, Evan Almighty)
DATE: Sunday, April 29
TIME: 4 pm
LOCATION: BMCC TribecaPAC 2

CINEMA 2.0: ME, MYSELF AND IPOD

Today, you are the master of your own domain, the creator, the conjurer. Whether in
Beirut, Bangkok or Brooklyn, your audience is a webcam away. Our panel of web-celebs and content creators step out from behind their laptops to take a look at the revolution and responsibility of this socio-technological phenomenon and what it means for the future of creativity.

PANELISTS: Charles Leadbeater (Author, We-think, Up the Down Escalator) Brent
Weinstein (President, UTA Online) Kathleen Grace (Co-Creator: The Burg), Jonathan
Lethem (The Promiscous Materials Project, You Don’t Love Me Yet: A Novel), and
Jerry Paffendorf (Electric Sheep Factory, Second Life).
DATE: Monday, April 30
TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

REAL HORROR STORIES

From Blood Diamond and The Last King of Scotland to both real and fictionalized
accounts of refugees in Sudan and Sierra Leone horrendous stories from the world's most devastated places have become a kind of cultural cache. Can the visibility afforded by pop culture actually create real-life change?

PANELISTS: Suliman Baldo (International Center for Transitional Justice), Ishmael
Beah (A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) Terry George (Hotel Rwanda,
Reservation Road) Christopher Quinn (Director, God Grew Tired of Us) John Dau
(God Grew Tired of Us, Director of Sudan Project, Direct Change, Inc.)
DATE: Tuesday, May 1
TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

TRIBECA TALKS: LUDACRIS

Three time Grammy winner, multi-platinum musician, actor, record label executive and producer. Chris "Ludacris" Bridges is one of today's fastest rising screen talents. With critically acclaimed performances in Crash, Hustle & Flow and Law & Order SVU, Bridges is soon to be seen in the comedy film Fred Claus. He sits down with Vanity Fair's Lisa Robinson to talk about music, movies and more.

DATE: Wednesday, May 2
TIME: 7:30 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

FAME! I’M GONNA LIVE FOREVER!

Ah, to be famous. The money, the lifestyle, the paparazzi picking through your garbage cans….With the price tag on interviews, pictures, anything having to do with a celebrity growing higher each day, Tribeca Talks gets serious about fame. What drives it, who wants it and is it something you are born to have? Our panel of scientists and damage- control experts discuss the psychological roots behind the need to swivel necks and the collateral damage that comes with being a household name.

PANELISTS: Jake Halpern (Author, Fame Junkies), Robert Millman (Psychologist,
Acquired Situational Narcissism) Bruce Dern (They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Things
I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have: An Unrepentant Memoir), Janice Min (Editor In
Chief US Weekly).

DATE: Thursday, May 3
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

Alfred P Sloan Foundation presents: PRODIGIES, NOBELISTS AND PENGUINS: SCIENCE AND STEREOTYPES IN THE MOVIES

Drawing on several new films at this years festival--Vitus, Nobel Son and Eye of the
Dolphin--and such acclaimed movies as A Beautiful Mind, Proof, Good Will Hunting,
The Aviator, March of the Penguins and more Tribeca Talks brings filmmakers and
scientists together for an entertaining conversation about science in the movies.

DATE: Saturday, May 5
TIME: 1 pm
LOCATION: BMCC Tribeca PAC 2

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Posted at March 29, 2007 4:58 PM