By Wickham Boyle
Tribeca Film Festival press venue will become year-round theater
This year there will be over 150 films shown in nine days at the now huge, Tribeca Film festival. So what’s a journalist to do? Even pasty faced, never seen the sun types would be hard pressed to catch all those movies, not to mention the fact that the Festival would much rather put paying butts into seats than give free seats to the press. So the powers that be at 375 Greenwich Street have come up with a new twist; advanced press screenings.
This is done all the time in the real movie and theater world. There are previews so the members of the fourth estate can come, have a chance to watch the flickering pictures and file stories ahead of time. It works, as it gives more time to digest the works and also spreads out the crowd.
On December 3, 2003, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and husband and partner Craig Hatkoff, announced the acquisition of the Screening Room, located at 54 Varick Street. They set up a new entity called Tribeca Cinemas. The deal gave the festival a long-term lease on the 14,000 square foot space running until 2023.
This space contains three screening rooms; the largest seats 130 people, the second is a 101-seat theater and the third a 15-seat space. The facilities also include a full-service restaurant. This year journalists flock there for special pre-opening showings.
The Screening Room has been around Tribeca for a while, as a sometime Miami-based journalist Steve Kaplan told me as we waited in the paint-fume-filled lobby of the newly incarnated Tribeca Film Festival Screening Room.
“Do you remember when this was the NOZmo King restaurant?” he said.
He put the accents on all the right syllables so I could see he is a downtown denizen even if the tan line on his newly-shaved-off Elvis sideburns told me he had been elsewhere.
Yes, I recall that eatery and I have fond memories of the dinner and a movie feature at the Screening Room. I especially recall going to a Cuban feast and then reveling in Buena Vista Social Club.
Another journalist from Gary, Indiana who didn’t want to be identified was wrangling with theater manager John Whitehead, wondering if the documentaries would start soon because she didn’t want to be sitting in the fumes any longer than she had to.
The metallic silver walls and French blue ceiling must of have taken many coats of high-oil paint to make them shine, and yet the skylight was still leaking. But as manager Whitehead coolly fielded questions on a cell, land phone and conversed into his walkie, he seemed to be coping well with all the chaos.
“This is going to be a permanent feature downtown. The Festival will be showing films here year round not just during the festival. I am not exactly sure what will be shown, but it will be well used.” Whitehead said.
Kaplan, the formerly Elvis-side-burned journalist went on to say, “This festival keeps some of us out of Cannes and gives us a local NY alternative. How great we can stay in NYC and still have a major film festival. I love it.”
Another journalist, named Gary Cabana said, “I am writing advance reviews for a thread on a site called ‘Rottentomatoes.com.’ We will publish recommendations for films, this should make it easier for the public to purchase tickets because we are going to give them more than just the traditional press blurb, we will print opinions.”
The physical site was still slightly under construction, according to Whitehead, but he wasn’t worried.
“It’s going quite well, everything is fine. We have been pleased with the turn out, and are in the process of installing refreshments. We are confident that everything will be completely operational by the time the festival is up and going. We have gotten our catalogs and about 6,000 are out front; people are snapping them up.”
According to a press release issued by the Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said, “In addition to the commercial potential, the Screening Room will also enable us to help support the non-profit Film Institute. Of course it will provide additional capacity for events. Last year’s Festival attracted 325,000 visitors to Lower Manhattan and we expect even more this year.”
