CREDIT: Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

Good news for people who like film festivals: the Tribeca variety was held once again in- New York City (and virtually) in 2022! When I attend, I like to select offerings that I probably wouldn’t watch otherwise. So this time around, those turned out to be a very 21st century tale of intellectual property theft, an Israeli middle age domestic drama, a short capturing the urgent demands of our bodily functions, and a documentary about one of the most beloved children’s shows of all time. Let’s take a closer look at each.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

It Feels Personal (Short)

What if you posted a clever video and then somebody else reposted it and garnered all the likes, leaving you on the sidelines like a chump? That’s what happened to Hugh Clegg. At first he responded by trying to make his case in the comments section, which backfired immediately. Eventually he decided to make a documentary short about his ordeal, and so we have It Feels Personal, which does in fact feel intensely personal. A happy ending eventually arrives, but even if Clegg had remained stymied, his case offers valuable lessons about letting go when faced with the vagaries of creative property control on the internet.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

Karaoke

Meir (Sasson Gabai) and Tova (Rita Shikrun) live a happy, simple life in a happy, simple apartment complex in a happy, simple Israeli suburb. But are they really quite so happy as they seem? Do they even really seem that content to begin with? Maybe the mysterious hotshot noisy upstairs neighbor (Lior Ashkenazi) who invites them to his place for one of his karaoke gatherings can help them reevaluate everything. I’m a karaoke fiend, so I felt compelled to check this one out for that very reason. Alas, there’s not a ton of actual karaoke, at least not as much as you’d expect from a movie with the name Karaoke. The singing scenes that we do get offer a nice peek into the characters’ souls, at least. But adjust your expectations appropriately by being prepared instead for a heavy dose of existential identity crises.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

Out of Order (Short)

Out or Order offers us this parting message: “When you gotta go, you gotta go.” That final note could’ve been a lot darker. This is the story of a man (Kareem Rahma) whose bowels are calling No. 2 while he’s out and about in New York City, after all. In other words, a horror story. There are plenty of funny moments, but there are few things more terrifying than the lack of easy access to a bathroom when you really need one. At least the explosive conclusion is a relief. That’s all we can hope for in situations like this.

CREDIT: Tony Hardmon/Tribeca Film Festival

Butterfly in the Sky

I don’t remember ever watching the long-running PBS series Reading Rainbow while growing up, even though as a millennial its heyday was right squarely in my childhood. Nevertheless, I’m fully aware of the iconic nature of both the show and its host LeVar Burton. So I was happy to check out the story behind it all in the form of Butterfly in the Sky, directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb. First of all, let me happily report to my fellow human beings that the scene from that one episode of Community in which Troy meets LeVar appears within the first ten minutes of this doc. Also making me happy: the presence of original All That cast member Alisa Reyes, who was apparently also one of Reading Rainbow‘s book review kids. Much more surprising is the part about the Reading Rainbow segment filmed in a cave filled with bats and flesh-eating worms. What a show!