Tribeca Film Festival 2017

:00:00. > :00:00.Trump has delivered a speech to the National Rifle Association, the

:00:00. > :00:07.first US president to do that since Ronald Reagan. Now on BBC News, it

:00:08. > :00:33.is time for Talking movies. Hello and welcome to this special

:00:34. > :00:39.Tribeca Film Festival edition of Talking Movies. In today's

:00:40. > :00:44.programme, with sections on gaming, television and virtual reality, is

:00:45. > :00:49.Tribeca moving away from just being a Film Festival? We will always be

:00:50. > :00:53.about film, there is no question. That is in our DNA. It was a

:00:54. > :00:58.festival in which the wonders of virtual reality were fully on

:00:59. > :01:01.display. If you sit in a movie theatre and the character turns and

:01:02. > :01:05.looks at the camera, they call at breaking the fourth wall. But in VR

:01:06. > :01:09.there are no walls. Plus, Tribeca had movies from around the world. A

:01:10. > :01:14.drama set in China, and the story of women's emancipation in Switzerland

:01:15. > :01:18.in the 1970s. Bexley had these arguments in the 1970s. They were,

:01:19. > :01:24.like, if women do politics it is apocalypse. Then there were

:01:25. > :01:29.Tribeca's political films, the politically charged Confusing Times.

:01:30. > :01:33.We are living in a surreal time, I just don't know what to make of it.

:01:34. > :01:37.And a feature on people for whom the environment make them ill. All that

:01:38. > :01:48.and more in the special Tribeca Film Festival edition of Talking Movies.

:01:49. > :01:52.New York's Landmark radio city music Hall is home to the world-famous

:01:53. > :01:57.synchronised dance is known as the Rockettes. But this year it has also

:01:58. > :02:03.played host to launch of a rather different kind of showbiz Robert De

:02:04. > :02:08.Niro's Tribeca Film Festival. I have learned through the years that Clive

:02:09. > :02:13.really has a weakness for artists. A documentary profile of legendary

:02:14. > :02:16.American musical executive Clive Davis opened the festival, a man who

:02:17. > :02:19.has influenced the careers of such artists as Barry Mallow, Bruce

:02:20. > :02:26.Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Patti Smith and many more. But he is still

:02:27. > :02:30.going strong at age 85, impressed Festival co-founder Robert De Niro.

:02:31. > :02:35.I am not post to his aid, but I am getting there. So I have... He is an

:02:36. > :02:42.inspiration. The longer he keeps going, the better it is for me. This

:02:43. > :02:48.two Power documentary was put together by a filmmaker who has

:02:49. > :02:52.packed a lot into it. Everything. 55 to 58 interviews, something like

:02:53. > :02:56.that. Just an unbelievable amount of music and art and artists and

:02:57. > :03:01.executives, it is just a blizzard of stars and things that people have

:03:02. > :03:05.relationships with. You know, it is the history of popular music, 50

:03:06. > :03:10.years. Every so on somebody turned out to be a big hit. There is much

:03:11. > :03:15.to admire in Clive Davis. His ability to stop spot and nurture

:03:16. > :03:20.talent, his tenacity, but the film is not a warts and all exposure. It

:03:21. > :03:24.is a puff piece in that it only tells his side of the story, and

:03:25. > :03:28.there is nothing in it that makes him look at all negative. It was

:03:29. > :03:31.kind of typical for a Tribeca opening night, where often you have

:03:32. > :03:35.got a big gala event organised around a very important media

:03:36. > :03:39.figure. And so they show a documentary that is fairly common

:03:40. > :03:43.entry to that person in order to tie in the sort of celebrations, in this

:03:44. > :03:50.case a big concert with lots of people. Tribeca's 12 day festival

:03:51. > :03:55.isn't designed with the highbrow cineaste in mind. There are lots to

:03:56. > :04:00.choose from, everything from Tom Hanks and Emma Watson to a political

:04:01. > :04:04.satire setting India, the issue related documentaries, the porter at

:04:05. > :04:08.the late actor Heath Ledger. No wonder just a Film Festival, Tribeca

:04:09. > :04:13.also unveiled TV shows, virtual reality project and gaming. As

:04:14. > :04:16.technology has changed, as the weight distribution has changed, we

:04:17. > :04:20.are about storytelling. And good storytelling, whether or not it is

:04:21. > :04:28.in gaming or amazing documentaries, short films, and great narratives.

:04:29. > :04:33.This is the first Tribeca festival since Donald Trump became president.

:04:34. > :04:37.These are politically charged times, giving Tribeca films which touch on

:04:38. > :04:42.politics a special resonance. One looking back is the Reagan Show,

:04:43. > :04:46.examining President Ronald Reagan and how the administration of the

:04:47. > :04:50.long-time Hollywood actor use television to its advantage. The

:04:51. > :04:53.film is made up entirely of archival footage from the time. A business

:04:54. > :04:59.that I used to be instead save something for the third act. And we

:05:00. > :05:01.will. The images suggest that the Reagan administration governed by

:05:02. > :05:07.relying on what social commentators have turned post- truth politics.

:05:08. > :05:13.Post- truth politics is a world in which politics is more about the

:05:14. > :05:21.spectacle and the entertainment value of the event, rather than any

:05:22. > :05:26.kind of real world, verifiable facts, evidence, truth. So if the

:05:27. > :05:32.Reagan administration planted the seed is of post- truth politics,

:05:33. > :05:41.then the Trump administration has really been harvesting that crop.

:05:42. > :05:48.Tribeca is closing with screenings of the Godfather and Godfather part

:05:49. > :05:51.two. Robert De Niro thinks that they connected with audiences because at

:05:52. > :05:55.a time when the social fabric in America appeared to be fraying at

:05:56. > :05:58.present a strong quarter of a family. People felt more enacted to

:05:59. > :06:02.that than they did to the dissolution and the cynicism and

:06:03. > :06:07.suspicion of the government, and so on -- portrait. I think that that

:06:08. > :06:13.just... I am oversimplifying it, but that had a lot to do with it, in

:06:14. > :06:16.some way. Too many New Yorkers, Tribeca is a welcome hodgepodge of

:06:17. > :06:21.movies and affiliated activities, often proves very engaging. At the

:06:22. > :06:28.festival is yet to launch a truly memorable picture that comes to

:06:29. > :06:32.define it. During festival time, there was much talk about a sideshow

:06:33. > :06:37.that could become the main show in years to come. Virtual reality. All

:06:38. > :06:41.told, some 30 different virtual reality projects were on display.

:06:42. > :06:51.Each attracting a lot of interest. Tristan Daley went along to

:06:52. > :06:53.investigate. On the fifth floor of the Tribeca festival hub,

:06:54. > :06:57.participants with headsets covering their eyes walk around waving their

:06:58. > :07:01.hands in the air, interacting with a world only they can see. Tribeca is

:07:02. > :07:05.one of several film festivals across the world to be demonstrating

:07:06. > :07:08.burgeoning virtual reality technology, with a number of

:07:09. > :07:12.different installations, in a time when the market for this gadgetry is

:07:13. > :07:18.rapidly expanding. But Tribeca specially designed their exhibition

:07:19. > :07:21.space to bring the most out of their virtual reality experiences. These

:07:22. > :07:25.installations are not in your living room, so when you go into one of

:07:26. > :07:28.these pieces you are not just putting the headset on. You are

:07:29. > :07:32.actually entering the inflation that has been built specifically for the

:07:33. > :07:36.space, so it is actually a bespoke experience. And it is actually a

:07:37. > :07:39.very... It is like a collective experience, because people talk

:07:40. > :07:43.about VR being very lonely but what I love about this as we are figuring

:07:44. > :07:47.out ways to bring people into spaces and actually have them be part of

:07:48. > :07:51.something that feels collective. They are very excited about the

:07:52. > :07:54.cutting edge nature of these projects, claiming creators are

:07:55. > :08:02.pushing the possibilities of virtual reality to its limits. Tree hug

:08:03. > :08:07.Wawona is a project in which the dissidents creep up the trunk of a

:08:08. > :08:11.tree and are able to see it produce oxygen. Creators wanted to immerse

:08:12. > :08:16.the audience not only in the sights and sounds but also the actual smell

:08:17. > :08:22.of the tree. We have got sent release system, so that adds... When

:08:23. > :08:27.you push ahead through the bar, through the SAP, to the internals of

:08:28. > :08:30.tree, the sound changes and the scent changes. The more you are

:08:31. > :08:35.pushed into that world, with your senses, the more reel that journey

:08:36. > :08:39.feels. So we are always pushing the limits of that and we have got that

:08:40. > :08:42.sculptural elements, and your touch aligns with the virtual feed. Unlike

:08:43. > :08:49.traditional motion picture formats, virtual reality thrust viewers into

:08:50. > :08:52.a virtual 3-D space in which most times you can see 360 degrees around

:08:53. > :08:56.you. Some veteran Phil Magas like Steven Spielberg are daunted by the

:08:57. > :08:59.new technology, saying it takes control away from the storytellers,

:09:00. > :09:06.giving the audience more choice on where to look. The advent of virtual

:09:07. > :09:10.reality has given filmmakers a new storytelling vocabulary, that is

:09:11. > :09:17.distinct from cinema. The director of the Madagascar animation

:09:18. > :09:21.franchise brought Rainbow Crowed to Tribeca this year. It is a retelling

:09:22. > :09:25.of a native American hotel. To him, virtual reality as a medium in its

:09:26. > :09:31.own right. Coming from the storm world, I have directed a number of

:09:32. > :09:35.films, and I thought easy, this is going to be no big deal, I've done

:09:36. > :09:40.this for 25 years but I got humble really quick when I got into VR and

:09:41. > :09:42.realised that it is just not the same. It just feels different, it

:09:43. > :09:47.looks different. Audiences respond to it in different ways. You know,

:09:48. > :09:50.if you said in a movie theatre and a character turns the camera, I don't

:09:51. > :09:54.really feel like they are looking at me. You know, they call it raking

:09:55. > :09:58.the fourth wall, but in VR, there are no walls. And that is a pretty

:09:59. > :10:03.amazing experience for audiences. This whole space is in such a period

:10:04. > :10:06.of flux. And what is so interesting about all this technology is every

:10:07. > :10:10.time you get your hands around one thing and you figure out how it

:10:11. > :10:14.works, like, Tribeca next is going to look completely different. It

:10:15. > :10:19.just keeps. Many challenges lie ahead for this medium, such as how

:10:20. > :10:23.best to harness virtual reality to tell original stories, and how to

:10:24. > :10:26.develop mass distribution so hundreds can share the same virtual

:10:27. > :10:32.reality experience simultaneously. And commercially, a priority remains

:10:33. > :10:42.developing an effective business model so this new technology can be

:10:43. > :10:47.monetised. Now on to some Tribeca films in a bit more detail. It goes

:10:48. > :10:50.without saying that Tribeca is an American festival. After all, it

:10:51. > :10:53.takes place on American soil. But this year, films from some 31

:10:54. > :11:01.different countries were shown. Among them, King of the king, set

:11:02. > :11:05.and shot in China. Basically it is a father-son relationship drama, but

:11:06. > :11:12.it is also an ode to cinema, as our correspondent reports. Set in China

:11:13. > :11:15.in 1998, King of the king is a layered comedy about a projectionist

:11:16. > :11:21.whose love for movies, and even greater love for his son. The story

:11:22. > :11:25.is about a father who is a projectionist. He has got a son who

:11:26. > :11:29.works with him in business, which as they travel around China, or rural

:11:30. > :11:33.parts of China, and they scream movies for villagers. And his

:11:34. > :11:38.project catches fire. And they have two start finding new ways to work

:11:39. > :11:41.together. The ex-wife is putting an enormous amount of pressure on them,

:11:42. > :11:45.on the father, he has basically given them an ultimatum that unless

:11:46. > :11:49.he pays X amount of money he is basically not going to have custody

:11:50. > :11:53.of his child any more. And that is why he goes to the great expense of

:11:54. > :11:57.bootlegging movies in order to keep his son. He even Rolls himself up

:11:58. > :12:05.with film to smuggle them to the basement where he makes his DVDs.

:12:06. > :12:08.According to voters, the digital age phenomenally transformed cinema in

:12:09. > :12:17.China. It was really only when DVDs entered the market, in the 1990s,

:12:18. > :12:21.and VCDs, different types of video discs, that these movies were able

:12:22. > :12:26.to enter the home and be consumed by people who beforehand didn't have

:12:27. > :12:30.access to these type of stories. And Sam Voutas says an easy way to get

:12:31. > :12:34.your hands on a DVD copy of your favourite movie was from but later

:12:35. > :12:38.on the street. He got the idea from the story when one of his previous

:12:39. > :12:43.films, also set in China, was bootlegged in real life. It was sort

:12:44. > :12:47.of a spark that got me writing. So our previous film, within a week it

:12:48. > :12:51.was on the streets of Beijing, and rather than get angry, I was

:12:52. > :12:55.actually very impressed with the creativity that the bootleggers had.

:12:56. > :12:58.They had done their own artwork, they had done their own credit is,

:12:59. > :13:03.really interesting stuff. So I realise that there was a creative

:13:04. > :13:08.element to the bootlegging. And that is how it started. It is more of a

:13:09. > :13:15.sort of... I guess you could say it is a celebration of the creativity

:13:16. > :13:21.of that... Of that world. King of the king is Sam Voutas's first film

:13:22. > :13:29.to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Support doesn't guarantee

:13:30. > :13:32.him widescale success, but he hopes that the exposure from this festival

:13:33. > :13:37.will bring a wide audience from those who only saw his last film on

:13:38. > :13:41.bootlegged. While making movie about the bootlegging industry in China is

:13:42. > :13:45.clever and a bit tongue in cheek, for the producer of the film, it all

:13:46. > :13:50.comes back to one thing. A tale of a father and his son. It is a love

:13:51. > :13:55.letter, father to son and son to father, as well as of other to

:13:56. > :14:06.cinema, and to his passions in life. The real heart of the film is about

:14:07. > :14:10.love. People whose lives are destabilised by products like house

:14:11. > :14:17.paint, perfume, even mobile phones. These are the individuals

:14:18. > :14:24.scrutinised in the Tribeca documentary The Sensitives.

:14:25. > :14:35.The subjects of this powerful new documentary, The Sensitives, live

:14:36. > :14:39.day to day in a unique ligament. The new disorder that the mainstream

:14:40. > :14:43.medical community recognises as real but has not yet developed any

:14:44. > :14:47.treatment or medication for. It has a name. Multiple chemical

:14:48. > :14:52.sensitivity. But because the symptoms vary dramatically, many

:14:53. > :14:55.suffer to even -- struggle to even define their illness. He started

:14:56. > :15:00.having trouble at work with his colleagues, their personal hygiene,

:15:01. > :15:05.their shampoo, things like that. What they have in common is they

:15:06. > :15:08.developed these debilitating reactions to commonplace things in

:15:09. > :15:14.the environment, things we take for granted, like garden pesticides or

:15:15. > :15:22.house paint, perfume and Cologne and even cellphones, wireless router is

:15:23. > :15:26.and things like that. The degree to which it of those things affects

:15:27. > :15:32.them varies and the kinds of things, the way it manifests, has variation.

:15:33. > :15:35.What they share in common is the things that most of us are

:15:36. > :15:42.unaffected by in small amounts affects them immensely. This radio

:15:43. > :15:47.is on at home way to figure out if any electrical appliances are

:15:48. > :15:51.spewing out electromagnetic fields. In order to function with any

:15:52. > :15:55.normalcy the subjects must dramatically rearrange their lives.

:15:56. > :15:59.Some move to promote areas where there are fewer man-made chemicals

:16:00. > :16:03.and electronics, others create safe spaces in their homes and where a

:16:04. > :16:06.mask any time they leave. Even documenting their lives was a unique

:16:07. > :16:10.challenge for the filmmakers, since the cameras and microphones needed

:16:11. > :16:16.to capture these stories, often making the subjects physically sick.

:16:17. > :16:19.They are unsure of the effects of the camera because they normally

:16:20. > :16:24.avoid things like that at all costs, but they signed up to be part of

:16:25. > :16:27.this project because they feel like their story is being told and that

:16:28. > :16:31.could help other people like them feel less lonely and marginalised.

:16:32. > :16:35.Like they are not the only ones. So there were many moments where I have

:16:36. > :16:42.to stop shooting because the subjects were feeling uncomfortable

:16:43. > :16:46.with what was going on. Most of the film, I keep a healthy distance

:16:47. > :16:50.between the subject and myself. This is a story that could have been told

:16:51. > :16:53.in a variety of ways. Filmmakers could have done a conventional

:16:54. > :16:57.talking head style documentary with members of the medical community,

:16:58. > :17:00.they could have focused on the companies that create these

:17:01. > :17:04.chemicals and electronics. Instead The Sensitives looks at its subjects

:17:05. > :17:07.to a personal lens, examining how this unique illness impacts their

:17:08. > :17:13.relationships. We really protected him against this chemical

:17:14. > :17:18.sensitivity. The story of the caregivers was just as important as

:17:19. > :17:22.those who were afflicted with them. I mean, it's the other half of the

:17:23. > :17:27.story, it's what grounds their identity. Are their loved one

:17:28. > :17:31.sticking by and keeping them in contact with the world? And

:17:32. > :17:34.96-year-old grandmother who delivers mail and supplies and tries to bring

:17:35. > :17:39.some kind of levity to their lives every day. Or a wife who tries to

:17:40. > :17:45.keep her husband saying by thinking and interacting with his

:17:46. > :17:49.grandchildren through all this. So those stories to me were just as

:17:50. > :17:52.compelling as those who were sick and also served as a really

:17:53. > :17:57.important bridge to everyone who would watch this film. When you are

:17:58. > :18:02.that impaired it can really make you feel like dirt. For instance, go

:18:03. > :18:06.into the store each day, people usually notice that you are not

:18:07. > :18:09.acting like everyone else, but they don't really know what's going on.

:18:10. > :18:13.Whenever we are confronted with an illness we don't understand, we

:18:14. > :18:16.almost always put the blame on the person who is it. Multiple

:18:17. > :18:21.sclerosis, before we understood how it works, you were an hysterical

:18:22. > :18:26.woman, that's why you felt that way. PTSD was, you are a man with a weak

:18:27. > :18:34.constitution. Man up. Aid was, you are gay. That's why this is coming

:18:35. > :18:39.upon you. -- Aids was. Said before we knew what was going on we phrased

:18:40. > :18:43.it in such a way that it will blame on the person who was sick. It's

:18:44. > :18:46.your fault. You why your own worst enemy. I think these people suffered

:18:47. > :18:50.the same kind of treatment, being that people were saying it was in

:18:51. > :18:55.the ahead, it's all your fault. I would like this film to encourage

:18:56. > :18:58.discussion and get us past that and break that pattern. When you are

:18:59. > :19:01.already not feeling well, you begin to feel like you are the scum of the

:19:02. > :19:15.earth. When I was scrutinising the Tribeca

:19:16. > :19:19.lineup this year for films that Talking Movies could possibly cover,

:19:20. > :19:23.I was startled by the right upper one of them which mentioned the

:19:24. > :19:29.women in Switzerland did get the right to vote until very late, 1971.

:19:30. > :19:31.The Tribeca film of divine order looked at the story of one woman's

:19:32. > :19:46.emancipation in that time. In the film the protagonist is a

:19:47. > :19:50.wife who without complaints tends to the needs of her husband, father and

:19:51. > :19:53.two children. But she wants more. She wants to work. At that time in

:19:54. > :19:57.Switzerland women couldn't work without permission from their

:19:58. > :20:01.husbands. She is just a regular person in the village, very busy

:20:02. > :20:05.with her kids and she finds out when her husband forbid to the work that

:20:06. > :20:10.she is actually really affected by these discriminatory laws in

:20:11. > :20:14.Switzerland and also that she can't vote, she starts to be angry about

:20:15. > :20:18.it and she starts to become a rebel and fight for it. As The Divine

:20:19. > :20:24.Order makes clear, women's rights in early 1970s Switzerland were

:20:25. > :20:31.minimal. 1971, its 46 years ago. Nothing. And they have no right, no

:20:32. > :20:36.right to go to work, no right to open up a bank account. They

:20:37. > :20:43.couldn't sign a contract without the wheel of a man. -- the will.

:20:44. > :20:49.Having women involved in the political process was seen as being

:20:50. > :20:56.against gods law, against the divine order. The film doesn't directly

:20:57. > :21:00.address why Switzerland commonly thought of as quite a modern country

:21:01. > :21:04.was so late in granting women the right to vote. There are several

:21:05. > :21:10.possible explanations. I think the big reason is that Switzerland is a

:21:11. > :21:15.deeply conservative country and very opposed to change. Switzerland has

:21:16. > :21:18.always been kind of well, like after the Second World War the world was

:21:19. > :21:25.in shreds, but Switzerland was still a cave. So they didn't be the

:21:26. > :21:30.necessity. But we are fine! Everything is fine, we shouldn't

:21:31. > :21:34.change it. In the film one of the most visible local opponents in

:21:35. > :21:37.granting women the right to vote is a woman at smack the head of the

:21:38. > :21:42.anti- politicisation of women's action committee. Many women were

:21:43. > :21:46.opposed to universal suffrage. I thought that was a very intriguing

:21:47. > :21:50.antagonist because it is so surprising that it's a woman. I read

:21:51. > :21:56.a whole dissertation on them. I thought that's more interesting. I

:21:57. > :22:00.think patriarch in the end affects everybody, men and women, and I

:22:01. > :22:04.wanted to break up that strict line between men and women because it is

:22:05. > :22:09.not between men and women. I deeply believe the quality is good for men

:22:10. > :22:13.and women. The film has already opened in Switzerland. It is a story

:22:14. > :22:17.of female empowerment which really resonated with the picture arriving

:22:18. > :22:21.in cinemas at the time of the worldwide women's march in the wake

:22:22. > :22:26.of President Trump's inauguration. I think with the current political

:22:27. > :22:30.atmosphere, I think the film has become more timely than we

:22:31. > :22:35.anticipated one year ago. Because the film is also about courage,

:22:36. > :22:41.about standing up and voicing your opinion, about fighting for justice

:22:42. > :22:47.and equality. This story of Swiss women's emancipation is quite good

:22:48. > :22:51.cinema. The lead actor is convincing in the central role and The Divine

:22:52. > :22:56.Order very effectively paints a picture of an inward looking

:22:57. > :22:58.community, sealed off from the rest of the world, that threatens to

:22:59. > :23:08.suffocate its inhabitants. That brings this special Tribeca

:23:09. > :23:13.film festival edition of Talking Movies to a close. We hope you've

:23:14. > :23:18.enjoyed the programme. Remember, you can always reach us online and you

:23:19. > :23:23.can find us on Facebook too. From me Tom Brook and the rest of the

:23:24. > :23:30.Talking Movies production crew in New York, it's goodbye. We leave you

:23:31. > :23:33.with a clip from a virtual reality project called Life of Us, the story

:23:34. > :23:37.of evolution on earth.