We Are Together at Tribeca
I have been terribly remiss in my Tribeca Film Festival coverage - partly because I was getting this blog set up at the time and partly because the whole thing was over before I had time to look up and take a breath. Tribeca is an odd festival and very hard to get a handle on. It doesn’t quite feel like a festival. This is partly to do with the location. It is easy for cultural shenanigans of any kind to get lost in the constant buzz of New York City but it is certainly not helped by the fact that the screenings take place all over town (it is hard to feel anything other than mildly irritated in the vicinity of Penn Station which is where I spent most of my time watching films), and are hard and expensive to get into. Nor by the fact that there are so many films programmed that it is a feat to navigate through them all. I felt rather jealous of my friends reveling in the film fests at Sarasota, Nashville and Boston. Less films. More Love. That’s my motto. Having said all this, there were some interesting documentaries to see and, as a once upon a time South African, I was really happy that We Are Together (Thina Simunye) was so warmly received and won the audience award (The Cadillac Award.)
We Are Together is a film about the children from the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. The doc focuses on 12 year old Slindile and her siblings as they cope with the illness of their brother and sing in the Agape choir. And these kids can sing! It is easy to become inured to the seemingly insurmountable “problems of Africa” so it is wonderful when a film comes along that shows you individuals, rather than (or as well as) problems.
The premiere was great fun and celeb-tastic to boot. Bono, Iman and Alicia Keyes showed up to support it and the kids from Agape sat in the row in front of me which made watching the film doubly moving. The audience got a big reality check after all the glitz and glamour of the red carpet when, during the Q&A, the woman who runs the orphanage explained that she still has sleepless nights trying to work out how to get enough bread to feed 50 children. If you want to find out how you can get involved visit the website:
www.wearetogether.org
The Agape children with Bono, Alicia Keyes and the filmmakers on the right
Bono and Alicia do the red carpet
Sandi DuBowski and Britdoc’s Beadie Finzi before the premiere
And then on to the after party - here’s Jess Search (Britdoc Chief Exec and co-founder of Shooting People) with a bearded Morgan Spurlock and an old friend of Beadie’s
Newport International Film Festival programmer David Nugent with Cactus Three’s Julie Goldman
David Nugent, with Britdoc’s Maxyne Franklin, A&E Indie’s Ryan Harrington and filmmaker Sandi DuBowski
The Cadillac Award, voted for by the audience, was announced on May 5th.
Producer Teddy Liefer and Director Paul Taylor on stage with the Agape children receiving the audience award
Standing ovation for We Are Together
Big congratulatory kiss for Teddy Liefer