Tribeca at 25: Four Films Worth Your Time
By Michael Jacobsohn
The Tribeca Festival recently concluded its 25th anniversary celebration. Founded in the aftermath of 9/11 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, it was a rallying call to restore some sense of normality to our downtown neighborhoods. A quarter century later, the festival continues to reflect the world back at us. Here are four films that resonated with me.
Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World)
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Earth, Wind & Fire blended funk, soul, R&B, jazz, pop, gospel, and African rhythms into a seamless whole. The band may have stepped back from the spotlight decades ago, but their music remains as vital as ever. I knew little of the group’s backstory, so the film was a visceral eye-opener. Questlove zeros in on Maurice White, who founded the band in 1969 and, with an iron fist, held it together through several incarnations for more than two decades. HBO’s backing provided the resources to weave together a rich tapestry: the band’s music catalog, firsthand accounts from family members, musicians who shared the stage, electrifying concert footage from their formative years, and archival material that transports us back to that extraordinary era.
A unifying thread is White’s fractured childhood. He lost his father as a toddler and was raised by his grandmother after his mother moved to Chicago. Those early hardships shaped every relationship he formed. Former band members speak warmly of his accomplishments, but toward the film’s end you discover that all was not roses. The band’s abrupt dissolution left many with lingering resentments, even as most felt their time with Earth, Wind & Fire was the defining chapter of their lives. From humble beginnings to epic, pyrotechnical stadium shows, Questlove’s documentary celebrates the group’s music, metaphysics, and joy, with no shortage of psychedelic flair.
The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony
Directed by Habiba Nosheen
If Questlove’s film soars on the grandest of stages, Nosheen’s documentary finds its power in quiet, unassuming moments. This affecting film tells the story of young teenage girls who, for the first time, get the opportunity to participate in gymnastics in their impoverished Pakistani fishing village. The film follows three girls navigating the margins of society and carving out space for themselves, one somersault at a time. Through their personal journeys, we witness how their passion for gymnastics clashes with deeply rooted expectations about what girls in Pakistan are permitted to do.
This is the kind of documentary that reminds you why cinema matters, it takes you somewhere you would never otherwise go and introduces you to people whose courage puts your own daily struggles in perspective. These young girls, fighting poverty, statelessness, and entrenched cultural expectations, transform a gymnastics mat into an act of defiance and self-determination.
Dreams of Violets
Directed by Ash Koosha
For the first time, a major film festival has screened a feature-length AI documentary — a historic milestone for proponents of AI filmmaking and a troubling development for its skeptics. At the screening, Tribeca founder Jane Rosenthal offered a pointed defense: what moved the selection committee, she said, was not the technology behind the film but the urgency of its story and the conviction of the filmmaker telling it.”
The 75-minute docudrama, inspired by 47 years of Iranian civilian resistance, follows five strangers whose chance encounter lays bare the ruthlessness of the Iranian military and police. Koosha’s intent was to bring a human dimension to a harrowing narrative. Yet the AI-generated figures never fully transcend their digital origins, making it difficult to emotionally connect with them as living, breathing human beings. Whether that tension is a limitation of the technology or simply the growing pain of an emerging art form remains an open question, and one that Tribeca, to its great credit, was bold enough to raise.
Getar Hero
By Sneha Ameda and Teddy Stern
Getar Hero, a vibrant 15-minute musical odyssey, for my money was a pure delight. A struggling cowboy adrift in Mumbai’s neon nightlife loses his guitar and wallet and must navigate the city’s eccentric underworld, culminating in a charged recording-studio sequence where music, ambition, and identity converge, transforming misfortune into an unexpected act of heroism.
The film was made by childhood friends Sneha Ameda and Teddy Stern, who met in middle school in New Jersey and spent nearly a decade producing Bollywood commercials in India before striking out on their own. That immersion in Indian culture and cinema shows in every frame. Their extensive network allowed them to cast genuine talent, including a scene-stealing Elvis impersonator named Rajesh and a lead actor, Shashank, who is also an accomplished musician. Stern, himself a musician, arranged the score, conducted the players, and choreographed the camera movement simultaneously during the film’s central recording session, a moment both filmmakers describe as the emotional heart around which everything else was built.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Ameda and Stern after one of their screenings, and their enthusiasm was as infectious as the film itself. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, they are as much a product of this region as they are of the Bollywood world they so clearly love. Selected from thousands of submissions for Tribeca’s short film program — with odds one festival programmer described as harder than getting into Harvard — Getar Hero is now headed to the wider festival circuit. The filmmakers are also developing a feature. Whatever comes next, this is a debut that announces two genuine and distinctive voices.
Find out more about these films:
Earth, Wind & Fire is available for streaming on HBO Max.
The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony: thefilmcollaborative.org
Dreams of Violets: mubi.com
Getar Hero: getarherofilm.com
Michael Jacobsohn is an independent New York City filmmaker. Last year he completed the “Cornelia Street Café in Exile,” a feature-length documentary on the greatly missed Cornelia Street Café. He curates and hosts a bi-monthly screening of short films by New York Metropolitan filmmakers at New Plaza Cinema.
