April 22, 2016 - Tribeca Film Festial
I hopped on a train heading downtown Manhattan, towards Tribeca. I'm not a New York native but I found myself on vacation in New York City and being a film fan, I couldn't let the Tribeca Film Festival slip through my fingers.
Equals wasn't my first choice, but I'm not complaining. It fit well into my time frame and there were still tickets available. That's about as choosy as I could've been. But this isn't to say I wasn't excited about seeing the film: a dystopian sci-fi love story sounded like something I could be interested in. The star power of both Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart was alluring and from A24's teaser trailer, Equals looked like a beautiful film to see on the big screen. Still, I would've loved to see Always Shine or, as David Ehrlich's writings later convinced me of, Vincent & Roxxy.
The film started at 6:00 PM but the e-mail I received from TFF after having bought my tickets encouraged me to get there half an hour beforehand. I ended up leaving my hotel in the Theater District at around 4:40, determined to get there earlier than 5:30. But I am a fool and not a New Yorker, so trouble finding the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and confusion as to which subway train I would get on ensued. I thought I had it all figured out!
I ended up arriving at exactly 5:30, maybe a few minutes later. Ticket holders were ushered in on a sparsely populated red carpet; all the attention was either on the celebrity red carpet or already in the theater. I was handed a snack voucher, which would get me a water and a snack of my choice. I chose Smartfood.
I was ushered to my seat almost immediately after arriving. Keep in mind that all this happened in a matter of a couple minutes. I took my seat a few rows back, far to the left of the screen. The film started a few minutes after 6:00 as every ticket holder found their seat. The woman behind me kept me entertained with her conversations with the woman next to her. She spoke of how she knows director Drake Doremus, has worked with a slew of talented people, and went to Cannes. There was a lot of name-dropping for sure but listening to someone this connected the industry was fascinating.
Equals was introduced by director Drake Doremus and star Nicholas Hoult. Doremus asked the audience to turn off our brains and open our hearts. I had a mild headache that persisted throughout the film. This was through no fault of the film, I think I was just dehydrated from the exhausting day that I'd just had.
Following the film was a Q&A with Doremus and Hoult. They each shared interesting anecdotes from filming. For example, Doremus would make a hand motion after they got a great take that was meant to look like the motion you make when you roll dice. According to Hoult, it did not look like that. The Q&A was surprisingly brief, maybe about 20 minutes or so. The moderator asked a few interesting questions and then turned it over to the audience, who maybe only got to ask three questions.
The audience was ushered out around 8:15 PM and I couldn't wait to get some Ibuprofen. But besides that headache, my experience with the Tribeca Film Festival was a really cool thing. I got to see the U.S. premiere of Equals, hear Nicholas Hoult and Drake Doremus talk about filmmaking, and I got some free food.
Equals wasn't my first choice, but I'm not complaining. It fit well into my time frame and there were still tickets available. That's about as choosy as I could've been. But this isn't to say I wasn't excited about seeing the film: a dystopian sci-fi love story sounded like something I could be interested in. The star power of both Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart was alluring and from A24's teaser trailer, Equals looked like a beautiful film to see on the big screen. Still, I would've loved to see Always Shine or, as David Ehrlich's writings later convinced me of, Vincent & Roxxy.
The film started at 6:00 PM but the e-mail I received from TFF after having bought my tickets encouraged me to get there half an hour beforehand. I ended up leaving my hotel in the Theater District at around 4:40, determined to get there earlier than 5:30. But I am a fool and not a New Yorker, so trouble finding the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and confusion as to which subway train I would get on ensued. I thought I had it all figured out!
I ended up arriving at exactly 5:30, maybe a few minutes later. Ticket holders were ushered in on a sparsely populated red carpet; all the attention was either on the celebrity red carpet or already in the theater. I was handed a snack voucher, which would get me a water and a snack of my choice. I chose Smartfood.
I was ushered to my seat almost immediately after arriving. Keep in mind that all this happened in a matter of a couple minutes. I took my seat a few rows back, far to the left of the screen. The film started a few minutes after 6:00 as every ticket holder found their seat. The woman behind me kept me entertained with her conversations with the woman next to her. She spoke of how she knows director Drake Doremus, has worked with a slew of talented people, and went to Cannes. There was a lot of name-dropping for sure but listening to someone this connected the industry was fascinating.
Equals was introduced by director Drake Doremus and star Nicholas Hoult. Doremus asked the audience to turn off our brains and open our hearts. I had a mild headache that persisted throughout the film. This was through no fault of the film, I think I was just dehydrated from the exhausting day that I'd just had.
Following the film was a Q&A with Doremus and Hoult. They each shared interesting anecdotes from filming. For example, Doremus would make a hand motion after they got a great take that was meant to look like the motion you make when you roll dice. According to Hoult, it did not look like that. The Q&A was surprisingly brief, maybe about 20 minutes or so. The moderator asked a few interesting questions and then turned it over to the audience, who maybe only got to ask three questions.
The audience was ushered out around 8:15 PM and I couldn't wait to get some Ibuprofen. But besides that headache, my experience with the Tribeca Film Festival was a really cool thing. I got to see the U.S. premiere of Equals, hear Nicholas Hoult and Drake Doremus talk about filmmaking, and I got some free food.