Bevy Smith Gears Up for the Tribeca Film Festival

Guess who’s back and for one whole week relocating to Tribeca? If you guessed your favorite “Harlem Honey” Bevy Smith you are right! Next week I will be hanging almost exclusively in Tribeca. No, I’m not house sitting for Jay and Beyonce while they are on their honeymoon/tour nor am I hanging out at Robert DeNiro’s Greenwich Hotel. I’m also not turning tricks with client no. #9, although I am intrigued by what goes on in all those black Lincoln Town Cars parked on every corner of Tribeca (corners, town cars, expense accounts -- sounds suspicious to me). No, the only trick I’m serving up is having secured a Tribeca Film Festival press pass good for free booze, gift bags, meeting tons of celebs and oh yeah, watching some really good films (you can’t call them movies, films are seen at festivals, movies are seen at Cineplexes)! I plan on attending at least one high profile event each day, interviewing celebrities and seeing all of the following films. Here’s my extremely short list of MUST SEES:

THE UNIVERSE OF KEITH HARING
I LOVED Keith Haring. For such a geeky looking guy he always seemed deeply connected to hip-hop! Maybe it was his raw honestly (admitting that he had AIDS when most people hid it) or his democratic feelings towards art (claiming that “art is for everyone!”), but I was always a big fan. I even owned a Keith Haring Swatch watch! Although this film has family and childhood friends discussing Keith’s early years, I’m looking forward to seeing footage of Keith Haring interviews in New York in the ‘80s, and reminiscing about SoHo before it was the Mall of America! And look out for cameos from Kim Hastreiter and Carlo McCormick.

CELIA THE QUEEN
A documentary about the late great Celia Cruz! I’m dying to see this film because I loved Ms. Cruz, her voice, her swagger (she held her own on stage with some of the greatest most machismo salsa stars of her time, Tito Puente, Willie Colon and Johnny Pacheco) and of course, her fashion sense! Pink hair + pink gown = MAJOR!

CHEVOLUTION
I love Che Guevara, the romantic notion of a privileged young man who wages war against the “establishment” and loses his life for the cause. Taking a page out of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe’s playbook he becomes larger than life due to the iconic Alberto Korda photo of him in a jaunty beret. It’s that image that the film focuses on and examines how a communist hero’s likeness becomes a capitalist cash cow. I’m definitely wearing my Che T-shirt and carrying my Che biography in my Che knapsack to this one. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

FAUBOURG TREME: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK NEW ORLEANS
I love “Black Cities,” aka cities with large, vibrant African American communities: Chicago, Philadelphia, Memphis, Atlanta and my most favorite of all New Orleans. Faubourg Tremé was the Harlem of New Orleans from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. To this day, Faubourg Tremé is a neighborhood rich with history, hope and a determination to not be torn apart, not even by a bitch named Katrina and a paper mache levee. With Wynton Marsalis (a native of New Orleans) on board as an executive producer, I fully expect this film to justify my love of Nawleans music, history and its people!

WAR CHILD
Gangsta rappers talk about “having” to sell drugs at 14. They should try being an eight-year-old soldier in the Sudan, enlisted by their fathers. That’s part of hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jai’s story, a “lost boy” of the Sudan war. He was a child solider at the age of eight and miraculously survived and went on to become a children’s spokesperson in a United Nations camp for Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. Now in his 20s he is determined to shed light on the atrocities that befall child soldiers all over the world through his music. Hmmmm, Mobb Deep, NWA and The Wire just don’t seem so hard-core after all!

CONFESSIONS OF A EX-DOOFUS-ITCHYFOOTED MUTHA
Melvin Van Peebles, the man that brought us the first Blackxploitation film (Sweet Sweetback’s Bad Ass Song) is at it again! It’s the story of a boy that wants to see the world, get money and find love -- simple right? It’s never so simple when Melvin Van Peebles is involved! As always, Melvin makes some interesting choices in his casting (this is a man that put his 14 year old son, Melvin in a sex scene with a grown woman)! This time around the casting is shocking because the 75-year-old Van Peebles plays the title character from boyhood to the age of 47! I mean Black don’t crack, but it definitely begins to crinkle at 75. However, if anybody can carry it off, I would bet good money on Melvin Van Peebles!

FIRE UNDER THE SNOW
With all the turmoil going on in China surrounding Tibet’s fight for independence, this film is sure to garner a lot of attention. It tells the story of Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was one of thousands of monks and nuns arrested during non-violent demonstrations when China invaded Tibet in 1959. Released from prison in 1992, he still crusades to this day for total Tibetan independence from China, and was involved in a hunger strike at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy to protest the 2008 Bejiing Olympics. Taking Reverend Al’s mantra of “No Justice, No Peace” to another level!

BITTER & TWISTED
Some folks whose opinion I value (yes, they work at the festival) told me that this is a standout film. It’s a drama about a death of a young man and how it effects his family; his obese dad who is a car salesman on the verge of being fired, his mother who thought she was pregnant but actually is just going through menopause and a might-be-gay brother who has a crush on his dead brother’s ex-girlfriend. And you thought your family had drama! Christopher Weekes is the star, director, screenwriter and producer. He’s the Australian Tyler Perry!

There are also films with some BIG name A-list talent attached: Mariah makes her big screen comeback with Tennessee (forget Glitter -- the word on the street is that she’s good in this); Julianne Moore stars in Savage Grace(she lives in the neighborhood, she has no excuse not to show up to the premiere) and Madonna continues to flex her Pilates muscles by executive producing I Am Because We Are The festival begins on April 23rd and with a total 120 films and 79 shorts, I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the dark… with my clothes on… for once! For more info go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org.