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TRIBECA, NEW YORK----Start spreading the news: Tangent’s at Tribeca.
My trusted photographer, Jonah, and I arrived at Tribeca Film Festival’s Press Hub at Spring Studios in our royal Uber carriage. I could blame our Angeleno roots for our inclination toward the automobile, but I was just lazy.
Swarmed by devout cinephiles gabbing about the “most cerebral film ever made,” Spring Studios has attracted most of Letterboxd’s dedicated users like moths to an “incredibly cinematic” flame. Granted entrance by the personnel in orange Tribeca baseball caps, Jonah and I checked in to settle into the place we’d be working from for the next week. Inside it’s chock-full of writers glued to their laptops and hunched over screens, veins pumped with dangerous but necessary levels of caffeine. We were jetlagged, wide-eyed, and ready to roll. Jonah looks over at me as we pick up our complimentary refreshments, as if pleading me to pinch him to wake up from the dream we’re in.
Alicia Keys was right—this is the concrete jungle where dreams are made. How the hell did we get here? For the both of us, reality hadn’t quite settled in. Remembering we were over 2,445 miles away from home, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were in over our heads. Although we were residents of the City of Stars, this was unfamiliar territory.
Nevertheless, we trudged on, with cheerful California-style smiles of course. After a rushed slice of pizza at Stage Door near the World Trade Center, we hustled over to BMCC Theater for our first event of the day.
Jonah and I squeezed into our spots at the press line, marveling first at the sign stuck to the floor with our name in all caps: TANGENT ZINE.
As we looked up, The Heat and Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy stepped onto the red carpet already armed with a joke. For people whose job involves capturing celebrity smiles, McCarthy beat us to the punch by first earning ours. As McCarthy walked away, she laughed and assured the rest of the press, “We’ll come back!”
Celebrating 10 years of Criminal, McCarthy appeared with host Phoebe Judge and co-creator Lauren Spohrer.
Criminal's co-creators Phoebe Judge and Lauren Sophrer. Photos by Jonah Breton.
And as quickly as McCarthy appeared, she left. We packed up and walked over to our next red carpet. To clarify, Jonah walked while I struggled for air. I will never complain about Los Angeles’ walkability ever again.
While waiting at the premiere of Arzé, Jonah and I caught a break. However professional we were, Melissa McCarthy stole our breath. New York, it’s been waiting for us.
Director Mira Shaib and writer Faissal Sam Shaib on Arzé's red carpet at Tribeca Film Festival. Photos by Jonah Breton.
We snapped our pictures and headed out once again. As we adjusted to our new fast-paced environment, we returned to Spring Studios, still besieged with film buffs and the same writers we saw earlier that day. Jonah and I hunkered down to furiously type emails to send, sipping on our free coffee. Oh, how luxurious is the life of the press.
We ended the day at Mamoun’s, replenishing what we lost during our 20,000 steps of the day with kebabs and baba ganoush. As we returned to Jersey City, we admired the Manhattan skyline and admitted defeat. However magical Los Angeles is, we can’t beat New York in this department.
And that’s a wrap on Tangent at Tribeca: Day 1.
Photo Credit: Jonah Breton
