Now on Bbc News, time for Talking Movies. Hello from New York, im Tom Brook and welcome to Talking Movies. In todays programme, we look back at highlights of this months Tribeca Festival, which took place here In The City. Numerous screenings were held outdoors and films are made available virtually too. It marked a milestone, the festival, the first in Person Film Festival in North America since the start of the pandemic. Its certainly fair to say that thiS Years Tribeca Festival could be judged a success. The Tribeca Festivals bold presence gave the city a big psychological boost, especially in the washington heights neighbourhood, where the World Premiere of the festivals opening Night FilmIn The Heights was held. Imma a fly this flag above my head. This lavish musical set in the Dominican Community In Washington Heights is based on Lin ManuelMirandas Award winning broadway stage musical. It is centred on a Bodega Or GroceryStore Owner who dreams of a better life. This story is told through the scope of a neighbourhood, a neighbourhood like any other neighbourhood that is so often overlooked, but is filled with people that have contributed so much to this country, and you get to see those people dream as big as anyone you have ever seen dream on a screen. Woefully underrepresented in american mainstream cinema, many latinos hope that In The Heights, if successful, would bring forth greater opportunities. You know, the hope for me is that in five years, people go, why was In The Heights such a big deal . We have ten latino movies every year now. That would be a dream come true. To be quaint, would be a dream come true. In The Heights got good reviews, but sadly it didnt perform well at the Box Office. The reason i think that happened, its not really branded like a big global musical, like Les Miserables or mamma mia. Its not a Brand Name in that sense. It was a broadway hit. I would hate to think In The Heights� lack of Box Office mojo would affect the ability of hollywood people to go for Diversity Or Latino casting. In The Heights launched what was of course the latest edition of a 20 year old Tribeca Festival, co founded by Movie LegendRobert De Niro and film producerjane rosenthal. Theyre proud of what they brought to New Yorkers. Were the first in Person Film Festival in North America, the first major event in all five boroughs In The City and hopefully we are part of the emotional, joyous, coming out party that celebrates artists and all of our humanity and being a place to gather again. Tribecas Line Up was socially aware. Juneteenth, which became an official federal holiday during the festival, celebrating the emancipation of those enslaved in the united states, was marked by films highlighting black stories and storytellers. Several films had an arab focus, movies made by people of colour, women, and Lgbtq Film makers were well represented. Director Steven Soderbergh had a crime drama, no sudden move and there was a special documentary on the late chef anthony bourdain. Documentaries were among the stronger offerings at the 12 day event. Tribeca co founder Robert De Niro sees his festival with its broad slate bringing his city together after the upheavals of the pandemic and social tumult of the last year. Film is a way of creating that, promoting that, the idea that were all the same, were different but the same. And were all in it together. The Tribeca Festival came into being 20 years ago, partly as a civic restoration project, co led by Robert De Niro, to rebuild New Yorks Tribeca Neighbourhood in the wake of the September The 11th attacks on the nearby World Trade Center towers. In The Heights� Cinematographer Alice brookes Saw The Festival playing a similar role in new York City today, Hit Hard by the pandemic. Being able to start to come out of this pandemic and have one of the first big premieres in New York at tribeca is another healing thing. Strangely, although tribeca takes place in one of the worlds great capitals of cosmopolitan culture, it doesnt usually screen brilliant Art Films and well known auteurs. It can be a bit parochial. But film wasnt the only focus thiS Year. Tribeca redefined itself, adding Video Games and podcasts to its Line Up. It rechristened itself. Its no longer the Tribeca Film festival, just the Tribeca Festival. I think were facing reality. What is reality . Its everything. Its podcasts, its filmed entertainment across all sorts of platforms. Its vr, its not its Television And Series and episodics its not film, its not the two Hour Film any more and by the way, the two hour narrative film, In The Heights aside, probably the least interesting part of this festival. In august 1969, i was a slightly awkward hippyish 16 year old schoolboy in london, and one place i really wanted to be was woodstock in New York, about 110 miles north from where im standing right now, for what was an amazing Music Festival. But what i learned from the Tribeca Festival thiS Year, through a documentary, is that there was another lesser known Music Festival taking place at the same time, that included some spellbinding performances from Black Artists artists, from people like stevie wonder, Gladys Knight and the pips and nina simone. Tristan daley reports. Nobody ever heard of the harlem culture festival. Summer of soul, or when the revolution could not be televised, is a documentary all about the harlem cultural festival. An event in which some musical legends performed to Hundreds Of Thousands of attendees over the course of six weekends in the summer of 1969. The festival took place in New Yorks harlem neighbourhood, in upper manhattan, and it was slated to celebrate black Culture And History in america. Those in attendance felt like it was a momentous occasion, but back then, it was overshadowed by woodstock. Footage of the event sat in a basement for decades, forgotten until now. Are you ready, black people . Crowd cheers. Are you really ready . Crowd cheers. The film was the directorial debut for ahmir questlove thompson, known by many as questlove, a Founding Member of the hip hop group, the roots. In the film, he drives home the sense of injustice felt that a cultural and historical Music Event celebrating blackness had been so seriously overlooked by the media for so long. We are a new people i didnt even believe such a thing happened, and then when i seen the footage i was like i had a responsibility, but this is more thanjust. I dont consider this my directorial debut more than i consider it my chance to correct history. The film featured a strong Line Up of performances from iconic black musical acts, including Gladys Knight and the pips and stevie wonder. Gladys knight took to the stage the night of the tribeca premiere, returning to perform at the very same park in harlem at which she performed back in 1969. While the documentary plays like a concert film, commemorating the performances from musical legends, it also acknowledges the sociopolitical climate that surrounded the event in 1969. When black communities all across america were experiencing turbulence. � 69 was a Paradigm Shift and you kind of had a younger generation that had demands, the first wave of civil rights was more like quieter peaceful protests and this new generation. You know, demanded respect. Questlove hopes that audiences will embrace the blackjoy that is also present in the film. Thats an element that also needs to be told in black stories. We told the trauma, we told the pain, we told the sorrow, we told some progress too, butjoy is also an element and this is what this has. The Tribeca Festival hosted a World Premiere for a documentary on the british born Author Jackie collins who died in 2015. Dismissed by some as a queen of sleaze, this well made film tries to explore collins as a feminist icon. Emma jones went to meet the director of this Tribeca Documentary on her Home Turf in london. One of the most successful authors in publishing history. Jackie collins sold half A Billion copies of her novels and epitomised the excess of hollywood in the 1980s through her biggest selling book, Hollywood Wives. Shes putting female sexuality at the centre of the world. Lady boss, a documentary by british director laura fairrie, re examines collins� feminist legacy. She had access to the author� s diaries for the movie and the recollections of her three daughters. Its Neon Pink Branding is as reminiscent of the � 80s as the bouffant Hair And Shoulder pads collins herself would sport. How long did it take to make the film . Over a period of, like, 2. 5 years. We meet in west london, the part of the world where Jackie Collins was born in 1937, and often returned to, despite her career in los angeles. What� s interesting is that throughout her life, she was never really given the recognition that she deserved. She was called the queen of sleaze or you know, the author of the Bonkbuster And Kind of looked down upon a lot by critics. Its evil, really. What . The books that you | write, quite frankly. Laughter. But that� s to forget the fact that, you know, she sold over 500 Million copies of her books and they were read by women all over the world and she made her brand of feminism accessible to millions of women. And she gave them the opportunity to imagine a different life for themselves. Lady boss reveals that jackie, whose sister is actress joan collins, was searching for fantasy herself and found it in writing after a traumatic first marriage. He was a gambler, an alcoholic. He did become extremely controlling. She also accompanied Joan To Hollywood as a young woman, trying to make it as an actress herself and had a brief relationship with Marlon Brando when she was 15 years old. Forjackie, hollywood was this dream and she grew up watching her sister become this incredible success at an early age, and so she was chasing that for herself. Yes, she had wild adventures there, but she also had experiences as a young woman that perhaps were not entirely co mforta ble. You know, she was definitely trying to make it in hollywood herself, she was going to auditions, she was the starlet on the casting couch. When you read her books, you� ll see that she puts those stories into her books. Disguises the names, disguises, you know, the places. But the tough times are in the books, as well as the outrageous, Bonkers Hollywood stories. Karen, yourfatherandl want to talk to you. I Hollywood Wives was made into a 1983 miniseries which is very much of its time. Although it does star double oscar winner, Sir Anthony hopkins. Jackie collins was also the screenwriter behind adaptations of some of her novels, including 1979� s the stud, which revitalised her sisterjoan� s career. Vanessa was disappointed in your performance too. Or rather the lack of it. So, is it true that Jackie Collins, if she� d had the breaks, would have liked to become a director . She talked about it in the � 80s. She was writing the scripts for the hollywood miniseries of her books and you� d often see her in photographs in her chair, you know, she� d be on set with her name on the back of the chair, but secretly, i think, you know, she would have liked to have directed and it� s interesting that she didn� t actually seem to get that opportunity. Her work fell out of fashion in the 1990s, but six years after her death from cancer in 2015, collins� s stories are finding a place again in the post me too media industry. I think that she would have loved this time because it� s almost feels like her brand of feminism and her books really have a place in the world today. Where people can define what feminism is for themselves and that� s what she did, you know. Her feminism was about sexual desire, freedom to live your life in the way that you wanted, freedom to choose the careers you want, the men you want. Hollywood agrees on reexamining her relevancy. Not only does Lady Boss have a Cinema Release injuly, but a Biopic Ofjoan and Jackie Collins is in development, as well as films on the writer� s favourite character, lucky sa ntangelo. That� s significant, as Lady Boss speculates that Jackie Collins liked to project herself as one of her all powerful heroines, even when her reality was very different. She had Everything Shed always wanted. She was Jackie Collins. And she was the boss. Tribeca is, in many respects quite a local festival, bringing New Yorkers stories that lie in their midst. New york has long been a city of immigrants and we found an Immigrant Story called queen of Glory Set in the New York borough of the bronx. Sarah is a Scientist Working in New York when her mother dies suddenly. As the only child, she is expected to handle the traditional elaborate Ashanti Funeral in her mum� s honour. This looks like a family affair. Nope, that one� s just black. These moments of Comic Relief define nana mensah� s debut film. As a child of ghanaian immigrants, she grew up seeing plenty of trauma in african immigrant films, but that didn� t reflect her experience. So she wanted to create something different with queen of glory. We laughed a lot growing up. My parents told crazy stories from back home, or, like, the crazy things that happened to them when they first came to this country, so i wanted to tell the story. Wheres the body . She was cremated. Of course it centres around a woman losing her mother so it� s not all laughs, it� s not a Screwball Comedy but at the same time, there are moments forjoy. Im not getting on the scale. Mensah shows what it� s like straddling two worlds as a first generation american. Including the challenge of upholding traditions while also showing the powerful Connection Culture creates between old world and new. The christian Book Store Sarah inherits from her mother provides sarah with another avenue of self discovery. Queen of glory is filled with colourful New York characters, like the former convict turned christian Book Store Employee and the eager Street Vendor trying very hard to sell his african movie dvds. New York City itself is also a character and its unique rhythms are a hallmark of the film. Mensah believes this is the perfect time to premiere her New York centric work. It feels very momentous to be part of this particular season at tribeca, 20 years after 9 11, and when New York exactly finds itself re emerging from the pandemic, the throes of the pandemic, so we are really happy to be premiering here, not only that, it� s a New York story, having our hometown premiere, it feels really good. Get on it. I dont weigh myself. Why not . As much as queen of glory is an Immigrant Story, it is distinctly Ghanaian American too. Coming off the heels of 2019� S Year of return, where black people throughout the African Diaspora were encouraged to return to ghana, mensah hopes the attention on the country will open the door to more opportunities for ghanaian Film Makers and bolster ghana� s growing film industry, called ghollywood. I have worked in ghana as an actor and that has been very, we did shoot a little bit of B Roll in ghana and that was really. It� s been a great experience, you know, for me. I think my hope is that this moment, high tide rises all boats. And that everyone in ghana will benefit from this new attention. I have to say that the Tribeca Film festival, at least with its choice of opening night movie, which was of course In The Heights, reignited my love for movies and for New York, especially at a time when here, at least in this part of the world, we appear to be moving Out Of The Shadow of covid 19. But for real movie lovers in new York City, the one Tribeca Film that had real resonance was called the last Film Show. It was a magical tale set in india. The movie is set in gujarat in 2010 and follows a young boy from a remote area whose life is transformed when he goes to the cinema. Partly autobiographical, it has been lovingly put together by director pan nalin, it� s a family drama, but really it� s the story Of A Boy intoxicated by cinema. It becomes an obsession, he tries to make his own kind of cinema and ultimately, try to sort of fulfil his dream to project cinema. It shows him a world which he has never seen. He sees people and music and the action, and that was a little bit my own experience growing up in the village and i wanted that to. And i remember very vividly that i was just blown away by these movies. The boy strikes up a friendship with the projectionist at the local galaxy cinema. He gives him food his mother prepared for him. In exchange, the projectionist lets him watch films all day long. And with his friends, he uses spare parts to create a projector, together they create their own 35mm movie. In some respects, the last Film Show bears a resemblance to the celebrated 1988 Italian FilmCinema Paradiso, which also featured a young boy with a deep love for movies who strikes up a relationship with a projectionist. I didn� t see Cinema Paradiso until like, a long, long time, i got a dvd and i saw the film, it reminded me so much of my childhood. Even if there is a Cinema Paradiso, i had to tell the story of simple innocence of the kids, living in the middle of nowhere and how their life turns upside down when they discover the magic of cinema. The last Film Show is notjust a big valentine to the wondrous nature of cinema, it� s also a Love Letter to the indian single screen cinema hall, often times impressive structures which were once ubiquitous, but have now dwindled in number. They are becoming relics now from a bygone age. I would say there are absolutely very, very few. And sadly, they are all being turned into either supermarkets or shops, the single Screen Culture is more or less gone. The last Film Show, which is beautifully photographed, hit all the right notes at tribeca. It was just the kind of movie the audience wanted to see at this moment in time coming out of their homes after being isolated because of covid 19, to express their affection for cinema by watching a film all about one boy� s passion for the movies. The film has become an invitation to return to cinema, because now quite a few festivals Around The World are calling us. We heard about this movie, can we have it in china, south korea, can we do the opening . So that feels really good. If we can raise that hope in this dark time, we feel positive, but the pure reaction i have got is that we feel good and we really needed this. That brings this edition of Talking Movies, where we have been looking back at highlights from thiS Year� s Tribeca Festival, to a close. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please remember you can always reach us online at. Bbc. Com talkingmovies. And you can find us on facebook and twitter. From me, Tom Brooke and the rest of the Talking Movies team, here in New York and london, it� s goodbye, as we leave you with a clip from tribeca� s opening Night Film, In The Heights. Music hello there. So far this week, it� s northern and western areas which have seen the best of the sunshine and the highest temperatures. Further east has been cloudier with outbreaks of rain. But as we move towards the end of this week, it looks like High Pressure will start to build in, so it will turn sunnier across Eastern Areas. There� ll still be the Odd Shower here and there, and then into the weekend, it looks more unsettled. For wednesday, you can see the Pressure PatternHigh Pressure to the north and west, so largely clear with some sunshine here, but low pressure again over the near continent will affect eastern parts of the country. We� ll start quite grey, i think, through this morning for many areas, but the sunshine will become more widespread across scotland and northern ireland, western england and wales. The Odd Shower here, there may be a odd heavy one. But eastern england, the southeast, again, a rather grey day with some patchy Light Rain or drizzle, feeling cool across North Sea coasts with a fresh breeze here, further west with the sunshine into the low 20s celsius. It looks like it could be another grey day on wednesday for wimbledon and then, thursday and friday, it� ll turn sunnier and warmer with temperatures reaching the mid 20s celsius. So through wednesday night, we hold onto the cloudy skies again across the east and southeast, the Odd Shower here. Further north and west, though, you can see clearer skies so it� ll be a Bit Cooler where we have those clear spells, single figure values in places. For most, i think we� re looking at 10 12 celsius. For thursday, that area of low pressure starts to pull away from the east, but still close enough to produce thicker cloud and the Odd Shower again, a fairly brisk northerly breeze across Eastern Areas will peg temperatures back. But elsewhere, plenty of sunshine around scotland and northern ireland, the midlands, western england and wales apart from the Odd Shower, most places should be dry, and again, temperatures reaching the low 20s celsius. On friday, higher pressure builds in, so it looks like we should see more sunshine around even across the south east. And it� ll be warm, 25 26 celsius. There could be the Odd Shower around, it might well be plenty dry, but emphasis will be on dry and sunny weather. As we head on into the weekend, though, low pressure starts to take back control, meaning we will start to see increasing amounts of showers, particularly on sunday where some of them could be really heavy and thundery. But it� ll be a mixture of sunshine and showers both saturday and sunday, like i mentioned, with sunday seeing the heaviest of those downpours. This is Bbc News with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and Around The World. In Ethiopia Rebel tigrayan forces take back their regional capital from the government, but nearly Two Million people have fled their homes, and the need for aid is growing. 0ur Teams are ready, our supplies are ready. However, as we have stated in the last eight months, the challenge has always been we have not had consistent access to reach people who need the help most. Canada� s heatwave turns deadly. Police in canada say more than 30 people have died in vancouver as temperatures hit new highs. A shortage of oxygen and