An Open Letter to the Tribeca Film Festival Regarding Occupy Wall Street
We are filmmakers, programmers, craftspeople, film critics, and film lovers who applaud the work you’ve done making the Tribeca Film Festival an artistically important destination.
However, we are troubled to learn that the festival has allowed Brookfield Properties to be one of its major sponsors this year and that multiple advertising trailers for Brookfield play in preshow programs.
Given Brookfield’s role in evicting the Occupy movement from Zuccotti Park, Brookfield hardly seems an appropriate sponsor for any festival that aspires to support new creative and cultural ideas. The company should not be given such a high-profile platform to help re-brand themselves as supporters of artistic expression and free speech.
We ask that in planning future festivals you are conscious of the larger message your choice of sponsors sends to the public and hope that such sponsorship does not prevent the festival from taking a strong stance on the freedom of speech issues that are so critical to our lives as artists and the films we love.
With hope this leads to greater discussion and greater art,
(in alphabetical order)
Alicia Van Couvering, Producer
Albert Ruben, Writer
Annie Nocenti, Screenwriter & Filmmaker
Astra Taylor, Filmmaker, Examined Life
Christian Parenti, Writer, Tropic of Chaos
Dan Georgakas, Cineaste
Dorian Batycka, Performance Artist
Gary L. Aguilar, MD
Jacques Servin (Andy Bichlbaum), Filmmaker, Yes Men Fix The World
James Ponsoldt, Filmmaker
Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Filmmaker
Jem Cohen, Filmmaker
Jennifer Baichwal, Filmmaker
Jeremy Pikser, Writer
Laura Poitras, Filmmaker, The Oath
Laura Hanna, Filmmaker
Michael Tully, Filmmaker & Writer
Nick Shimkin, Programmer
Raviv Ullman, Actor
Robert Iskhakov, Film lover
Ron Mann, Filmmaker & Distributor
Richard Porton, Cineaste Magazine
Sam Green, Filmmaker, The Weather Underground
Sarah Goodman, Filmmaker
Sean Flynn, Filmmaker & Programmer
Sarah Plant, Composer, Film Scorer
Stewart Nusbaumer, Writer
Todd Chandler, Filmmaker
Vic Losick, Filmmaker
Williams Cole, Producer
Zachary Levy, Filmmaker
Zachary Sklar, Writer
JOIN US! TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THIS LIST– Please email us with your name and how you would like to be identified (“Filmmaker” “Writer”, etc..)
