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Billy Idol is Alive

The first scene of Billy Idol Should Be Dead reflects the title of English Punk Rocker’s documentary.  Sitting, the singer tells his studio colleagues about the time he almost died of a drug overdose in 1984.  The career of a rock and roll star is filled with expectations along with pressure. Near death experiences is a normal job hazard.

Director Jonas Akerlund uses a sympathetic eye while going in full with the story William Michael Albert Broad.  Born to a middle-class family in the northwest of London, William should have taken a less than hell on wheels lifestyle, yet fate took him a very different road.

Music’s history is the stories of Bad Boys   These guys cannot go home to meet the parents.  As part of MTV Royalty with songs White Wedding, Rebel Yell, Eyes Without a Face, Idol was in heavy video play rotation during the early years of the 24-hour music. 

The sexy sneer, bleached hair with leather looks seduced a generation.  Behind the sexually charged swagger, self-destruction enabled by an industry that chews up talent, spits them out, then moves on was always present.

What makes Billy Should Be Dead is the protagonist’s affability.  A person you want to hang around, sit in the bus while on tour taking on life as it comes.

Idol does not come across as certifiable, just an over the cliff rebellious individual.  But during his honest introspection, there is no contempt for his admitted behavior.  The 65-year-old is more a naughty child from parents who only shook their heads and prayed for their offspring. 

The family man, father of 3 survived his career.  Now he plays with his grandchildren.  The top 10 charter met a second son conceived during a long weekend with groupie.

Mr. Broad continues to tour under his stage name.  Given the level of hard substances taken, that is no small accomplishment.

 Billy Idol Should Be Dead could be titled “Billy Idol Has an Angel on His Shoulder.”  Thankfully, a rock star can have a happy ending.

Screened online during the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival

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More Short Films from Tribeca

From the Tribeca Film Festival, four more short films that caught my attention.

There is nothing with a film that tugs at the heartstrings. Rise falls into that category.   Jessica J. Rowlands delivers an uplifting story on the ultimate underdog. A n orphaned child living in the garbage dump of Zimbabwe becomes the student of a one-time boxing championing.  The story isn’t just about the fight, but self-worth.

Rise

Snow Bear comes down to what would one of the most ferocious creatures do for companionship in a harsh climate. Director Aaron Blaise brings polar bear cuteness to the screen for 11 minutes in an animated short about friendship and ice.

Linie 12 from directors Sarah Schulz and Christopher Schmier carries an animated story based on the reliable reputation of German train travel even in the face of danger.  Can chaos and managed orchestration come together to save the day?

Pavilhao

From Brazil, Pavilhao is hypnotic energy on the expression, unity and power of Samba in communities. Victoria Fiore’s journey is about getting pulled into the rhythm and sounds as form of liberation from the world.

Screened online during the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival

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Music From Long Island to the World

How did Long Island influence hip hop music?  The New York Borough was a picture-perfect setting for White Flight America. Director Jason Pollard delves into the explosion of talent from the municipalities.  The Sixth Borough is an educational invite to learn about chapter of a musical genre that would conquer the world. 

Race, ethnicity and class have unlevelled the United States since its inception regardless of the state.  Skin color or a last name dictated where a family could buy a house or the school a student could attend. Newly built suburbs connected by freeways offered families of a certain demographic a “safe” enclave.  As African Americas began fleeing the constrictions and dangers of The Big Apple life many turned to the leafy affordable suburbs on Long Island. First generation People of Color moved into single family housing communities bringing with them different cultural sets, including vocal sounds. Hip-hop translated “trauma to music.”

The Sixth Borough paints an ironic picture of striving to be Middle Class while melodically expressing the harsh everyday reality of the underclass.   Pollard’s effusive approach the 70-minute documentary is appealing.  That by chance artists such as: Eric B, Chuck D., Biz Markie, De La Soul and many stars emerged from Long Island is a fascinating portrait of a borough and the people who produced a powerful tempo.

Screened online during the 2025 Tribeca Film Film Festival

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Short Film Disenchantments  

The Tribeca Film Festival short films went to the serious side this year, reflecting an artistic disenchantment with the times. 

President Ronald Regan’s 1980 War on Drugs affected Black American communities for a generation.  With Gestapo tactics men were rounded up, then railroaded into the incarceration system.  Most charges stemmed from Marijuana possession. As states legalize dispensaries People of Color find themselves locked of a fast-growing industry valued at $45 billion.

Kiss My Grass, the short film from directing duo Mary Pryor and Martha Whitehead tells the struggles of Black Women trying to gain a small foothold in the cannabis business.   As the polite smile s from investor reply “no” time and time again, the lady’s frustration of hitting brick walls cannot be overstated.  Black Entrepreneurs know fundraising is a high mountain to climb.  In seventeen minutes, the short film encapsulated the structural racial reality in America. People of Color are jail fodder, however when the moment comes to gain economic benefit, The Sharecropper Rules apply.  America does not have enthusiasm for Black Success.

Mary and Martha bring stats and emotion to the film with spots of outrage, sadness and the hard reality of not being in the right club. 

The 80’s

Money Talks frames multiple stories around encounters with a $100 bill used in New York City at the beginning of Ronald Regan’s America.  Tony Mucci takes a cynical view with characters living on the edge.  The stylized short film keeps the forward moving pattern going with each sequence realistically transitioning to another in 34 minutes. 

Tribeca Film Festival Short Festival
OH YEAH! Dieter Meier and Boris Blank

A pleasant short documentary on a tune that became a sort of scamp theme song of the 80’s hit the mark.   Oh Yeah from Nick Canfield will please the Gen X crowd.  The tune was made famous in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and in The Simpsons for Duff Man. Writers Dieter Meier and Boris Blank talk about the process and luck behind 1985 electronic music single.

Freeman Vines the dark open secret of lynching.  Diving into a painful topic, Tim Kirkman and Andre Robert Lee somberly record the story of guitar maker Freeman Vines from Fountain North Carolina.  What makes his instruments special, the wood comes from a true used to murder a Black Man.

Two works inspired by Exploitation Films of the 1970’s, The Wrath of Othell-Yo and ATTAGAIRL.

Tribeca Film Festival Shorts

Wrath is a tale of an actor who gets his chance to play a “big role” in a film production after the lead actor has issues of manhood.

Short mayhem, ATTAGIRL is a fierce short on why you should not get on the bad side of a Bookie from Hell, run for New Jersey!  

All films were screened online from the Tribeca Film Festival platform.

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Stories from the Plantation Life

On My 15th 2025 the largest plantation of them all burned to the ground because of an electrical fire.  The Nottoway Plantation with 53,000 square feet over three floors, 64 rooms was the grandest of them all.  Sitting in White Castle Louisiana, with giant columns, wrap around porches and grand sitting rooms built in 1859 showcased the wealth brought by slavery for owner John Randolf.  What was once a place of violent servitude evolved into a place of celebrations for weddings and selected touristic history.  African Americans celebrated the pyric finality of the antebellum mansion built on the backs of ancestors in chains under a whip.  The Black Social Media memes trended for days. 

Up the river on the opposite stateside shore sits the oldest city on the Mississippi, Natchez, founded in 1716 in the heart of the Deep Cotton Belt.  Grand houses lined leafy streets.  

From the riches of human bondage, Natchez once had the highest concentration of wealth in the United States.

Suzannah Herbert’s absorbing, at times gut punching, documentary Natchez is a story of who tells the tale.  Through 86 minutes the Memphis based director lets the camera roll on her subjects without interference or judgement.   What comes through in the film is a wide divergence of opinions, institutional denial, classism, race and contradictions. 

The first scene shows the real power in Natchez, The Women Garden Club’s gathering with the mayor.   The city’s main source of income is Heritage Tourism and tours. Tourists come to see and learn how the Pre-Civil War Southern Aristocrats lived. Hosts regale visitors with genteel ancestral tales of sitting in magnificently decorated parlors while eating tea cakes, sipping tea in flowy hoop skirts served by the “workers”.  The word “workers” is in the official script approved by the Garden Club. 

Rewritten

On the other side of the tracks, the guided tours tilt to the rawer but spellbinding side. Reverend Collins perhaps has fewer tours, because he tells the horrible tale of rape and daily degradation in the life of a slave and the aftermath of the institution to the disbelief of his clients.   For Collins, exposing the conscience cover up of the 400-year crime is the most important lesson for visitors.  The history of slavery has been rewritten depending on who you ask.

Rev Collins giving a tour in the film Natchez.

 The protagonists in Natchez view each other with mistrust.  Each representing a narrative.  As the tourist numbers and income fall, younger travellers are no longer interested in the “Gone with The Wind” romantic version of slavery Natchez finds itself at a crossroads. Either give a real accounting of how the city’s wealth built on cruelty or for stay with the same narrative yielding diminishing returns. 

Herbert’s slow build story telling ability works well. The contrasting views ranging from pride, dismissive, incendiary to wilful ignorance are handled without a judging eye even if audiences could have difficulty identifying with the figures on the screen concocting a fantasy lifestyle of 19th century Southern Culture.  This could have easily descended into comical vignettes, the filmmaker never loses her grip on the story.  The focus stays on the different interpretations of the American Story. 

Natchez does not pile on racial guilt or morality.  That is the charm, instead the film allows the audience to figure out the truth.

Screened online at the Tribeca Film Festival

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Awards from The Greek Film Festival Berlin

For its tenth edition the Greek Film Festival in Berlin presented thirty-three feature films. This included six international premieres, eighteen German premieres and three Berlin premieres. Following five days, three competitions, special screenings and side events was the award ceremony. The award category prizes were for the main competition, documentaries and short films.

Winners

The winner of the main Emerging Greeks Competition award was Meat by Dimitris Nakos. The three-person jury also gave a motivation for the award. Part of it read, “…a feature debut which kept our attention throughout…” Director Dimitris Nakos was present to pick up the award.

Meat by Dimitris Nakos at The Greek Film Festival Berlin

The same jury also awarded the prize for the Documentary competition. The winner was Tack by Vania Turner. Within the jury motivation it read, “The filmmaker closely follows two victims of sexual abuse in their struggle…” Furthermore, they commended the animated sequences in the courtroom that could not be filmed. The use of silence and subtitles heightened the eerie court atmosphere. Director Vania Turner was also present to receive her award.

Honeymoon by Alki Papastathopoulos won the Short Film award. The film is a serious plea from the transgender community to support inclusion. The jury said, “What could have been a story about victims became a story about heroes.” Lead actress Nassia Sydeta picked up the award for the absent director. A Special Mention was awarded to the short Scorched Earth by Markela Kontaratou. The jury justified how, “…the female gaze turned a simple story of a stay by the sea into a thriller…”

Honeymoon by Alki Papastathopoulos at The Greek Film Festival Berlin

This year’s closing film was Athens Midnight Radio by Renos Haralambidis. An Athens late-night radio producer turns fifty and realizes he’s no longer young. On air he reminisces about his life so far with creeping regret. The solitude feels ghost-like, complimented by the beautifully filmed Athens night. For its German premiere, main actor and director Renos Haralambidis introduced the film. Joining him for the Q&A after the screening were producer Angelos Venetis and main actress Margarita Amarantidi.

Following the closing ceremony, a party was held in Berlin to sign-off on this special tenth edition. In the presence of guests, the festival team cut the commemorative birthday cake.

By Steven Yates   

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Documentary Competition

Aside from the main Emerging Greeks Competition, the festival features other competitions and prizes. The Documentary Competition has six films competing for the prize, just like the main competition. Two featurettes are screening together in one program. First Milk, by Panagiotis Papafragkos, takes a more poetic stance for its expression. Farewell: And Suddenly Memory Began to Remember, by Ada Pitsou, looks at creativity after dementia. The subject here is the renowned Greek psychotherapist Toula Vlachoutsikou.

Stray Bodies by Elina Psykou looks at choices and laws regarding the body and dignity. Abortion, IVF and euthanasia now benefit from the trans-national salvation of the increasingly popular “medical tourism”. The film therefore becomes a medical road trip through Europe. Panellinion, directed by Spyros Mantzavinos and Kostas Antarachas, is set in a central Athens chess coffeehouse. It is also the setting for ghosts, obsession, solitude and madness.

#MeToo

Tack at the The Greek Film Festival Berlin
TACK

Continuing the theme of personal health challenges is Loxy by Thanasis Kafetzis and Dimitris Zahos. Young Loxandra, who has Downs syndrome, signs an acting contract with the National Theater of Greece. In this, she becomes the first disabled person to do so. Leaving her city and everyday life behind, she travels to Athens to fulfill this ambition.

Finally, Tack by Vania Turner, is a documentary on the Olympian who pioneered Greece’s #MeToo movement. Sofia Bekatorou, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for Sailing, was a victim of abuse. In this film she helps a young athlete Amalia through her own ordeal. Amalia is seeking justice for the systematic abuse she endured at the hands of her coach. This happened when she was just eleven-years-old, and with Sofia’s help she has finally come forward.  

The Documentary Jury is the same one as for the main Emerging Greeks Competition. It comprises of: Simone Baumann (Germany), Nikos Smpiliris (Greece) and Dr. Martin Blaney (UK).

To showcase new talent, there is also the Short Films Competition, divided into two screening programs. Complimenting this is a Student Shorts Competition.

The Shorts Jury is: Pierpaolo Festa (Italy), Karen Cifarelli (USA) and Marios Gavrilis (Greece-Germany).      

The award ceremony on 30th March is followed by Athens Midnight Radio, the Closing Film.  

~ By Steven Yates  

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Berlinale Round Up

The 75th Berlinale is coming to a close. Did the film festival make a sharp turn upward? For this Chat Cinema podcast round up discuss the cinema event under new leader head Tricia Tuttle.

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Berlinale Plus and Minus

Here is a quick overview from the Chat Cinema Podcast on the 75th edition of the Berlinale. There is a PLUS and a Minus.

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An excerpt from the Chat Cinema Podcast on the Berlinale Film Festival. Is the event on the right track? #filmfestival #cinema #berlinale #filmmakers #movie

♬ original sound – Blackandpaper – Blackandpaper
@blackandpaper

What films do we recommend at the Berlinale? A big film festival offers some nice surprises, checkout the clip from the Chat Cinema Podcast. #filmfestival #berlinale #movie #cinema #filmmakersoftiktok

♬ original sound – Blackandpaper – Blackandpaper
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Berlinale 75th

For this episode of Chat Cinema we talk about the Berlinale. The 75th edition starts February 13th. Has the film gathering event turned a major corner with a new head? The Honeymoon period was pleasant. Now comes the hard part. Turning the Berlin gathering into a true “A-List” festival.

But, beneath the mixed headlines, we also found some gems that will screen over the course of ten days.

Check out the podcast with co-host Steven Yates.