Tribeca Festival 2024: Round-up of the (Mostly LGBTQ+) Shorts Seen. Plus, a TV Pilot.
A write-up of the short films and TV pilot screened at this year's Tribeca Festival.
Typically, when I cover a film festival, I aim to have one goal in mind: A goal to not only cover narrative features and documentaries, but watch short films as well. Despite being overlooked to the point where the Oscars chose to omit them from the main broadcast a few years ago, short films have a way of telling a whole story within a small span of time. Not to mention, the filmmaker who made that short film you maybe saw at a film festival could go on to become the next Scorsese or Coppola or Spike Lee. You never know.
For this year’s Tribeca Festival, I managed to screen not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven shorts plus a TV pilot. Given how June was Pride Month, it is almost fitting that five of the short films watched were queer-centric.
One is what is the most erotic film I’ve screened at the fest, feature-length or short, and that is Some Kind of Paradise directed by Nicholas Finegan. The story follows Tyler (John Brodsky) whose humdrum life becomes re-awakened by Raphael (Gabriel Leyva), a Hollywood actor who he meets on Grindr. Their casual hookup structured with the familiar simmering tension that’s as erotic as the act of physical intimacy effectively plays into the anxieties of dating apps, including whether things extend past that one night.
Still of Anna Khaja as Maryam in Farah Jabir’s short film “Kasbi.” (Photo courtesy of Tribeca Festival)
Another short that dabbles into the theme of sex is Farah Jabir’s Kasbi, which depicts a middle-aged Pakistani housewife named Maryam (Anna Khaja) who spends the night with Aisha, a sex worker (Zina Louhaichy). Over the course of their evening, Maryam goes on an assuring journey of self-exploration that shows how it’s never too late in life to try and have things figured out, including one’s sexual orientation. Given the cliché that those in the queer community have things fully figured out in terms of how they identify when they’re younger, Kasbi helps disrupt that tired trope while offering a dignified portrait of sex work.
Meanwhile, Original Skin by Mdhamiri á Nkemi offers an intriguing concept involving a woman who switches bodies through sex while possessing occasionally vivid cinematography. Then there’s the Mexican short ¡Beso de lengua! by José Luis Zorrero, an absurdist telling of a first date that turns into a macabre game and the too-brief yet insightful Lost Bois by Devyn Galindo which examines the lives of three trans boys living in New York City.
As for the two other remaining shorts, the animated short Nate & John directed by Jumai Yusuf had me choked up by the time it ended. Its story involving a barber and a client forming a lifelong bond is a moving demonstration of how the more unexpected people can change your lives with a heartrending score by Pedro Osuna.
A still from Brian Jogvinsky’s short film "Catharsis,” a 2024 Tribeca Festival premiere.
Lastly is Brian Jogvinsky’s Catharsis, an alluring tale about Alex (Harrison Ball), a ballet dancer experiencing mental health issues that, in its own surrealist way, stresses the importance of therapy. Rounding out the cast is the always-reliable Jemima Kirke doing dual work as the assistants of the psychotherapist coming to Alex’s aid and the one and only Deborah Harry as Alex’s aunt, Anya.
Closing out the write-up and keeping up with the theme of surrealism is the TV pilot for the BBC series Juice created by, and starring, BAFTA winner Mawaan Rizwan. In Juice, Rizwan plays Jamma, a gay man navigating commitment issues with his therapist boyfriend, Guy (Russell Tovey) and tensions within his family. As he navigates such anxieties, Jamma finds the line between reality and imagination blurred in a story reminiscent of Julio Torres’ recently released gem Problemista. If you’re a fan of that film, definitely check this series out when it gets US airplay.