By Pilar Dirickson Garrett
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival, opening this coming Wednesday, June 9 and running through Monday, June 20, is set to present a notably robust lineup of films on or from Puerto Rico, including the world premieres of both Afro-Puerto Rican artist Macha Colón’s Perfume de Gardenias and the highly-anticipated new feature In the Heights, based on the acclaimed Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The Tribeca Festival has also recently announced that they have entered into a special partnership with the organizers of New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade—the largest demonstration of cultural pride in the country—in order to specifically celebrate the contributions of the Puerto Rican community to the city and United States, more broadly.
In addition to Perfume de Gardenias and In the Heights, the festival will also be hosting the New York Premiere of Mariem Pérez Riera’s critically-acclaimed documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It and Emma Francis-Snyder’s short film Takeover, preceded by Waldo Cabrera’s animated short Cucarachita Martina’s Musical Adventure. All three films will be playing in-person on Sunday, June 13 as supplemental programming to New York’s iconic Puerto Rican Day Parade on the same day.
Because last year’s Tribeca Film Festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s edition will also be paying tribute to the films and filmmakers that missed out on their in-person premieres by presenting select titles from 2020 in a special category, including boricua filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo’s poignant documentary Landfall and Puerto Rican-born filmmaker Loira Limbal’s deeply moving portrait, Through the Night.
"A big part of Tribeca Festival each year is reflecting NYC's multitude of cultures and perspectives in our programming — and with our festival edition being positioned in June, we had an opportunity to showcase and spotlight a wider array of holidays and events that take place this month,” says festival programmer José F. Rodriguez.
“Our programming of Puerto Rican films came about not just out of our collaboration with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, but also out of a need to present to our NYC community Puerto Rican films that explore the island's contemporary identity and their fight for a more hopeful and equitable society. The spotlighted films tap into varying themes, from community resilience and social activism to embracing an artistic-driven sense of purpose and creative fulfillment - no matter what stage in life.”
The organizers of the Puerto Rican Day Parade agree—Louis Maldonado, president of the Parade’s board of directors having stated that they are “delighted with this collaboration because these are two iconic New York celebrations that highlight Puerto Rican films and stories on a global stage.”
Read on for a full summary of the spotlighted Puerto Rican films at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival:
The debut feature from veteran Afro-queer multidisciplinary artist, musician, and activist Macha Colón, Perfume de Gardenias is a playful dark comedy that captures the idiosyncrasies and spirit of a nation adept at creating novel strategies for laughter in the face of adversity. A provocative reflection on life and death, the colorful film tells the story of Isabel — played by veteran theater and television actress Luz María Rondón in her first movie-starring role — an elderly woman living in a middle-class neighborhood in Puerto Rico, who starts designing custom, idiosyncratic funerals for her ailing neighbors after her own husband passes away.
Needing little introduction, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hotly anticipated adaptation of his Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, is heading to Tribeca 2021 for its world premiere. Taking place on the hottest day of the summer in Washington Heights, New York City, the film directed by John M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) follows bodega owner Usnavi (played by Anthony Ramos) who dreams of opening a bar in the Dominican Republic, while also pining for aspiring designer Vanessa. His best friend Benny hopes to reconnect with Nina, his ex home for the summer from Stanford, while throughout it all, Abuela Claudia keeps a watchful eye over the intersecting stories of the rapidly changing neighborhood’s many residents.
After a successful premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Mariem Pérez Riera’s sophomore feature documentary on the exceptional life of Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno is coming to New York. Said by Obama to be the embodiment of the American Dream, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It chronicles the storied career of the namesake Hollywood legend. Against the backdrop of a racist and sexist movie industry, the multi-talented Puerto Rican actress challenged stifling stereotypes, going on to become a role model for women and Latinx people in the industry. Interviews with Morgan Freeman, Eva Longoria, Gloria Estefan, Whoopi Goldberg and others are combined with rich archival footage of everything from West Side Story to The Electric Company to create a fascinating portrait of the iconic actress.
Also playing as part of the Puerto Rican Day Parade festivities, Emma Francis-Snyder’s short film Takeover takes place during the twelve historic hours on July 14, 1970 in which fifty members of the Young Lords Party stormed the dilapidated Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, drove out their administrative staff, barricaded entrances and windows, and made their cries for decent healthcare known to the world. The activists raised the Puerto Rican flag atop the building, and hung a banner reading "The People's Hospital"—a nom de guerre still used today. Through archival footage, seamless reenactments, and modern-day interviews, we tell the story of the Young Lords’ resistance against institutions curated by wealth and white supremacy, and their fight for the most basic of human rights: the right to accessible, quality healthcare.
The June 13th screening of the film will be preceded by Waldo Cabrera’s animated short Cucarachita Martina’s Musical Adventure. Inspired by Pura Belpré's first picture book, published in 1932 and titled "Pérez and Martina: A Portorican Tale,” Cucarachita Martina’s Musical Adventure tells the story of Martina, who one day, while sweeping her patio, finds a gold coin and buys a songbook, a cancionero. As she sits on her balcony getting ready for the annual singing competition at the fiestas patronales, Martina receives a number of visitors. Each one wants to sing a duet with Martina in the talent show, but who will she pick?
Returning this year as part of the 2020 official selection, award-winning director and producer Cecilia Aldarondo’s Landfall documents the aftermath of Hurricane Maria through shard-like glimpses of post-disaster Puerto Rico. Criss-crossing the island to chronicle the resilience of a community banding together to rebuild, Landfall offers a portrait of collective trauma as Puerto Ricans take things into their own hands after expectations for help from the mainland disappeared.
Rounding out the films by makers that count themselves as part of the Puerto Rican diaspora at this year’s festival is island-born Loira Limbal’s moving portrait of caregivers and the politics of care, Through the Night. An intimate cinema verité portrait of three working mothers whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center in New Rochelle, New York—a mother working the overnight shift as an essential worker at a pediatric hospital; another holding down three jobs in order to support her family, and a woman who, for over two decades, has cared for the children whose parents have nowhere else to turn—Through the Night is a timely portrait of resilience, love, and the fundamental role of caregivers in society.
All of the above films will be projected in-person in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens as part of Tribeca’s “Borough-to-Borough” initiative, meant to bring the films to the communities represented. For more complete information on this year’s offerings, visit www.tribecafilm.com.
