Tribeca plans in-person film festival for June
The Tribeca Film Festival said Monday that it plans to hold its 20th edition in person this June and with outdoor screenings spread throughout New York's five boroughs.
The springtime festival — canceled last year due to the pandemic — will instead turn to the summer for its next edition, spanning 12 days beginning June 9. Tribeca will screen films at outdoor venues around the city including the Battery, Hudson Yards, Pier 57 Rooftop, Brookfield Place, the MetroTech Commons in Brooklyn and Empire Outlets in Staten Island. The festival will also use a traveling 40-foot HD screen in other areas.
“The Tribeca Film Festival was born out of our mission to bring people together in the aftermath of 9/11. We're still doing it,” said Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro. “And as New York emerges from the shadow of COVID-19, it seems just right to bring people together again in person for our 20th anniversary festival.”
Tribeca has gradually broadened the footprint of its annual festival, stretching beyond its downtown namesake. It has regularly hosted outdoor “drive-in” screenings on city streets, something that it expanded nationwide last year in a series of drive-ins held around the country showing classic films.
Major film festivals — the Berlin International Film Festival and the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas — have thus far turned to virtual editions. But summer is looking more promising for the world's top film festivals. France's Cannes Film Festival, usually held in May, is aiming for an in-person festival in July.
Graphic novel pulled for ‘passive racism’
A graphic novel for children that was a spin-off of the wildly popular “Captain Underpants” series is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it “perpetuates passive racism.”
The book under scrutiny is 2010's “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk” by Dav Pilkey, who has apologized, saying it “contains harmful racial stereotypes“and is “wrong and harmful to my Asian readers.”
The book follows a pair of friends who travel from 500,001 B.C. to 2222, where they meet a martial arts instructor who teaches them kung fu and they learn principles found in Chinese philosophy.
Scholastic said it had removed the book from its websites, stopped processing orders for it and sought a return of all inventory. “We will take steps to inform schools and libraries who may still have this title in circulation of our decision to withdraw it from publication,” the publisher said in a statement.
Pilkey in a YouTube statement said he planned to donate his advance and all royalties from the book's sales to groups dedicated to stopping violence against Asians and to promoting diversity in children's books and publishing.
“I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone,” he wrote. “I apologize, and I pledge to do better.”
The decision came after a Korean American father of two young children started a Change.org petition asking for an apology from the publisher and writer.