Film Fest Diaries: Tribeca 2023 Edition!
Film Festival Femme is back & I brought some friends!
This might get cut off in your email so the demand this week is to open in your browser, spread the word about my Substack, and tell me why Clueless isn’t playing on a loop in one theatre at Tribeca.
You didn’t think I wouldn’t be covering Tribeca this year just ‘cos of all the mayhem and foolishness did you? I have a press pass and ain’t no fuckin’ way I wasn’t gonna find a way to use it!
So originally I was supposed to cover it over at youknowwhere. I dunno how much y’all know about what it’s like to get a press pass for festivals but it’s kind of a process. I mean, I get it though, they make you fill out paperwork, write letters, talk a lot about numbers, how and what you wanna cover, who your audience is, etc ‘cos if you’re approved you get to attend one of the worlds most prestigious film festivals for free.
They usually don’t fuck with the little guys ‘cos it’s all about the coverage. BUT I reached out to the folks at Tribeca, and let them know what was going on re my position being surprisingly eliminated.
This is how that conversation went as told through Bridgerton Gifs:
Basically, they were like — “Girl, we like you, we know you, absolutely yes we can switch your pass to coverage on your substack.”
So — HERE WE ARE! My very first (of many) film festival coverage on my site that is literally all mine to do what I want! My previous film festival coverage was all curated by me, including those that featured others, but this is different ‘cos I am the complete and total boss.
So before I get into the what, when, and how I’ll be doing coverage I should tell you…I HAVE SOME FRIENDS WRITING TOO TO MAKE IT EVEN BETTER!
The past three weeks have been, weird and wild, but so many of you have been encouraging. With your words, your subscriptions, and also your dollars. When the news dropped about Ro, Vanessa, and my job eliminations our Venmos were shared around which we never expected and folks sent money our way to help with the blow that we also never expected.
During that, I knew that I still wanted to do coverage but didn’t know how. With the elimination my mind also was elsewhere, I needed to focus on how to not only fill that missing income but of course, exceed it. I’m still working on that (your monthly subscriptions to this substack are def helping, and I have applied to many an editor gig but keep sending them my way btw) but I was also thinking about the writers and readers I had left behind thru no actual choice of my own.
Who all gon’ be there?
Just ‘cos I was no longer an Editor there didn’t mean that my forever goal of giving Black, queer, trans, non-binary, POC, disabled, and other marginalized voices opportunities and spotlights just went away. That was always my goal well before I became an editor and forever will be.
This space is mine to do what I please and I had to remember that.
So I used the money that folks sent to me on Venmo (just over $584 for transparency's sake) and went into my own pocket to come up with a plan to ask some folks who have writing and vibes I love to come over here and do some coverage with me for Tribeca — and they said YES!
So thanks to y’all just being who you are, I was able to pay it forward and that’s really at the core of so much of what I wanna do.
So here are the folks joining me for Tribeca coverage this year:
I am so fucking amped that these folks will be giving their beautiful words to my site and this is going to be some of the flyest coverage! I wish I could have given more writers the opportunity and wish I could have paid these more but this I feel, is a really good start to the type of shit I wanna do.
I’d like to have a writer do a guest spot at the end of each month by taking over the weekly wrap-up, so look out for that soon!
ALSO SUPPORT AND FOLLOW THEM ‘COS THAT IS WHAT WE DO AROUND HERE!
Coverage Details
Reviews, Personal Narratives, Interviews and so much more are going to be coming your way starting Monday June 12 - Sunday June 18th
So my weekly wrap-up is going to be on pause for 2 weeks!
Most reviews will be available for everyone to see and share but some VERY DOPE interviews are going to be just for paid subscribers!
The coverage will live under DVD Extras after they rotate on the main page.
I’ll be posting pretty much every day that week, sometimes multiple times a day and although that’s great for us all I don’t wanna clog up your inbox. So the plan is to NOT push them all to your inboxes but publish them all here, send you sporadic ones, and trust you to visit and read (and share) the others every day!
But — what do you want?!
If you can’t tell, I’m dumb excited to do this and even more excited that folks like you high-key made it possible for me to pay these writers to join me.
So keep subscribing, turning those trials into permanent vibes, and sharing my substack with folks on your socials and more to keep supporting me to do this and lots more fly shit.
TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE MOST EXCITED TO SEE THIS YEAR AT TRIBECA — WE JUST MAY BE COVERING IT!!
I’m here on IG and here on Twitter if you wanna tag me in your shares.
Until next week y’all — HAPPY READING!!!
Woo hoo! Can't wait for the coverage.
Yay Shelli! Excellent news 🩷