Tribeca’s Doc Slate Brims Over With Celebrity-Driven Fare, Tackling Subjects Including Milli Vanilli and Dan Rather in Addition to Thornier Social Issues
Addie Morfoot Contributor While gender, race and politically-themed documentaries are once again prevalent at Tribeca Festival, celebrity-driven docus dominate this year’s nonfiction lineup.David Gelb’s “Stan Lee,” Stephen Kijak’s “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed,” Luke Korem’s “Milli Vanilli,” Frank Marshall’s “Rather,” Betsy Schechter’s “Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive,” and Fernando Villena’s Oscar De La Hoya doc “The Golden Boy” are among the nonfiction titles focused on a bold face name screening at Tribeca, which kicks off on June 7.Marshall calls “Rather,” about longtime news anchor Dan Rather, a “very personal project.”“The collection of stories (Rather) has covered, it’s my history and the history of our country over the past 60 years,” says Marshall. “Dan dreamed of being a reporter and spent a large part of his career in journalism at CBS, including anchoring the CBS Evening News for twenty-four years, so it seemed natural to come to New York City and celebrate the world premiere of our film at Tribeca.”For director Michael Selditch, Tribeca Festival was also the perfect location for the world premiere of his latest docu “Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field,” about the iconic costume designer known best for her work on “Sex and the City.”“Tribeca seemed to make a lot of sense because it is a New York story and Patricia is a New York icon,” says Selditch.The director originally asked Field to be the subject of a documentary in 2019, but she declined.