Since both founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, have houses on the South Fork, the festival itself could be said to be connected here. But, as usual, there were films shown this year that also had strong ties to the area.
They include the narrative feature "Maggie Moore(s)," a documentary on Ron Delsener, and two with Ukrainian themes produced by Liev Schreiber. Mr. De Niro, whose 80th birthday will be celebrated by the festival later this year, and Ms. Rosenthal also appeared onstage in a conversation moderated by David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, during the closing gala on Saturday at the Beacon Theater. The event marked the 30th anniversary of "A Bronx Tale," starring Mr. De Niro and produced by Ms. Rosenthal. The festival itself ran from June 8 until Sunday.
Released in theaters and on demand on Friday, "Maggie Moore(s)" is John Slattery's second outing as a director of a feature. The first, "God's Pocket," was released to mixed reviews in 2014. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who starred in it, died not long after its Sundance Film Festival premiere.
Mr. Slattery, who has owned a house in Springs for over a decade, is probably best known for his portrayal of Roger Sterling in the television series "Mad Men." He directed five episodes of that show before making "God's Pocket."
It won't give the plot away to say that characters die, specifically two women named Maggie Moore, but it is also a mashup of genres -- romance, buddy movie, police procedural, and comedy. Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, and Nick Mohammed (Nate from "Ted Lasso") have top billing with a strong supporting cast.
"What struck me about Paul Bernbaum's script was the vulnerability of everyone in the story," Mr. Slattery said in his director's notes. "They're almost all lonely, searching for some kind of emotional connection, happiness, or satisfaction, in the middle of an insane story about a double murder, which I found to be a deft balancing act. Both of these elements coexisted seamlessly."
Mr. Hamm, appearing on the red carpet for the film's premiere on June 12, added, "It's a very simple story. It's convoluted in its mystery, but at the end of the day it's about two people trying to find happiness and love."
The quiet plotlines, comedy, and violent suspense somehow do manage to meld together. Mr. Slattery said he wanted the challenge of shooting the script "as specifically as it was written," to keep the same "tone, feeling, and intention," to be as specific as the writer was on the page. "I try to come as close as I can to what I experienced when I first read it . . . so that hopefully the audience will do the same."
If its pace and attitude seem familiar, Mr. Hamm, who is a frequent visitor to the area, said it was because it is a throwback to the kind of cinema Mr. De Niro wanted to celebrate by creating the festival: New York films from the 1970s and 1980s with directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma, who established a kind of New York sensibility and attitude. "John has really done that," he said. "It's not set in New York, obviously, but it really throws back to that '70s and '80s vibe. . . . It's the kind of movie that doesn't get made that much anymore."
On his own red carpet turn, Mr. Slattery said, "It's a great story of a group of people who are all in a kind of vulnerable period in their life. Jon Hamm's character is . . . a widower, Tina's is divorced, Micah Stock's character is trying to keep his head above water. It's a funny story. There's some violence, there's some thrills, but it's a bunch of people who are very human."
"Ron Delsener Presents" is Jake Sumner's examination of the life of the concert promoter who brought the Beatles to Queens, Queen to Madison Square Garden, Simon and Garfunkel to Central Park, and pretty much every band from the '70s onward to some venue in New York City. The film, which does not yet have distribution, premiered at the festival on June 13.
Mr. Delsener, who has had a house in East Hampton for decades, is interviewed there with his wife as part of the documentary, and is seen going through his archives. He announced his retirement at the age of 86 late last year.
The two films with Ukrainian themes are "Rule of Two Walls," which was in competition for feature documentary and premiered on June 8, and "Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story," distributed by Vice News. It premiered on June 13. Both focus on visual and performing artists.
Nate Pommer and Eric Weinrib's "Scream of My Blood" is focused on Eugene Hutz and his journey from Ukraine to the United States and then back to visit his former country after the war had started, to support the troops and refugee hubs created by the conflict. "Rule of Two Walls," directed by David Gutnik, shows the war as seen through the eyes of artists making music, performances, painting, street art, and film as acts of defiance, attempting to live life as normally as they can, running errands and visiting bars and restaurants with missiles exploding around them.
Mr. Schreiber, a part-time resident of the South Fork, co-founded BlueCheck Ukraine after the war started to partner with UNITED24, President Volodymyr Zelensky's fund-raising platform for Ukraine, to direct financial support for the front lines. In the film notes for "Rule of Two Walls," he said he had visited Ukraine three times since the war started.
He worked with Mr. Hutz previously, having cast him in "Everything Is Illuminated." Of "Rule of Two Walls," Mr. Schreiber said, "I saw the embodiment of the resilience I observed during my time in Ukraine: the profound spirit, sense of nation and history emboldened by an existential war. As an artist in my own right trying to do all that I can to help Ukraine, I responded to the film's focus on Ukrainian artists processing the brutality of the war, while using their art to fight back."
