Barry Levinson knows the beast that is mass media.

The director explored the impact of television on family life with his 1990 drama "Avalon," and he revealed the ways politicians use the news to manipulate the public in his clever satire "Wag the Dog." Now he's turned the camera on himself and his peers with a film essay entitled "Poliwood" about celebrity activism.

In the movie, Levinson focuses on the activities of the Creative Coalition in building awareness for political causes while dealing with the backlash from those opposed to their efforts. "There's a difference between writing a check and getting on the bully pulpit," one person complains. But many of the subjects of "Poliwood" -- including Susan Sarandon, Ellen Burstyn and Anne Hathaway -- grapple with finding a strategy for doing both.

Levinson successfully does away with the us-versus-them mentality often set forth by blue-collar Americans convinced that Hollywood stars don't understand their plight. The director, whose narration occurs throughout, explains that many actors and directors actually come from middle class backgrounds. But that doesn't prevent a certain amount of hostility from rising to the surface during dialogue sessions with non-actors and various organizations that appear in the film.

"You see how a massive amount of miscommunication works," Levinson told me in a recent phone conversation. "These people basically have an interest in the process, an interest in certain social issues." Hathaway, given her youth, provides insight into the evolution of celebrity activism. "She doesn't come across as a
seasoned political junkie," Levinson said.

The director was invited by the Creative Coalition to bring cameras to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and document their attendance last year. His personalized study of the issue grew out of those trips. The result is a fairly celebratory piece, culminating with the inauguration of Barack Obama in January, but Levinson said he did not want the conclusion to seem entirely triumphant.

"It's mixed emotions," he said. "You have to worry about how the media has played such a hand in the political process. I think that's a great worry. On the other hand, there are millions of people who are enthusiastic about  change."

"Poliwood" demonstrates Levinson's willingness to work on smaller projects, regardless of where they might wind up. "We did this on a real shoestring," he said. "I'd like to get it seen, but with the times we live in, there's a lot of work I've seen that's interesting and never gets theatrical distribution."

He remains fairly bitter about the recent flop of his last feature, the Robert De Niro vehicle "What Just Happened," which closed the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 before quietly slipping into theaters in the fall.

"I happened to be in Baltimore doing something, and some friends asked when it was coming out," he said. "It was already out. It's very hard to get awareness with these very small movies."

Meanwhile, he claims to have a hard time getting studios interested in his projects. "It becomes more and more difficult," he said. "Hollywood is basically a big corporation. If you don't have the money, you can't get anything to happen."

Announcing the award for Best New Narrative Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival's awards party, Uma Thurman had to use her stage voice when the microphone suddenly cut out. Later, Robert De Niro lost the envelope with the final winner of the night and wound up reading it off a press release.

In short, the ceremony was not perfect, but it wound up as something better than that: Human.

The evening gathering in Union Square brought together a melting pot of New York celebrities and filmmakers from around the world. The jurors ranged from  Mary-Kate Olsen and Meg Ryan to New York Magazine food critic Gael Greene, but despite the somewhat random assortment, their decisions yielded welcome results. Almost all of the winners were small movies that could use the extra boost -- and, perhaps more importantly, they were all pretty good.

After the bittersweet immigration drama "Entre Nos" won a Special Jury Prize, co-director Paola Mendoza came close to tears as she noted that the story was based on her mother's struggle during her early years in the United States. "It's a small little film and we put our hears and souls into it," Mendoza said. The movie backs up her statement with a heartfelt performance by the director herself.

It was a similar case for documentarian Danae Elon, who also appears in the movie she directed, although she's not putting on a performance. Her documentary, "Partly Private," offers a cute, amusing survey of contemporary views on circumcision, using the birth of her two boys as a unique case study.

Winning the award for Best New York Documentary, Elon said she "would have put makeup on if I knew this would happen." But since her movie is about a deeply personal physical procedure, her natural appearance fit the occasion.
   
The other documentaries honored at the ceremony also deserved the accolades. Yoav Shamir's "Defamation," which I found fascinating and somewhat revelatory, landed a Special Jury Mention. "Racing Dreams, " Mashall Curry's insightful portrait of the World Karting Association, won Best Documentary Feature, while the harrowing Afghanistan-based "Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi" took home the Best New Documentary Filmmaker prize.

"Fixer" director Ian Olds, whose movie tracks the kidnapping and ultimate execution of the eponymous foreign journalist aid, told me he's glad to have a television deal in place for the movie (it airs on HBO in late August), and seemed somewhat nonchalant about whether or not a theatrical distributor steps up to the plate.

But that was before he won the award.

In general, it seemed that the honorees were boosted in their confidence and ready to take De Niro up on his offer to return with new works. After announcing the Best Narrative Feature Award for Asghar Farhad's "About Elly," the actor-turned-festival founder graciously posed for photographs with hordes of eager filmmakers.

"He's been doing this for twenty minutes," moaned a festival publicist. "Are we done?"

"Not yet," somebody shot back. "Bob's making that face."

And here are the complete list of festival winners: 

The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – About Elly (Darbareye Elly), directed and written by Asghar Farhadi. (Iran).  Award presented by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. Winner receives $25,000 cash and the art award "Rockets and the Red Lights (Mass MoCA #70),” created by Stephen Hannock. 
 
Jury Comments: “Out of a strong selection of films, the jury was unanimous in our passion for this seamless piece of ensemble filmmaking. The universality of the characters and themes, and the directors riveting grasp of this story make “About Elly” a film that collapses barriers and deepens our understanding of the world we share.”
 
Best New Narrative Filmmaker – Rune Denstad Langlo for North (Nord), written by Erlend Loe. (Norway). Award presented by Todd Haynes and Rich Lehrfeld, VP, Global Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing, American Express. Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
 
Jury Comments: “Rune Denstad Langlo, formerly a documentary filmmaker, shows a mastery of comedic direction in “North.” His consummate vision, strong grasp of story and command of the language of cinema make him a standout amidst a strong pool of candidates.”
 
Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Ciarán Hinds in The Eclipse, directed and written by Conor McPherson. (Ireland). Award presented by Todd Haynes and Gail Grimmett, SVP Delta Air Lines. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines.  Winner receives two International BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.
 
Jury Comments: “Ciarán Hinds’ powerful performance explores both strength and vulnerability, while propelling and deepening the films examination of masculinity and desire. The portrayal grabbed us, pulling us even deeper into this unique and original ghost story.”
 
Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Zoe Kazan in The Exploding Girl, directed and written by Bradley Rust Gray. (USA).  Award presented by Todd Haynes and Gail Grimmett, SVP Delta Air Lines. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines.  Winner receives two International BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.
 
Jury Comments: “Zoe shines in this understated role. Every component of this brilliantly restrained performance displays a command of her craft that stunned and moved this jury.”
 
Best Documentary Feature – Racing Dreams, directed by Marshall Curry. (USA). Winner receives $25,000 cash. Award presented by Liz Garbus. Sponsored by Bialla & Associates. Winner will also receive two voyage certificates for a Transatlantic Crossing on Queen Mary 2, provided by Cunard Line and the art award “Sky III,” created by Clifford Ross. 
 
Jury Comments: “Is it nature or nurture? Is it the car or the driver? While those eternal questions will live on, we reacted with unanimous, unquestioned affection for “Racing Dreams,” and found it a completely compelling, entertaining film of incredible quality.”
 
Special Jury Mention: Defamation (Hashmatsa), directed by Yoav Shamir. (Denmark, Austria, USA, Israel).
 
Jury Comments: “Special jury mention to “Defamation” for lifting the veil – through courageous filmmaking – on a subject seldom so openly discussed.”
 
Best New Documentary Filmmaker – Ian Olds for Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. (USA). Award presented by Liz Garbus and Rich Lehrfeld, VP, Global Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing, American Express. Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
 
Jury Comments: “A film about an unsavory world, and its unsavory characters, which through its superb direction, shines a light on a world unfamiliar to many Americans.”
 
New York Competition Categories:
 
The 2009 Best New York Narrative Competition jurors were Adrien Brody, Karen Durbin, Richard Ledes, Melissa Leo, Parker Posey, André Leon Talley and Beau Willimon.
 
The 2009 Best New York Documentary Competition jurors were Jon Robin Baitz, Mary Boone, Marc Ecko, Douglas Keeve and Rachael Ray.
 
Best New York Narrative – Here and There (Tamo i ovde), directed and written by Darko Lungulov. (Serbia, USA, Germany).  Award presented by Richard Ledes. Winner receives $5,000 cash, and the art award “Time Can Be a Villain or a Friend” created by Hank Willis Thomas.
 
Jury Comments: “Our winning film was mature, it was funny, it was subtle. It gave us not only New York, it gave us great characters, a great story, it gave us the world.”
 
Best New York Documentary – Partly Private, directed by Danae Elon. (Canada). Award presented by Rachael Ray. Winner receives $5,000 cash. Sponsored by Medallion Financial and the Murstein Family. Winner will also receive the art award “A Map of NYC (with directions to the Tribeca Film Festival),” created by Tom Slaughter.
 
Jury Comments: “Our pick is a film that explores the relevance of tradition in today’s world. We are reminded that the exploration of one small subject through documentary film is capable of shedding light on a larger world. There were moments in this film that brought the whole world back to New York – they were uniquely New York moments. It explored themes of politics, culture, aestheticism, desirability, sexuality, and sensuality.”
 
Short Film Competition Categories:
 
The 2009 Best Narrative Short Competition jurors were James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Mary Harron, Debra Messing and Mary Kate Olsen.
 
The 2009 Best Documentary and Student Short Competition jurors were Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Bobby Cannavale, Gael Greene, AJ Jacobs and Rachel Maddow.
 
Best Narrative Short – The North Road (La route du Nord), directed and written by Carlos Chahine. (France). Award presented by Debra Messing. Winner receives $5,000 cash and the art award “Untitled” created by David Salle.
 
Jury Comments: “We ultimately chose the winner for its poetic, truthful and unsentimental portrait of an exile’s return home to deal with his father’s death 20 years earlier. The director, Carlos Chahine, portrays the absurdities and contradictions of how we deal with grief through humor, freshness and subtlety.”
 
 
Best Documentary Short – home, directed by Matthew Faust. (USA). Award presented by Gael Greene. Winner receives $5,000 cash and the art award “Ring Image,” created by Robert Mangold.
 
Jury Comments: “This touching short artistically combines the aesthetic and the emotional in its portrayal of home and its memories. It tells a post-Hurricane Katrina story in a new, inventive and poignant way.”
 
Special Jury Mention: The Last Mermaids, directed by Liz Chae. (USA, South Korea)
 
Jury Comments: “Technically strong, this film beautifully documents a little known world and introduces audiences to a culture on the verge of extinction. The filmmaker provides a glimpse into a closed sisterhood -- proud of their traditions, yet accepting the disappearance of their way of life.”
 
Student Visionary Award – Small Change, directed and written by Anna McGrath. (Australia).  Award presented by Gael Greene. Winner receives MacPro Desktop with Final Cut Pro and a 24-inch monitor provided by Apple and the art award "Campus Point" created by Fritz Chestnut.
 
Jury Comments: “The winning film, a very small yet powerful story, portrays a magical and touching drama of a young girl’s home life. The filmmaker uses minimal storytelling to achieve maximum emotional impact and we commend the terrific performances of the young actors.”
 
Special Jury Mention: Oda a la Piña, directed and written by Laimir Fano. (Cuba).
 
Jury Comments: “This visually delicious film, with its stunningly rich colors, captures the cultural rhythms and unmistakable sounds of the city to artistically portray a sense of poverty in what remains of old Havana and its beauty.”
 

The winners were announced on Thursday for the eighth Tribeca Film Festival .

The jurors for the 2009 World Narrative Competition were Bradley Cooper, Richard Fischoff, Todd Haynes, Meg Ryan and Uma Thurman.
 
The jurors for the 2009 World Documentary Competition were Liz Garbus, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Spurlock and Brian Williams.
 

Here were the winners: 

 
The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – About Elly (Darbareye Elly), directed and written by Asghar Farhadi. (Iran).  Award presented by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. Winner receives $25,000 cash and the art award "Rockets and the Red Lights (Mass MoCA #70),” created by Stephen Hannock. 
 
Jury Comments: “Out of a strong selection of films, the jury was unanimous in our passion for this seamless piece of ensemble filmmaking. The universality of the characters and themes, and the directors riveting grasp of this story make “About Elly” a film that collapses barriers and deepens our understanding of the world we share.”
 
Best New Narrative Filmmaker – Rune Denstad Langlo for North (Nord), written by Erlend Loe. (Norway). Award presented by Todd Haynes and Rich Lehrfeld, VP, Global Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing, American Express. Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
 
Jury Comments: “Rune Denstad Langlo, formerly a documentary filmmaker, shows a mastery of comedic direction in “North.” His consummate vision, strong grasp of story and command of the language of cinema make him a standout amidst a strong pool of candidates.”
 
Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Ciarán Hinds in The Eclipse, directed and written by Conor McPherson. (Ireland). Award presented by Todd Haynes and Gail Grimmett, SVP Delta Air Lines. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines.  Winner receives two International BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.
 
Jury Comments: “Ciarán Hinds’ powerful performance explores both strength and vulnerability, while propelling and deepening the films examination of masculinity and desire. The portrayal grabbed us, pulling us even deeper into this unique and original ghost story.”
 
Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Zoe Kazan in The Exploding Girl, directed and written by Bradley Rust Gray. (USA).  Award presented by Todd Haynes and Gail Grimmett, SVP Delta Air Lines. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines.  Winner receives two International BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.
 
Jury Comments: “Zoe shines in this understated role. Every component of this brilliantly restrained performance displays a command of her craft that stunned and moved this jury.”
 
Best Documentary Feature – Racing Dreams, directed by Marshall Curry. (USA). Winner receives $25,000 cash. Award presented by Liz Garbus. Sponsored by Bialla & Associates. Winner will also receive two voyage certificates for a Transatlantic Crossing on Queen Mary 2, provided by Cunard Line and the art award “Sky III,” created by Clifford Ross. 
 
Jury Comments: “Is it nature or nurture? Is it the car or the driver? While those eternal questions will live on, we reacted with unanimous, unquestioned affection for “Racing Dreams,” and found it a completely compelling, entertaining film of incredible quality.”
 
Special Jury Mention: Defamation (Hashmatsa), directed by Yoav Shamir. (Denmark, Austria, USA, Israel).
 
Jury Comments: “Special jury mention to “Defamation” for lifting the veil – through courageous filmmaking – on a subject seldom so openly discussed.”
 
Best New Documentary Filmmaker – Ian Olds for Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. (USA). Award presented by Liz Garbus and Rich Lehrfeld, VP, Global Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing, American Express. Winner receives $25,000 cash. Sponsored by American Express.
 
Jury Comments: “A film about an unsavory world, and its unsavory characters, which through its superb direction, shines a light on a world unfamiliar to many Americans.”
 
New York Competition Categories:
 
The 2009 Best New York Narrative Competition jurors were Adrien Brody, Karen Durbin, Richard Ledes, Melissa Leo, Parker Posey, André Leon Talley and Beau Willimon.
 
The 2009 Best New York Documentary Competition jurors were Jon Robin Baitz, Mary Boone, Marc Ecko, Douglas Keeve and Rachael Ray.
 
Best New York Narrative – Here and There (Tamo i ovde), directed and written by Darko Lungulov. (Serbia, USA, Germany).  Award presented by Richard Ledes. Winner receives $5,000 cash, and the art award “Time Can Be a Villain or a Friend” created by Hank Willis Thomas.
 
Jury Comments: “Our winning film was mature, it was funny, it was subtle. It gave us not only New York, it gave us great characters, a great story, it gave us the world.”
 
Best New York Documentary – Partly Private, directed by Danae Elon. (Canada). Award presented by Rachael Ray. Winner receives $5,000 cash. Sponsored by Medallion Financial and the Murstein Family. Winner will also receive the art award “A Map of NYC (with directions to the Tribeca Film Festival),” created by Tom Slaughter.
 
Jury Comments: “Our pick is a film that explores the relevance of tradition in today’s world. We are reminded that the exploration of one small subject through documentary film is capable of shedding light on a larger world. There were moments in this film that brought the whole world back to New York – they were uniquely New York moments. It explored themes of politics, culture, aestheticism, desirability, sexuality, and sensuality.”
 
Short Film Competition Categories:
 
The 2009 Best Narrative Short Competition jurors were James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Mary Harron, Debra Messing and Mary Kate Olsen.
 
The 2009 Best Documentary and Student Short Competition jurors were Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Bobby Cannavale, Gael Greene, AJ Jacobs and Rachel Maddow.
 
Best Narrative Short – The North Road (La route du Nord), directed and written by Carlos Chahine. (France). Award presented by Debra Messing. Winner receives $5,000 cash and the art award “Untitled” created by David Salle.
 
Jury Comments: “We ultimately chose the winner for its poetic, truthful and unsentimental portrait of an exile’s return home to deal with his father’s death 20 years earlier. The director, Carlos Chahine, portrays the absurdities and contradictions of how we deal with grief through humor, freshness and subtlety.”
 
 
Best Documentary Short – home, directed by Matthew Faust. (USA). Award presented by Gael Greene. Winner receives $5,000 cash and the art award “Ring Image,” created by Robert Mangold.
 
Jury Comments: “This touching short artistically combines the aesthetic and the emotional in its portrayal of home and its memories. It tells a post-Hurricane Katrina story in a new, inventive and poignant way.”
 
Special Jury Mention: The Last Mermaids, directed by Liz Chae. (USA, South Korea)
 
Jury Comments: “Technically strong, this film beautifully documents a little known world and introduces audiences to a culture on the verge of extinction. The filmmaker provides a glimpse into a closed sisterhood -- proud of their traditions, yet accepting the disappearance of their way of life.”
 
Student Visionary Award – Small Change, directed and written by Anna McGrath. (Australia).  Award presented by Gael Greene. Winner receives MacPro Desktop with Final Cut Pro and a 24-inch monitor provided by Apple and the art award "Campus Point" created by Fritz Chestnut.
 
Jury Comments: “The winning film, a very small yet powerful story, portrays a magical and touching drama of a young girl’s home life. The filmmaker uses minimal storytelling to achieve maximum emotional impact and we commend the terrific performances of the young actors.”
 
Special Jury Mention: Oda a la Piña, directed and written by Laimir Fano. (Cuba).
 
Jury Comments: “This visually delicious film, with its stunningly rich colors, captures the cultural rhythms and unmistakable sounds of the city to artistically portray a sense of poverty in what remains of old Havana and its beauty.”
 

To understand the Tribeca Film Festival within the larger context of New York's film community, it helps to understand the perspective of the 2009 festival's most active participant with long-standing ties to the city's history.

Filmmaker Bette Gordon's triple presence at Tribeca this year includes her new feature "Handsome Harry," a restored version of her 1983 cult favorite "Variety" and an appearance in "Blank City," a documentary about New York underground cinema in the 1980s.

Gordon, now a film professor at Columbia University, has lived in the Tribeca neighborhood for decades. In her early years as a New York resident, she worked at the Collective for Living Cinema, a low-rent screening center located in a loft on White Street where all types of movies were shown to curious local audiences.

"It was a group of young people who made films and believed in exhibition," Gordon told me yesterday. "The beauty was that the programming was so eclectic. The audiences would build because they would come for one thing, and then go see something else."

However, Gordon doesn't place the Tribeca Film Festival in that same tradition. "It was a great idea that Jane [Rosenthal] and [Robert] De Niro had to bring business back to the neighborhood, but our neighborhood was never about business," Gordon said. "Tribeca was like an old Hollywood backlot when I moved to it. You could hear the crickets at night. The landfill was still there. There was art on the beach. That can't stay forever."

While the festival's programmers make sure to recognize the history of filmmaking in neighborhood with events such as the recent "Variety" screening, many of the older locals have struggled to accept its colossal presence. "I think a lot of artists in Tribeca felt ignored," Gordon said. "The film festival grew out of a whole different need -- a need for industry, and the intersection of culture and industry."

Gordon and her gang, which includes local staples like John Lurie and "Variety" cinematography Tom DiCillo, never aimed for such professional standards. "We didn't think we were having careers," she said. "We just wanted to make the work we wanted to make."

Film festivals often require viewers to blurt out immediate reactions without allowing much time for contemplation before rushing off to the next screening. I had this experience yesterday, when my instincts told me to reach the verdict that a certain movie was "great" before -- upon deeper reflection aided by the insight of a colleague on Twitter -- that it might not deserve the praise.

But it's a tough call. The movie in question, "Only When I Dance," offers a beautiful, immersive look at two teenage ballet dancers from Rio de Janeiro aiming to advance their careers in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

They are both tremendously talented and passionately engaged with the form. Coming from the lower class backgrounds of Brazilian shanty towns, they make ideal characters in the classic rags-to-riches tale.

Director Beadie Finzi competently plays up this angle by showing the dancers' parents as they struggle to pay the bills as their children travel to international showcases in the hopes of breaking out. In breathtakingly gorgeous scenes, dancers soar across the stage, throwing their full determination into the creative process.

However, only one of them makes it to the finish line with a huge career advancement, while the other continues to flounder at the bottom of the profession.

Here's where the movie becomes subtly problematic: The dancer who fails does so in nearly every scene. She hurts her foot. She learns that she's overweight by dancer standards despite all appearances to the contrary. She copes with a hectic schedule. She just can't seem to get a break.

It's no surprise when the poor girl fails to impress the judges at a major event in New York City during the third act. As the story wraps up, she's still stuck in an endless stream of practice sessions while her successful colleague triumphantly pirouettes across a Manhattan rooftop.

Whether intentional or not, the juxtaposition comes across as mean-spirited and somewhat unfair. At a certain point, it might have made sense for Finzi to either drop her less capable subject or find a way to put the story in better context. As it stands, the movie simply condescends the dancer's (sizable) skill by directly comparing it to her colleague's superior abilities.

There's no indication that she shows any promise as a professional ballerina, even though -- to my layman eyes -- she seems pretty good at it. So the movie basically serves as a put-down for fifty percent of the time.

That said, the drama of the competition and the fluidity of the performances both make for a palpably moving experience. It's the underlying message embedded in the structure that could use some work.

In my initial reaction to the movie, I thought it might work well on a double bill with "Racing Dreams," another acclaimed documentary currently screening at Tribeca. The difference is that "Racing Dreams," Marshall Curry's portrait of adolescent Americans competing in the National Championship of the World Karting Association, contains a wide variety of characters.

The movie barely focuses on which ambitious 12-year-old can drive a car better than all the rest, instead emphasizing the way their various backgrounds fuel said ambition. Even the big winners endure bittersweet successes, as their futures behind the wheel remain unlikely. Mainly, "Racing Dreams" works because it has enough different personalities to keep anyone from competing for screen time.

Because of the dueling plots in "Dance," the contrast is sharp, unrelenting, brutal and utterly compassionless to the inferior contestant.

More than "Racing Dreams," the Tribeca documentary that has impressed me the most also testifies to the importance of understanding the manipulations techniques behind nonfiction filmmaking. Yoav Shamir's "Defamation," a darkly comic look at the Anti-Defamation League, contains a number of interviews with people both for and against the efforts of the organization.

Some claim that ADL head Abraham Foxman is living in the past, constantly reminding people of a genocide that's irrelevant to the plight of modern Jews. Others believe he's dead on. Shamir doesn't hide his own views, which lie somewhere between those two extremes, but he also doesn't force them on his audience. (The movie, by the way, landed a theatrical distribution deal with First Run Features last week.)

Shamir wisely reveals the construction of his film in several scenes. We witness the awkward moments at the beginning of the interview as his subjects get situated. This simultaneously illustrates certain character quirks while reminding us that these people didn't just drop into the movie out of left field.

In one striking moment, outspoken academic Norman Finkelstein -- reviled as a "self-hating Jew" and a "Holocaust denier" even though his parents survived Auschwitz -- jokingly salutes Hitler after his interview, and Shamir immediately explains on camera why the aside must belong in the film.

Many will argue with some of Shamir's points, but it's hard to strip him of that decision once you see it in context. Meanwhile, he displays a visible disdain for Foxman's grief-driven style without condescending to the Holocaust survivor's personal connection to his cause.

Godard once said that truth comes at 24 frames per second, and every cut is a lie. True, but at least Shamir lets us see the whole picture.

Film festival panel discussions are always repetitive. Listening to a handful of experts analyze the state of the industry or its future can start to feel like watching reruns of Charlie Rose.

However, the conversation that took place today at the Tribeca Film Festival about "Tools of the Trade" was a welcome exception.

The subtitle said it all -- "Alternative Distribution, Marketing 2.0, and Beyond" -- and yet it said nothing, because there are a million directions that such a conversation could take.

In this case, however, the speakers remained on-topic and refreshingly realistic.

The Hollywood Reporter's Steve Zeitchik moderated the panel, which contained a diverse group of filmmakers and their advocates: IFC Films' Ryan Werner, 42West publicist Cynthia Swartz, YouTube film and animation manager Sara Pollack, "Bomb It" director Jonathan Reiss, Oscilloscope Pictures' David Fenkel, and Tribeca Enterprises chief creative officer Geoff Gilmore.

There was no discernible argument among the panelists about the current need for filmmakers to dramatically increase their outreach efforts. "It doesn't matter if a film comes to me," said Gilmore, who recently moved to Tribeca from the Sundance festival. "The real question is how an audience will find out about it."

He explained that relying on a distributor to find an audience simply doesn't yield the results it once did. "I sometimes think theatrical distributors don't trust audiences anymore," he said. "I've never seen anybody so frightened about taking risks."

Following up on that thought, Swartz said that filmmakers should raise print and advertisement costs at the same time as their production costs, rather than waiting for a distributor to cover them. "Every film has a niche," Swartz said. "No distributor is going to have time to become an expert in that niche. You should be the expert."

The participants also said that filmmakers need to carefully manage their expectations. Simply, alternative distribution models generally don't make a lot of money for the content creators.

On the flip side, smaller movies are now finding audiences that seemed inaccessible 10 years ago. Werner said that VOD "has kept foreign film alive in America," while Pollack pointed out that the four short films at Tribeca available on YouTube have already been viewed thousands of times. 

His enthusiasm reflected the sheer scale of Internet-based audiences, one area that continues to thrive even if the distribution models have yet to fully emerge. 

Of course, it's not an entirely rosy scenario. Fenkel noted that streaming video is a lost cause for anyone looking to make a serious profit. "I haven't heard one number that's worked for any film, ever," he said.

Reiss, whose experience with self-distributing his graffiti documentary "Bomb It" has led him to write a book that will come out this fall, urged people to expand their definition of theatrical release. "Even a living room can be a theatrical release," he said.

Everyone agreed that all small movies benefit from distinctive release strategies so that they can reach their specific audiences. Otherwise, they just turn into more faces in the murky crowd.

"The good news is that more films have been distributed in the theatrical market since the 1950's," Gilmore said. "The bad news is that more films have been distributed in the theatrical market since the 1950's."

That got a laugh. A nervous one.

"Tribeca should be more like South by Southwest," a publicist friend told me the other day. He meant that the festival could benefit from more discoveries and breakout stories. It's a natural direction for the New York gathering, which definitely seems like it has a stronger program this year, if only because trimmed-down look.

I enjoy checking out obscure foreign titles as much as the next movie buff, but Tribeca could really combine the interests of the public and the industry by showing crowd-pleasing independent films with some element of commercial potential.

This year, one instance of that intersection has appeared with Amir Naderi's "Vegas: Based on a True Story."

Naderi is something of a Tribeca darling, having premiered two previous films at the festival in 2003 and 2004, but he sounds especially enthusiastic about this time around. His latest movie, which follows a poor family living on the edge of the Vegas strip and crippled by a gambling addiction, generated a steady stream of buzz even before the festival began.

After two public screenings earlier this week (and two more to go), "Vegas" continues finding serious traction with the general moviegoing public and distributors alike. "I'm very surprised," Naderi told me. "People are talking about it everywhere."

The filmmaker made neo-realist movies in Iran during the 1970s. While hardly a newbie, "Vegas" may pave the way for a new step in his career. He says that a Hollywood studio has expressed interest in remaking the movie with a bigger budget.

Such a production would yield a vastly different product than the original, for which Naderi actually raised partial funds by gambling. However, he claims that he mainly hit the slot machines in order to understand the impulse. "It was important to get the feeling of gambling," he says. "How much do people put themselves in the situation where they can lose? It's a very interesting place for people to test themselves and push their ambition."

Naderi assembles a plot -- a true one, of course -- to reflect that very issue. When the lower-class family learns that a treasure might lie beneath its home, it rejects an offer to sell the place in the hopes of obtaining something better. Naturally, not everything goes so smoothly, and the gambling addiction further complicates an already stressful situation.

Naderi expresses mild curiosity about seeing a new version of the movie with stars in it. "I never saw that happening, but I will be impressed if I have the chance," he says. "No matter what happens with this film, it's good for me."

As the title of Tribeca's opening movie puts it, whatever works.
 

The transient nature of movies on the film festival circuit often gets overplayed.

There are a number of instances of this at Tribeca: Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" will have its world premiere after the director screened a work-in-progress cut during the Sundance in January. However, the running time hasn't changed, and one imagines the content hasn't, either.

Independent horror filmmaker Ti West raised a stink last week about the four minutes excised from his Tribeca entry "The House of the Devil" -- a candid admission that resulted in his producer's insistence on canceling any other immediate interviews, including one with yours truly -- but ultimately, the lack of these scenes doesn't ruin West's delightfully freaky story of Satanic worship and college roommate angst.

Nicole Opper's documentary "Off and Running," however, presents a different situation. The fascinating story of an adopted African-American teen raised by lesbian Jewish parents in Brooklyn, it runs 75 minutes -- but the filmmaker will have to snip it down to just under an hour for airing on public television later this year.

Fortunately, Opper has some smart people on her side. "Off and Running" is one of three features screening at Tribeca that went through the Tribeca All Access program in 2008. The week-long event allows filmmakers to discuss their unfinished projects with a number of industry and filmmaker veterans.

"It's very much like a training ground," Opper said. "We had an intense pitch session on the first day that helped me tremendously. They give you huge amounts of constructive criticism."

Applying a classically verité approach, Opper allows Avery's story to unfold with the sort of naturalistic drama usually associated with scripted features. It's a startlingly sharp portrait that avoids the trappings of talking heads. Instead, Avery's distinctive situation unfolds through her own eyes.

She's a fantastic on-camera character whose surprising eloquence never falters, even as her family situation grows increasingly complex. "She was such a compelling character,” says Opper, a graduate of NYU's film production program, who first discovered Avery while teaching at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School. “It was really several months later that she confided in me that she had been thinking about writing a letter to her birth mom."

The fallout of that decision forms the central thrust of Opper's movie, and the primary reason why Avery's adopted parents chose not to sit through it during the Sunday screening. "They said it's too raw, too present," Opper said. "They're still healing this big breach that happened. It's going to take some time."

The movie's conclusion leaves Avery's relationships to several people in her life up in the air, which was a creative decision that Opper and her subject mutually agreed on. "By the end of the film, she has come a long way in her commitment, and we agreed that was the central part of it," Opper said. "It seemed like the best way to leave it."

Where does that leave "Off and Running"? In a good place, most likely. The director has already met with distributors about a possible theatrical release, and received suggestions for the television cut from the Documentary Video and Community Media Center. But first things first: Sunday's premiere was sold out -- and filled with teenagers in attendance as part of the Tribeca Youth Screening Series.

Regardless of what version of the movie finally comes out, the combination of community forces behind its existence makes "Off and Running" the quintessential Tribeca product -- no matter what different story you hear from the glitzier premieres and difficult productions.

But make no mistake: "The Girlfriend Experience" and "The House of the Devil" are pretty good, too.