The Tribeca Film Festival is underway…which means we're all stressed to the gills trying to run around down there while also doing our other work. A hometown festival like this is more stressful than leaving town! Anyway, I have managed to see two films so far: "Zaman: The Man from the Reeds" and "Poster Boy." I must have picked well because I enjoyed both. "Zaman" is an Iraqi feature (the first in about a decade, I'm told) filmed just before the war -- it’s a simple story of a country peasant from the marshlands of southern Iraq who must travel to Baghdad to get medicine for his sick wife. While it was definitely slow in parts (you know, typical of the "boy with his goat" genre that I tend to avoid), it was a beautiful, rather poetic film -- some beautiful images of this country that we rarely see. The Iraqi government confiscated a number of the rolls the filmmakers shot, but they managed to finish this anyway.

"Poster Boy" I liked even more. This is a film in competition that I heard some "buzz" about last night. It's about the closeted gay son of a conservative Southern senator and his relationship with his family and a group of new friends. It sounds like perhaps a clichéd topic but I thought this film was very skillfully done -- smart writing, great acting, sharp editing. Definitely watch for this one to get picked up.

I skipped Tribeca parties all weekend and on Monday so I could "save myself" for the indieWIRE/Kodak party last night. It was a great event (if I can say so myself…which I can cause I had nothing to do with planning it, I only invited some people and showed up to mingle!). Roy's, a Hawaiian-fusion restaurant in the Marriott downtown, was a great space and folks surely did gobble up the tasty free sushi, coconut shrimp, vegetable dumplings, and even some hearty ribs. I caught up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, met some enthusiastic filmmakers, and saw some friends, which is always nice. Afterwards, parties splintered in different directions. My crew ventured to the Cherry Tavern, where we made a late night of it after a few Tijuana specials ($5 for a can of Tecate and a shot of well tequila.) Someone remind me that "well tequila" are words that should never be uttered on a weeknight.

Parties continue tonight with an event for Jarmusch's "Coffee & Cigarettes," a bowling party for "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen," a Wellspring soiree, and a party for "Lipstick and Dynamite," the excellent lady wrestler doc. Watch out, Moolah, I am ready to rumble…

And I at least have to mention that Tribeca isn't the most smoothly run festival. They cancelled a few press screenings today without telling us, and every time I go into the press office there someone is yelling at someone else. And I heard one film director couldn't get into his own premiere last night (even with a hard ticket! and an empty seat saved for him!) until his lawyer threatened legal action. But at least I get free lunch in the Bloomberg hospitality tent...