Universal Film Issue 3 of 2012
tribeca Film Festival and 100 Years of Universal
T
ribeca Film Festival is many things. Tribeca Film Festival has tried to be too many things. From the beginning, after the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, its intention, by co-founders Craig Hatkoff, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, was to entice a return of businesses to the Tribeca neighborhood with a film festival boosting economic development for the area and the community. It was a good idea at the time because
film industry has always been a serious player as an economic development factor in countless towns and states in the last 100 years. The last decade has brought millions of dollars, along with radical change, to the original Tribeca Film Festival idea. Too much, too big – but that’s how the story can go in the business. Feast or famine, take the fame and money and run, because it doesn’t last. That’s the movie business, and film festivals are an integral part of the machine. Therefore, it was appropriate for one of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival’s first events – one of the most highlighted – to reflect a theme of cinema history, and then be followed by events that look towards the future. Over the years, more and more programs have been added under the Tribeca Film Festival “Tent Top,” one of which is “Tribeca Talks,” the panel discussions. Tipping their hat to a renewed interest in early cinema, the panel theme, “100 Years of Universal,” generated enough interest to fill more than half of the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) auditorium (which holds about 1,500 seats) on a Thursday afternoon.
Once the trailer of movie titles was over, however, the panel was a major disappointment, with an unprepared moderator who had no clue about Universal’s rich history. Robert De Niro was sitting and waiting for an intelligent question, and a silly Judd Apatow was throwing out lame commentary to cover the
largest East Coast studio. The facility became one of the largest employers of Fort Lee residents. It was considered the most modern and, for a short time, the largest studio in the country and in the world. Thousands of overnight sensations became movie stars, and an economic development factor created Fort Lee, a film town. The Fort Lee studio opened in the fall of 1915, a few months after Laemmle built Universal City in California. Universal Studios remained in Fort
ineptitude of panel host, Mike Fleming. It’s an unfortunate scenario that happens often at film festivals: theme programming and panel discussions are not given enough time, thought or proper research, and instead of being hosted by a competent moderator, the discussion is moderated by the festival director or a high-profile media personality. Universal is the last of three early cinema film studios that were established 100 years ago in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The other two were Keystone (Mack Sennett) and Solax, owned and operated by the first woman filmmaker, Alice GuyBlaché. Mark Dintenfass, who founded the Champion Film Company, became an executive in the new Universal Film Manufacturing Company founded by Carl Laemmle, and the Champion studio became part of the Universal. Jules Brulatour, a businessman who helped bring the film industry to Fort Lee, was also involved in the organization of Universal Studios.
Lee until 1917, when Laemmle shut down because it became too costly to operate both facilities. Universal City executive Samuel Goldwyn would lease the Fort Lee studio that eventually fell into ruin as the entire film industry moved out to California. The building was razed in 1963. Too big, too much, and too hard to keep up. Lessons learned, and only time will tell what will be in store for next year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a great model for other film festivals to pick and choose what works and what doesn’t, because there’s a hell of a lot happening in a town that never sleeps. One thing that is certain: put together a well-organized, well-programmed schedule of film screenings and events, and they will come to check it out, one way or another. Here’s to the next 100 years. Christina Kotlar is a writer and blogger for Film Festival reViews and doddleNEWS. Historic information taken from the publications “Fort Lee: The Film Town” by Richard Koszarski and “Fort Lee, Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry”
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Laemmle bought the land to build the