By: Michele Schultz

The Tribeca Film Festival officially wrapped up its 25th anniversary in June over 12 days, marking a major milestone in its history. To commemorate this occasion, the festival premiered a record number of world premieres, highlighted ‘In Shorts: The Dark Web’ and the Escape From Tribeca lineup, as well as outside Escape From Tribeca, the festival’s Documentary Competition.

DANTE writer-director-producer Hugo Ruiz said on his experience captivating Tribeca audiences with his nighttime thriller One Night with Adela, one of the standout titles of the Midnight section in 2023, which earned him the Best New Narrative Director Award, as well as his hope to create that same feeling with DANTE and to be part of this special edition of Tribeca, in particular, the Escape From Tribeca program while emphasized the film highlights the importance of medical professionals being present in critical situations and reflect on the message that would convey to Tribeca audiences when DANTE premiere:

“First of all, simply being part of the 25th anniversary of such a prestigious festival is already a reward in itself, and we are fully aware of how difficult it is to premiere a film here. We also believe that the Escape section, one of the festival’s most important and boldest showcases, is the ideal home for a film like DANTE. My experience at Tribeca in 2023 was truly incredible! There was a clear sense that audiences and industry professionals were genuinely interested in the film we had made, and that ultimately translated into the award you mention. This year, we return with the same excitement, the same desire to surprise audiences, and we sincerely believe that DANTE will generate a lot of conversation at this edition of the festival. The idea of a paramedic trapped in the middle of a conflict between criminal gangs is a compelling premise through which to explore the vulnerability of healthcare professionals when faced with dangerous situations. It also allows us to delve into an ethical dilemma: ‘To what extent should an emergency medical technician prioritize the life of a criminal over their own life, or over the lives of other innocent people?’ Honestly, my only real ambition with this film is for audiences to immerse themselves completely in the universe we have created, to not want to leave their seats for a single second, and to come away feeling they have experienced a film that is truly solid in every sense of the word.”

American Zoo director Tim Travers Hawkins said the documentary premiered out of the Tribeca Documentary Competition, centered on an abandoned zoo in the Catskills and how he discovered the story by chance after finding the home movies in the zoo’s former abandoned gift shop while on a camping trip in the Catskills with his girlfriend, now wife describing the first impressions of the abandoned zoo next to their campsite in the Catskills, explaining the horror like “ghost story” tone as well as balancing the nostalgia and the shocking historical revelation recounting the first time he watched the reels emphasized on his role as a documentarian confronting the dark side of history and how history reshapes, but doesn’t erase, nostalgia: 

“We just stepped into this sort of magical lost world, just really beautiful Americana ruins, in that old gift shop of this beautiful ruin of a zoo. I found the first of many 16 millimeter film reels, and these would turn out to be home movies from these two families who had been running a zoo beginning actually in the 1920s when it was founded. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s definitely spooky, I felt we kind of lent in as we were editing into this idea that, in some ways, this was kind of a ghost story, that this place was kind of haunted by these memories and these secrets, some of which had yet to come to light so these secrets almost became like the phantoms in the story. It wasn’t until I spoke with descendants of the family that things started to unravel. These places, like the Catskills Game Farm, which became part of childhood memories, are kind of paradises, especially because we experienced them through memories and through our own home movies. However, I’m sure it will add another layer for anyone who had been there as a child to then see this film, to understand that these other associations were going on because it was just incredible for us that every time we would pull another layer or reveal another layer of this, this story just got more and more deep, dark, and intense.”

Michele Schultz

Part of the approved Cherry Picks critic community, with span across independent-run digital publications. Past experience includes contributions to FanSided’s entertainment and lifestyle verticals, notably Culturess, 1428 Elm*l, and TripSided. Journalistic roots began as a City University of New York (CUNY) undergraduate student journalist.

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