Webs, war and vampires - all festival fare
New York's Tribeca film festival kicked off with a wide range of indie offerings and mainstream blockbusters.
"We're showing everything from an avant garde film called `Passio' with live music by Arvo Part at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine - to `Spider-Man 3,' " said executive director Peter Scarlet.
The festival - which began Wednesday and lasts through May 6 - was launched in 2002 by Robert De Niro as a response to the 9/11 attacks.
Among this year's political documentaries are "Taxi to the Dark Side" by Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"), which details the policies behind the Abu Ghraib scandal; "Beyond Belief," about two Sept. 11 widows traveling to Afghanistan; and "I Am an American Soldier: One Year in Iraq in the 101st Airborne," for which filmmaker John Laurence documented soldiers' lives for 14 months.
Outdoor screenings will feature a 20th-anniversary visit with "Dirty Dancing"; the animated "Surf's Up"; and "Planet B-Boy," a documentary about breakdancing.
Among the international entries are the Turkish "Times and Winds," the Kurdish "Half Moon" and "The Last Man," hyped as the first Lebanese vampire movie.
NEW YORK Spinal Tap is back, and this time the band wants to help save the world from global warming.
The mock heavy metal group immortalized in the 1984 mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" was to unveil a new 15-minute film Wednesday at the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
The band will perform at Wembley Stadium in London as part of the Live Earth concerts scheduled worldwide for July 7.
The original members of Spinal Tap will be there: guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest), singer David St.
Hubbins (Michael McKean) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). Rob Reiner, who directed "This is Spinal Tap" and played the fake documentarian Marty DeBergi in the film, will attend.
The film festival was to open with several global warming-themed short films produced by the SOS (Save Our Selves) campaign.
SOS is also putting on the Live Earth concerts, to be held across seven continents.
Reiner explained the reunion of Spinal Tap - a band always known more as a parody of rock Õn' roll excess than environmental awareness.
"They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming," said Reiner.
"Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing - that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."
Spinal Tap has reunited several times since the film but hasn't for a number of years. For the band - whose last album was 1992's "Break Like the Wind" - the occasion warranted a new single: "Warmer Than Hell.
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The director said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives lately. Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race, but can't find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.
Reiner works with the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action organization.
Though the Spinal Tap reunion will be a lot of laughs, he hopes the SOS short films program and the Live Earth concerts have a substantial effect.
"What I think is going to be nice about this whole effort is there will be marching orders for people," said Reiner. "Not only from a personal standpoint of what individuals can do in their lives, but a macro perspective with respect to the public sector and government.
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