THE eighth edition of the Tribeca Film Festival — the first under the leader ship of Geoff Gilmore, formerly of Sundance — kicks off Wednesday.
The schedule includes high-profile directors such as Woody Allen (the opening-night “Whatever Works”), Spike Lee (“Kobe Doin’ Work” and “Passing Strange”) and Steven Soderbergh (“The Girlfriend Experience”).
But the real fun of any festival is discovering an under-the-radar movie. Example: “Fish Eyes,” the debut of Chinese helmer Zheng Wei.
Set on the edge of a desert during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it tells of a father and son who take in a mysterious young woman who, we learn later, has escaped from a mental hospital.
The director — who loves to shoot into mirrors and through windows — employs long, wide-angle takes while keeping dialogue to a bare minimum (the woman speaks not a word). The film is a real discovery.
The festival also provides New Yorkers with their first look at Yojiro Takita’s “Departures,” from Japan, winner of the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
It concerns an out-of-work classical cellist who takes a job as a ritualistic undertaker.
Other offerings include Anders Banke’s “Newsmakers,” a Russian remake of Johnnie To’s 2004 Hong Kong thriller “Breaking News”; a restored print of Bette Gordon’s 1984 “Variety,” about a woman working at the box office of a Times Square porn theater; the supernatural thriller “Tell Tale,” by Michael Cuesta, who gave us “L.I.E.” in 2001; and the family drama “Still Walking,” by Japanese favorite Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The festival runs through May 3. Details: tribecafilm.com.
* You can’t keep a good man down. Ray Privett, who did wonders as programmer for the now-defunct Two Boots Pioneer Theater, offers another funky movie for our enjoyment.
It’s “I Can See You,” a psychedelic campfire tale directed, written and edited by Graham Reznick.
Downtown icon Larry Fessenden (“Windigo,” 2001) is executive producer and appears as a TV huckster named Mickey Hauser.
“I Can See You” opens April 29 at Cinema Purgatorio @ KGB/Kraine, a theater inside a former Ukrainian social club at 85 E. Fourth St.; Details:
cinemapurgatorio.com
V.A. Musetto is film editor of
The Post; vam@nypost.com