DARKEST MIRIAM
https://tribecafilm.com/films/darkest-miriam-2024
Someone seems to be leaving Miriam cryptic notes and clues connected to her life. A kind-hearted and observant Toronto librarian at a quiet branch filled with an eclectic group of patrons, Miriam’s mundane existence gets upended by increasingly weird incidents and a new love affair with a young foreign cab driver.
Britt Lower’s narration moves this enigmatic story forward. The entire narrative flows as a reminder that this is a splendid adaptation of Matha Baillie’s novel The Incident Report.
The notes are poetic in their veiled threats, filled with delicious language choices. It is a pensive tug-of-war between love and grief.
Britt Lower commands the screen with not much more than a stare. Miriam is mired quietly in grief. Lower is effortlessly magnetic, capturing every bit of nuance inside of Miriam.
The film delves into the fact that libraries are often a public refuge for the misunderstood. More importantly, the love story is a haven of intimacy and honest expression. As the plot shifts, her unresolved trauma, tinged with the macabre, becomes a worry for the audience. You are rooting for Miriam, full stop. Tribeca 2024 should settle into the pros of the script and allow themselves to live with Miriam, if only for a short time.
Darkest Miriam
Viewpoints
Feature | Canada | 87 MINUTES | English
Darkest Miriam
Director
Naomi Jaye
Producer
Julie Baldassi, Brian Robertson
Screenwriter
Naomi Jaye
Cinematographer
Michael LeBlanc
Editor
Lev Lewis
Composer
Louie Short, Eliza Niemi
Executive Producer
Charlie Kaufman, Martha Baillie, Brian Robertson, Julie Baldassi, Adi Chand, Jonas Prupas, Dean Perlmutter, Charles Baillie, Harland Weiss, Donovan M. Boden, Isil Gilderdale, Emily Harris, Stephanie Hickman, Naomi Jaye
Based on the novel
The Incident Report by Martha Baillie
Cast
Britt Lower, Tom Mercier, Sook-Yin Lee, Jean Yoon
Victoria Jorge gives Elena a tangibility that keeps us engaged. Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge write a fun and authentic character, putting us at ease. Chiara Hourcade delivers a self-aware performance that allows the audience to ride this emotional rollercoaster alongside Adela. Hourcade and Jorge capture our hearts with genuine familiarity in their chemistry.
In the Tribeca 2024 feature film THE EVERYTHING POT, two couples in vastly different places collide, and it all starts with a wedding gift.
Give me all the cheeses. It’s a phrase I should embroider on a pillow in my home. We have an entire drawer dedicated to cheese in our refrigerator. Spending two years in New Haven, my husband and I had the privilege of eating at a restaurant called Caseus (RIP). Their famous five-cheese grilled sandwich was a taste bud revelation. Tribeca 2024 documentary SHELF LIFE is tailor-made for cheese freaks such as myself.
Director Mira Shaib brings a story of perseverance to Tribeca 2024 audiences with ARZÉ. A single mother living with her sister and teenage son makes pies to support the family. Delivering them on foot loses them potential clients. Arzé secretly pawns a piece of her sister’s jewelry to put a down payment on a scooter, but when it’s stolen, she and Kinan embark on a wild goose chase through the streets of Beruit in a race against time.
As the titular Arzé, Diamond Abou Abboud shines with a palpable determination. Her relentless pursuit to make things right will capture your heart. She is abundantly charming. Abou Abboud delivers a shockingly powerhouse performance that sneaks up on you.
The reservation has its own justice system, under which not a single white man has been prosecuted in connection to a disappearance. Families must rely on the Feds to intervene. They never do. It is endless, lawless mayhem. 
A quote from a manual given to households when children the government was ripping from their homes reads, “The goal is not to make scientists, or doctors or lawyers out of these citizens. The goal is to make domestic housewives and farmers and laborers.” Keeping the population suppressed remains the goal. It’s cyclical genocide. It is the continuation of colonization, plain and simple. 
The revelations in the film are astounding. In a collab session, Ani confides in Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) that she’s never written a song with anyone else. Her warmth and honesty are not simply for show. Witnessing this creative potion-making is chill-inducing. At 18, Ani and Scot Fisher created Righteous Babe Records. Their partnership proved to be an emotional rollercoaster, for better or worse. The remnants of that time echo in her present-day reclamation of her power. 
1-800-ON-HER-OWN is a celebration of an artist in a league of her own. Ani DiFranco‘s relentless magic hangs in the air in my house. This film reintroduces her to the world. 
US Narrative Competition
Goodnight Mommy filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz‘s latest film, The Devil’s Bath, opens with a 
SYNOPSIS – In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her inner prison. Giving a voice to the invisible and unheard women of the rural past; THE DEVIL’S BATH is based on historical court records about a shocking, hitherto unexplored chapter of European history.
VERONICA FRANZ (Writer & Director) studied German and philosophy and worked as a journalist. She has also worked as an artistic collab-orator with Ulrich Seidl since 1997 and co-wrote the screenplays for all of his films including DOG DAYS (2001), IMPORT EXPORT (2007), the PARADISE trilogy (2012/13) and WICKED GAMES – RIMINI SPARTA (2023). In 2003 she also founded the Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion GmbH with him.
Steve Buscemi is a legend. In pretending to be Keane and Suzie’s marriage counselor, he brings his murder advice into the sessions, equally confusing and intriguing his faux clients. Buscemi’s calm and confident nature is captivating. 
Yale’s Class of 97′ boasted the largest admission of black students in the university’s history. Filmmakers John Antonio James and Bill Mack bring Tribeca 2024 BLACK TABLE, a documentary that delves into the complexities of learning, thriving, and simply existing within a predominantly white Ivy environment and beyond. 
There is no escaping the discussion of Affirmation Action, and filmmakers fully understand it. We delve into the racist talking points that thrive today in diminishing accomplishments and a sense of belonging. An explosive incident at Naples forced Yale and its student body to confront the reality of being black on campus. Rodney King changed the name of the game from a student action standpoint. Then O.J. Simpson’s trial reignited cultural tension.
Based on the 1999 novel Too Many Men by Lily Brett
**WORLD PREMIERE**
Something is happening within the family. Every member has a secret, leaving Sally with no one but her beloved housekeeper to care for her needs. Once Magdelaina, the heart of the household, gets dragged into the chaos, Sally intrusively discovers the extent of the mess.
Kynlee Heiman 
The camera work from Mike Lobello and Paul W. Sauline is brilliant. The audience experiences the goings-on from a child’s eye level. Beautifully lit close-ups of Sally convey the emotional rollercoaster. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.