April 30th, 2007 by dd
As mentioned yesterday, The Air I Breathe premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Starring an all star cast of stars including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Kelly Hu, Emile Hirsch and Kevin Bacon, first time writer/ director Jieho Lee showed up with his wife on the red carpet.
Early indications are positive with strong interest from distribution outfits including The Weinstein Company. Read an early review from the festival after the jump and hear what Jieho has to say about the making of The Air I Breathe in Mexico City.
Here are some of my initial thoughts. The Air I Breathe is stunning in many ways. Visually it is breathtaking, with broad sweeping images interspersed with lots of gritty closeups of tragedy. The narrative is somewhat fuzzy at first, but I won’t say more because I don’t want to give anything away. As much as I’d read about it, I was still taken by surprise at every step of the way. It’s hard to watch at times and quite violent. There’s a lot of sadness and tension. But there is also an amazingly clever use of humor in the film, and that is perhaps what most surprised me. After all, that’s what life is.The film is basically divided into four parts: Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love. Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Kevin Bacon, the anchors of the four sections, are better than I’ve ever seen. The supporting actors all put their hearts into it.As with other World Premieres I’ve attended, it was beyond description. I was again honored to be the only journalist chosen to photograph the red carpet arrivals, attend the screening and shoot the Q&A, and attend the after party. So I have lots of pictures to post. In addition to shots of the red carpet and Q&A, I shot most of the Q&A on video. I promise I will get some of this posted as soon as I can.The house was oversold. People who actually had tickets were turned away because they did not get there in time. I sat with some of the cast members and crew. Everyone who was there got up onstage for the Q&A: Sarah, Brendan, Andy, Kevin, director Jieho Lee, and co-writer Bob DeRosa. Some of the other actors, including Emile Hirsch, were not able to make it but would have been very proud of their work, I think.As far as distribution goes, I can’t say anything right now but things look good. I can say that we should be able to post some information very very soon. A source told me that the Weinstein Co. and ThinkFilm have both expressed interest. They are arguably the 2 most important indie distributors in America. I can’t verify that, of course, but I wouldn’t doubt that it’s true.
Posted in Uncategorized | 
