The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival, which opened on April 13, started off with controversy. “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” a puzzling documentary made by Andrew Wakefield, a figurehead of the contentious anti-vaccination movement, was first programmed by the festival before being dropped from the lineup after complaints. Wakefield, whose medical license was revoked and whose claims, many of which are in the film, have been deemed fraudulent by the medical community, has ultimately received more publicity than he ever would have before — following the film being turned away from the festival, it opened, rather mysteriously, a week later at a theater in Manhattan. Many supporters of the anti-vaccination movement traveled from all over the country to rally around the film, decrying its censorship and giving it standing ovations.How a documentary as ethically dubious and blatantly manipulative as “Vaxxed” even got this far is a question for another time. But what’s worse is that the controversy surrounding the film will ultimately cloud what is otherwise a decent lineup of films, maybe the festival’s best. For all its concessions to corporate sponsors and glitzy names, and a smattering of films no other festival would go anywhere near, Tribeca has finally managed to find something of a voice: most notably, its focus on artist-themed films and increasing emphasis on interactive and virtual-reality projects, which other festivals are just beginning include in their programs.In a recent conversation at the Tribeca Film Festival Hub in Manhattan, senior programmer Cara Cusumano talked about some of the festival’s artist-themed films — including documentaries on Chris Burden, Maurizio Cattelan, Elizabeth Murray, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “China: Through the Looking Glass,” exhibition — as well as their emerging Storyscapes and Virtual Reality programs.
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