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- Tribeca Festival’s NOW showcase highlights top internet storytellers like comedians Kareem Rahma and Pooja Tripathi.
- Tribeca Festival Director Cara Cusumano says online creators embody the same innovative spirit as early filmmakers.
- Founded by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Festival rebranded in 2021 for diverse content.
What’s a filmmaker by any other name?
Call them creators, actors, writers — next week, they’ll be front and center at the Tribeca Festival’s New Online Work showcase.
The program, shortened to NOW, has been celebrating the internet’s best storytellers with red carpets, panel discussions and theatrical screenings since 2014.
This year, creators featured will include Kareem Rahma of Subway Takes fame and his new show “Keep the Meter Running”; KeyTV’s founder Keke Palmer, whose online network platforms content creators from marginalized backgrounds; and comedian Pooja Tripathi, creator and star of the hit Instagram sketch comedy series Brooklyn Coffee Shop.
“We’re putting [all these creators] together in conversation [with our filmmakers] because, fundamentally, they’re doing the same thing,” Festival Director Cara Cusumano told NYNext. “That same spirit of innovation and independence that drew us to film, in its earliest days, is now happening online.”
The timing is apt. Last weekend, two horror movies from young YouTubers-turned-filmmakers — Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession” — outgrossed the latest “Star Wars” movie at the domestic box office.
For creators, platforms like Instagram and YouTube have become extraordinary launchpads, allowing them to build libraries of content without waiting around for permissions from studios, networks, or even festivals.
But, for all its power, the algorithm can’t provide full cultural legitimacy and it can’t recreate the communal experience of watching something great with other people on a big screen in a dark room.
“When you go down this path [of creating for the internet], you can find your audience and find support [from that community online],” Tripathi said. “What you can’t get is validation, you need institutions and other people for that.”
Tripathi’s Brooklyn Coffee Shop boasts nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram and has seen cameos from stars like Rahma and actor Kumail Nanjiani.
The show is scripted and produced like a traditional sitcom, with recurring characters, serialized jokes and a professional crew. In May, it won the Webby Award for Best Comedy Series & Channels in Video and Film.
Episodes of the show, which typically last less than 90 seconds, will screen alongside the work of nine other internet creators during the showcase, held at the AMC Theater on 19th street, on Wednesday, July 10.
On July 11, Rahma will present two new episodes of “Keep the Meter Running.” He and his team had originally intended to partner with CNN on the project, but, after talks fell through, they decided to produce it independently and publish directly to YouTube. So far, their first four episodes have grossed over 225,000 views.
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The programming is a natural fit for Tribeca, which dropped ‘Film’ from its name and officially rebranded to the Tribeca Festival for its 20th anniversary in 2021. Over the years, it has expanded to include television, immersive and VR experiences, podcasts and games.
“What good is it to say something doesn’t belong?” Cusumano said. “This is a storytelling festival.”
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