The Tribeca Film Festival has begun! If you’re in the New York area from now until April 29, we suggest you head to any of the festival’s cinema locations to view all the shorts, narratives, and documentaries up for grabs. To mark the event, we will be featuring some of our favorite actors, writers, and directors from the festival.
Featuring in the Shorts in Competition category, Adirake is the coming-of-age story of a boy in the wake of the 2005 tsumani in Thailand. Having lost both his parents, Adirake searches for the white elephant from his mother's stories. Directed and written by Tati Barrantes and OCTV director Andinh Ha, the film manages to jump through your eyes and into your heart in just 6 minutes. Big love from OC! Andinh and Tati shared some behind-the-scenes footage and answered our questions below.
Name: Tati Barrantes
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Current neighborhood: East Village, NYC
Astro sign: Aries
Twitter: @tatibarrantes
What are you currently obsessed with? Todd Hido photo books, hamburgereyes.com, Louis CK, Sam Branton's drawings, Hope Sandoval, talon necklaces, and the Super 8 app.
Supernatural power you would like to possess? Flying, duh
If you had to be stuck on a desert island with someone, who would it be? Jack Shephard
Favorite Pandora station? Yo La Tengo
What was it that initially drew you to the film's story? Coming-of-age stories are always so identifiable and relatable. I think you could create a film in any culture that explores the age before becoming an adult and understand immediately what that feels like. Thailand, of course, is an incredible backdrop for the story and I think it was important for us to address the tragedy of the tsunami somehow.
What was the hardest and easiest thing about shooting Adirake? Gnarly food poisoning was a total bummer but co-directing with Andinh and working with our amazing Thai production assistants was a breeze. It felt like any location we dreamed up would magically appear.
If you could watch only three films for the rest of your life, what would they be? Home movies
Describe the strangest location you've ever shot at: We shot this film out in Michigan last fall and one of the locations was an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere. Most of the film took place in this huge barn and we kept falling through the holes of the rotting floor. The owner was obsessed with Vanna White and this one time she supposedly visited the farm because it was a stop on the underground railroad. I just tried to imagine Vanna in the middle of nowhere, hanging out in a rotting barn, talking about the underground railroad.
Favorite movie snack from the concession stand? Red vines
If you weren’t working in films, what would you be doing? I'd be a rolling stone
Name: Andinh Ha
Hometown: Saigon, Vietnam/Anaheim, CA
Featuring in the Shorts in Competition category, Adirake is the coming-of-age story of a boy in the wake of the 2005 tsumani in Thailand. Having lost both his parents, Adirake searches for the white elephant from his mother's stories. Directed and written by Tati Barrantes and OCTV director Andinh Ha, the film manages to jump through your eyes and into your heart in just 6 minutes. Big love from OC! Andinh and Tati shared some behind-the-scenes footage and answered our questions below.
Name: Tati Barrantes
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Current neighborhood: East Village, NYC
Astro sign: Aries
Twitter: @tatibarrantes
What are you currently obsessed with? Todd Hido photo books, hamburgereyes.com, Louis CK, Sam Branton's drawings, Hope Sandoval, talon necklaces, and the Super 8 app.
Supernatural power you would like to possess? Flying, duh
If you had to be stuck on a desert island with someone, who would it be? Jack Shephard
Favorite Pandora station? Yo La Tengo
What was it that initially drew you to the film's story? Coming-of-age stories are always so identifiable and relatable. I think you could create a film in any culture that explores the age before becoming an adult and understand immediately what that feels like. Thailand, of course, is an incredible backdrop for the story and I think it was important for us to address the tragedy of the tsunami somehow.
What was the hardest and easiest thing about shooting Adirake? Gnarly food poisoning was a total bummer but co-directing with Andinh and working with our amazing Thai production assistants was a breeze. It felt like any location we dreamed up would magically appear.
If you could watch only three films for the rest of your life, what would they be? Home movies
Describe the strangest location you've ever shot at: We shot this film out in Michigan last fall and one of the locations was an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere. Most of the film took place in this huge barn and we kept falling through the holes of the rotting floor. The owner was obsessed with Vanna White and this one time she supposedly visited the farm because it was a stop on the underground railroad. I just tried to imagine Vanna in the middle of nowhere, hanging out in a rotting barn, talking about the underground railroad.
Favorite movie snack from the concession stand? Red vines
If you weren’t working in films, what would you be doing? I'd be a rolling stone
Name: Andinh Ha
Hometown: Saigon, Vietnam/Anaheim, CA