NEW YORK, June 9 (US): Jennifer Lopez’s documentary “Halftime” kicked off the 21st Tribeca Film Festival, kicking off the annual New York event with a behind-the-scenes photo of the singer and actress filmed during the turbulent year she turned 50. , co-chaired the Super Bowl and narrowly lost an Oscar nomination.
The premiere at the United Palace in Washington Heights marked the fitting opening of the Tribeca Festival, which has given up “film” of its name to better reflect the wide array of concerts, talks, television premieres, podcasts and virtual reality exhibits that increasingly fill its busy schedule with live events side by side. with movies.
This year’s festival, which runs through June 19, will draw in plenty of big-name personalities, from Al Sharpton (the subject of the festival’s closing documentary “Loudmouth”) to Taylor Swift (who will be sitting down to talk with director Mike Mills about the 2021 short film she directed), to fill Some of the biggest theaters in Manhattan.
Reunions (“Heat” by Michael Mann) and directorial debuts (including Ray Romano’s “Somewhere in Queens”) will take place, reports the Associated Press.
But after a largely hidden 2020 release and 2021 outdoor festival timed with the initial epidemiological cultural reopening of New York, Tribeca turned to Lopez of the Bronx, whose songs included “Let’s Get Loud,” to set Tribeca back.
“Halftime” director Amanda Mitchell hopes the documentary, which premieres June 14 on Netflix, will offer a new — sometimes languid, often fluid — side to its famous subject.
“I had the impression of her as a very charming and successful person,” Micheli said in an interview. “Then when I met her, I was like, ‘This woman is a world-class athlete. She’s a jock. The way she carries herself and the way she works. She’s an artist but I really bond with that aspect of her. She’s a fighter.”
Halftime bears some of the usual hallmarks of artist-developed documentaries. It is designed to be an affectionate selfie. But “Halftime” differentiates itself by capturing the challenges faced by even the superstars of an entertainment industry that doesn’t always welcome Latin performers. In one of the early clips, a journalist asked Lopez about her butt.
“Jennifer was always trying to prove herself,” Michelle says. “I don’t want to reduce it to: Oh, she’s a woman of color and women of color have a harder time. But it’s true, especially in the entertainment industry. If you look back at those Selena tabloids, people on the red carpet are like “Can you speak a little Spanish, dear?” It was a fad.”
For the documentary, Micheli collected footage filmed in late 2019 and early 2020 by Lopez’s team and others, as well as about 1,000 hours of archival footage. In the time period covered by the film, Lopez has been starring and producing the popular drama “Hustlers”, an Academy Award winning, and chosen one to perform at the 2020 Super Bowl with Shakira.
Both events were high points for Lopez, yet they still reflect some of the difficulties she faced along the way. Breaking up the Super Bowl stage in “Halftime” is sometimes seen as frustrating.
Lopez calls having two main characters “the worst idea ever,” not because she’s not excited about collaborating with Shakira but because of the time pressures that each other’s songs cause.
Lopez also struggles to incorporate the plight of separated immigrant children at the US-Mexico border into the performance. Lopez initially sought a cameo for Bruce Springsteen to sing “Born in the USA.”
Meanwhile, Lopez was unexpectedly sought out for her first Academy Award nomination for “Hustlers,” a female-led production about making your way into a male-dominated industry.
The weight of those expectations is shown in scenes like the one after the Golden Globes, where Lopez says “I let everyone down” after not winning. She says losing an Oscar nomination was disappointing because many suggested it was inevitable.
“The truth is I really thought I was going to run,” Lopez says in the movie.
“We didn’t want it to look like the world’s smallest violin,” says Micheli. “But it’s compelling to see someone really struggling and wanting something so badly. Stars aren’t supposed to admit that they want an Oscar. But she admitted in the movie that she got her hopes up, and she wanted that recognition. Who wouldn’t?”
Micheli believes that prior to filming “Halftime,” Lopez had not already addressed some of the elements of her life depicted in the documentary.
“The way the press treated it when you look back is kind of crazy,” she says. Watch the clip of people talking about her butt. I didn’t understand until I met her how that affected her, and I really felt like people question her talent and sometimes still do. I think she really felt like she was always struggling to prove herself and she had to work twice as hard as everyone else to prove herself. I think a lot of marginalized people feel that way.”
When Michelle Lopez first showed a 12-minute sample of behind-the-scenes footage, she anxiously awaited Lopez’s response.
“She looked at me and said, ‘My body is trembling. I’ve never seen myself like this before.'”In that moment, when she saw herself, she had a realization of what this fight was for.”