Laura Newman

The winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival is the inspiring 'War Child'. This documentary is about the life of Emmanuel Jal, a rising hip-hop star who at the age 8 became a child soldier in the devastating Sudanese civil war. The film is part musical biopic, part history lesson on the recent and ongoing genocides of Africa.

John Cusack’s latest film, War Inc., is rife with political commentary on corporate greed, unregulated military privatization, and the bewildering US “democratization” of the Middle East. It is such a terrifying look into a possible near future that thankfully its creators have made it a comedy.

Strangers is a film about an impossible love between two tourists in Germany: one an Israeli man and the other a Palestinian woman. The film had its North American premier last night and in typical New York fashion the two directors were stuck in traffic. This ended up being a blessing as the charming lead actor Liron Levo and Cinematographer Ram Shweky took the stage for the Q&A.

I’m a double agent at the Tribeca Film Festival, and your best hope for reporting on more films than humanly possible. I’m working as press, hence the article before you, and also as a Theater Manger at the festival. Theater Managers have the best job ever, if you’re a film buff. We watch three films a day and get paid for it.

The title of the new documentary "Body of War" refers to the paralyzed body of Iraq War Veteran Thomas Young. After being struck in the spine by sniper fire, Young returns home frustrated with his physical limitations and with a government he feels has lied to him. The film captures Young’s transformation from a patriot, who signed up for the Army on September 12th 2001, to an anti-war activist.