American Psycho III : The Tribeca Film Festival Fiasco

I attended another panel at the Tribeca Film Festival today, but the real show was outside and it was pathetic. I used to work for the government, so I've seen piss poor management before, but what happened at Tribeca today was criminal. Literally.

My hostess in New York is a lovely, gentle lady who abhors violence. As we stood in line outside the "Cable and Creativity" venue today she was physically attacked by an unstable acquaintance. Not quite Patrick Bateman, but even a woman in her 60's can be dangerous if she has paranoid delusions. In this case, she blind-sided my friend for no clear reason in front of about 20 people. How and why is not my point - my point is the way the Festival workers handled it. Just as Bateman escaped punishment after discovery and even confessing, the attacker walked away because image was more important to those in charge than the reality of the situation.

A well-run organization would have taken my friend in out of the heat, made sure she was o.k., and offered to call an ambulance and/or the police. In a perfect world, they would have comp'ed her tickets to the event and apologized for it happening on their watch. What took place was very different, to say the least. To say the most, it may have been obstruction of justice. I'm not an attorney, so I can't be certain. What I can say for certain is that the incident was treated as an embarrassment rather than a crime. I can say that the "organizers"- and I use that term very lightly- tried to get my friend to forget that she had just been attacked. When she repeatedly asked that they call the authorities for her, they refused. They tried to get her to forget it. They tried to scare her into silence by saying her attacker had accused her of striking first - though, as I said, there were many witnesses. (Though only one person gave the police a statement. Thanks again, NYC) A kind stranger lent a cell phone and police were called. In the mean time, Security for the venue came down and refused to call authorities again. Another woman apparently in charge said that they didn't want the police there with an event about to start. Again, it was suggested she forget about it, as my friend continued to request help from the authorities. In the mean time, rather than detaining the attacker, Festival security shoo'd her away.

When the police finally arrived, Festival security told them they were not needed. My friend had to stop them from leaving, and pointed out that things were most definitely not alright. Festival security then lied, saying they thought it was resolved and then lied about refusing to call the police. After the report was filed, my friend and I were in line to buy tickets. The line moved forward and stopped - right in front of us. We were left to wonder if they were going to try and keep us out of the panel. Finally, everyone got in, but the mismanagement continued.

When I attend a panel, I'm usually paying my money for that 2 minutes at the end when I get to speak my mind with one or more of the dignitaries as the event breaks up. Today, I wanted to thank Robert Greenblatt of Showtime for finally spending a little money to promote Queer As Folk - the single best show on TV- though he was loathe to mention it during the panel. It ain't easy loving a show that's treated like the network's "dirty little secret" even though it's consistently their highest rated show. As the panel ended, however, security surrounded the panel members like they were Elvis rather than Kim Cattrall, Tim Daly and Edie Falco plus a couple of Industry biggies. Call me cynical, but I don't think they were in any particular danger. That was a Gale Harold crowd with a sprinkling of aspiring writers and producers. We were all then unceremoniously told to get the hell out. Charm, tact, hospitality are apparently unknown to the black-clad festival wannabes who seemed convinced that their little lanyards and badges confer some form of superpower. Too bad the organization wasn't as nice as the room. The Tribeca Roof Top is a stunning space. We might have had a great time if the Festival staff had a clue. My expectations for tomorrow's events are so low they are approaching dread.