Tribeca Film Festival

In the spring of 2008, I moved to the Big Apple to work for the "Tribeca Film Festival." As an Operations Manager, I managed coordinators and volunteers in carrying out the pre-to-post production needs for all of the departments’ screenings and signage needs. In that year, the festival screened 700 films in venues all over Manhattan to an estimated 155,000 attendees. On the festival’s opening night, I had the opportunity to produce a screening for Canadian Director Guy Maddin’s "My Winnipeg" which was shown in conjunction with Isabella Rossellini's "Green Porno."

I also worked on other festival activities from coordinating the festival’s permits through the various city agencies to managing some of the sponsors' needs at the screening and after-party venues. The highlight of the festival was when I was pegged to work the press junket for Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal. It was amazing to be in the same room with this legendary actor (he was in The Godfather!). He wasn't as thrilled to be there answering the same questions all day long over and over again under bright lights. At one point, I offered to get his drink, a coffee and a tea. When I nervously placed it next to him, I envisioned him engaging me in conversation and eventually inviting me over for a dinner party. But, as I headed back to my seat instead I heard him say, in a dead-on DeNiro impression squinting into the lights, "Where's my spoon? They forgot my spoon."