Columbia University School of the Arts student and alumni films have been announced as official selections of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, which runs April 20 to May 1.
Alumnus Dennis Lee's ('04SOA) Jesus Henry Christ, which he wrote and directed, has been selected for World Narrative Features. The film is about Henry James Hermin, a petri dish child who writes rabble-rousing manifestos on the nature of truth ... at age 10. This boy-genius misfit’s world turns upside down when—to the dismay of the doting single mother who raised him—he embarks on a search for his biological father. Toni Collette and Michael Sheen star alongside bright newcomers Jason Spevack and Samantha Weinstein in this charming comedy.
The film began as Lee's thesis film at the School of the Arts, and it went on to receive numerous awards, including the Silver Medal at the 2004 Student Academy Awards and the DGA East Coast Student Filmmaker Award. In 2006, Lee won a prestigious ABC/DGA Directing Fellowship, and in 2008, he completed post-production on his first feature-length film, Fireflies In The Garden, which stars Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, and Willem Dafoe. The Tribeca Festival will be the world premiere of Jesus Henry Christ, Lee's second feature film.
Selected as Shorts in Competition are Bunny, by Robert Snow ('10SOA), in which a nine-year-old boy enlists the help of his best friend to get his Bunny back; and Storm Up The Sky, written and directed by Jon Kauffman (Film student) and produced by Veronica Nickel ('10SOA), in which brothers Caleb and Aaron are at odds over their religious beliefs.
indieWIRE Feature: Meet the 2011 Tribeca Filmmakers: "Jesus Henry Christ" Director Dennis Lee
New York Times Tribeca Video Interview with Dennis Lee
