by Elizabeth Gariti
You may notice, as you’re strolling up Madison Avenue, movie posters in shop windows, movie paraphernalia in store displays, and banners that tout the Tribeca Film Festival with something called Movies on Madison. No, it’s not a dream—you’re still on the Upper East Side—you haven’t been magically whisked below Canal Street. The Tribeca Film Festival has come to you: Uptown and Eastside to the City’s most glamorous shopping corridor. It’s Movies on Madison, a two-week, movie-preview event from April 18-May 5, sponsored by American Express and the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District.
In a joint salute to the 40th Anniversary of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, the Madison Avenue Improvement District and a select group of Madison Ave. boutiques have brought the Tribeca Film Festival to the Upper East Side. Each store has “adopted” a Festival film that will be showcased in windows and in-store exhibitions. Throughout the two weeks, the shops will host private receptions and public events with celebrities and VIPs, and special sales, with a percentage of the proceeds going to benefit the Tribeca Film Institute.
The Festival partnered stores with a selection of films that capture the spirit of the stores’ brands. Oilily (btw 68th & 69th) chose a documentary about the resurgence of break-dancing, PLANET B-BOY. Cartier, (btw 69th & 70th) a store all about love, selected THE AIR I BREATHE, a movie that resonantly weaves together the four emotional cornerstones of happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love into a whole. Funkily stylish DKNY (btw 60th & 61st) opted for THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS, directed by Limp Bizkit front-man Fred Durst. Calypso (btw 68th & 69th) went romantic with 2 DAYS IN PARIS, starring Adam Goldberg. Sophisticated Luca Luca (btw 63rd & 64th) went suburban with SUBURBAN GIRL, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin. A Competition Short, GREETINGS FROM EARTH was paired with Pratesi (btw 69th & 70th) whose window display offered a subtle take-off on the film (see the movie and come back to the store window to get it). Frette (btw 67th & 68th) chose not to do any one film, but instead features the FACES OF FILM, photographs by Priscilla Rattazzi.
The Whitney Museum is also participating in the festivities with an exhibition of several of Gordon Matta-Clark’s unique films. See the Whitney website for more information.
For a full list of stores and their movies, scroll below.
The event is sponsored by Tribeca Film Festival’s Founding Sponsor, American Express and presented by the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District (BID). American Express is donating a percentage of all American Express® card sales at participating boutiques to the Tribeca Film Institute and the Madison Avenue BID, up to $30,000. The donations are based upon $0.25 per valid Card transaction and not tax deductible for Cardmembers.
In addition, individual stores have designated days and times or special sales where a percentage of the proceeds will go to the Institute.
The Tribeca Film Institute was founded in the wake of September 11th to educate, entertain and inspire filmmakers and film-lovers alike. The Institute creates innovative programs that draw on the power of film to promote understanding, tolerance and global awareness. Created by the founders of the Film Festival, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, TFI offers programs like Tribeca Talks panels, the Alfred P. Sloan Partnership, which supports filmmaking about science and technology, Tribeca All Access, which gives promising new filmmakers access to industry contacts, and youth programs such as the Tribeca Film Fellows, Tribeca Teaches and Our City, My Story, a program that gives student-made films an audience during the Tribeca Film Festival.
Initially founded after September 11 to revitalize Lower Manhattan, the Tribeca Film Festival has been spreading to additional venues throughout the rest of Manhattan for the past two years. Movies on Madison is part of this, bringing the Festival to Upper-East-Siders. The Official 2007 Festival Guide is available in participating shops, and the Festival’s Box Office has spread to the Upper East Side also, with tickets being sold in the lobby of the Hotel Plaza Athenee (37 E. 64th St. @ Madison), April 18-May 5, 2:00pm-8:00pm. For those of you firmly entrenched above 59th Street, Festival films will be screened at the AMC 72nd St. East (72nd & 3rd) from May 3-5.
Movies on Madison is the brainchild of the Madison Avenue BID. They approached the Festival as a way to bring the worlds of film and fashion together. The stores began to get involved in January. The Festival and the BID helped to “marry” the films and filmmakers to the stores.
So, if you haven’t yet, take a stroll up Madison and maybe pick up a Spring shift from Luca Luca, a watch from Cartier, or something for your apartment from Frette. Or catch a flick at the AMC 72nd East. It’s all for a good cause, and you never know who you’ll see.
The 2007 Tribeca Film Festival is from April 25-May 6. For more information about Festival events and films, go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org
For more information about the Tribeca Film Institute, go to www.tribecafilminstitute.org
List of Stores:
- Bally - 628 Madison Avenue - The Final Season
- Berluti - 971 Madison Avenue - Where God Left His Shoes
- Calypso - 815 Madison Avenue - 2 Days in Paris
- Cartier - 828 Madison Avenue - The Air I Breathe
- Damiani - 796 Madison Avenue - In Search of a Midnight Kiss
- DKNY - 655 Madison Avenue - The Education of Charlie Banks
- Dwellings - 30 East 67th Street - The Cake Eaters
- Eileen Fisher - 1039 Madison Avenue - Beyond Belief
- Fragments - 997 Madison Avenue - TBA
- Frette - 799 Madison Avenue - Faces of Film, photographs by Priscilla Rattazzi
- Gianfranco Ferre - 870 Madison Avenue - Napoleon and Me
- Issey Miyake - 802 Madison Avenue - Doubletime
- Joseph - 816 Madison Avenue - You Kill Me
- LAI - 35 East 65th Street - Nobel Son
- Leiber - 680 Madison Avenue - My Best Friend
- Liz Lange Maternity - 958 Madison Avenue - The Business of Being Born
- Lockes Diamonds - 683A Madison Avenue - Anita O’Day – The Life of a Jazz Singer
- Luca Luca - 690 Madison Avenue - Suburban Girl
- MaxMara - 813 Madison Avenue - Live!
- Mulberry - 605 Madison Avenue - The Golden Door Nuovomondo)
- Oilily - 820 Madison Avenue - Planet B-Boy
- Petit Bateau - 1094 Madison Avenue - Chasing 3000
- Pratesi - 829 Madison Avenue - Greetings From Earth
- Stephen P. Kahan Ltd. - 25 East 61st Street - How to Seduce Difficult Women
- Wolford - 619 Madison Avenue and 997 Madison Avenue -
Lady Chatterley
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