Scout­ing films at the Tribeca Film Fes­ti­val every year really pays off!  Our 2011 open­ing night film, Maria My Love, pre­miered in 2011 at Tribeca and is a per­fect exam­ple of great inde­pen­dent film­mak­ing.  The film takes the time to explore the uni­ver­sal theme of loss and how one tries to recover through the grief, but with an inti­macy that envelops the audi­ence.   Some­thing most peo­ple can really con­nect with.  Jas­mine McGlade Chazelle is a first time direc­tor, and has also pro­duced the acclaimed musi­cal Guy and Made­line on a Park Bench, directed by her hus­band Damien Chazelle.  Direc­tor Jas­mine McGlade Chazelle, Pro­ducer Tiana Matthews and actors Brian Rieger and Lau­ren Fales are all sched­uled to attend the open­ing night.

About the film…Ana (Judy Marte) is a young woman try­ing to reimag­ine her life after her mother’s death dur­ing the course of one Cal­i­for­nia spring. Filled with resent­ment over her father’s mis­takes, Ana feels dis­con­nected from her­self and every­one around her. Swept up by new romance (Brian Rieger) and a warm reunion with her half-sister (Lau­ren Fales), Ana is so taken by the new­found sup­port and love in her life that she sets out to find someone—anyone other than herself—to help. She finds a vol­un­teer project in Maria (Karen Black), a reclu­sive hoarder who has alien­ated her own fam­ily with her com­pul­sive behav­ior. As the two become unlikely friends and con­fi­dantes, Ana finds her­self in an emo­tion­ally com­plex rela­tion­ship that reveals some uncom­fort­able truths about herself.