Thursday Jan 8, 2009 (6 & 8pm)
Saturday Jan 10, 2009 (3, 5, 7 & 9pm)
Before nominees become lapidary, Tribeca slates a two-day program off the Academy's shortlist for Best Feature Documentary. The honorary roll call: Man on Wire, the titular monsieur being Philippe Petit, who crossed between World Trade Towers 1,350 feet above other pedestrians; They Killed Sister Dorothy, which investigates the current, cutthroat Amazon; Pray the Devil Back to Hell, the acclaimed spotlight on the stouthearted women who helped elect Africa's first female head of state; The Garden, a telltale look into the tussle for an inner-city community farm in Los Angeles; At the Death House Door, which examines the uneasy charge of ministering to the to-be-executed; and I.O.U.S.A., a dollars-and-common-sense profile of our fearsome national debt.
– Jason Jude Chan