The nineteenth annual Tribeca Film Festival will open April 15 with the world premiere of Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President from award-winning director Mary Wharton. The film catalogues the role of popular music in helping to propel a peanut farmer from Georgia all the way to the White House and features rare archival footage from Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon and others. Following the premiere, live performances from music legend Willie Nelson, Musical Director Paul Shaffer, and others will be held at Beacon Theatre.
The Tribeca Film Festival is an annual film festival showcasing independent films and serves as a medium for independent filmmakers to release their work to a broad audience. The program’s lineup includes documentaries, feature-length films and shorts.
Appropriately timed during an election year, Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President kicks off this year’s festival which will feature works that celebrate the power of inspiring change through art, politics and community. New this year, the festival is partnering with Democracy Works, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building the tools needed to upgrade the infrastructure of the U.S. voting system. Audiences will be given access to online tools that make voting easy; sending them text updates and educating them about ways to get involved in their local elections.
Mary Wharton is an award-winning producer, writer and director known for her documentaries about music. She served as a producer on the Grammy-winning documentary Bruce Springsteen: Wings For Wheels, The Making of Born To Run and the Grammy-winning “VH1 Legends” episode profiling Sam Cooke. Most recently, she has produced episodes of the VH1 documentary series “Behind The Music” profiling artists LL Cool J, Toni Braxton, Gym Class Heroes, Nicole Scherzinger, Train, Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias.
The Tribeca Film Festival will run April 15-26, 2020. Check back in March for the list of nominees for this year’s awards.
