Title: Tribes
Director: Nino Aldi
Writer: Andy Marlatt
Stars: Jake Hunter, Adam Waheed, DeStorm Power
About: An African American, an Arab-American and a white guy try to rob a train. However no one wants to rob their own race. (IMDb)
Thoughts: An exemplary 11 minutes of screen time and provocative thought. Tribes embodies the smart, innovative writing that is created when one stops asking “what can I write about that won’t insult people?” and actually writes good work. The pace is perfectly suited for what is
not only an intelligent take on identity politics as they apply amongst the marginalized, but it’s humorous as well. The way the thieves are consumed with their own division, dividing the cart continuously along self identifying lines, is leaps and bound more entertaining than any Facebook argument with the same intent. Worth it? Yes, with a secondary plea for the creators to lend their work to some of the vast groups fighting hard as boots on the ground to translate these very same arguments amongst some very divided masses. This simplistic view of the labor invested in the new found efforts to bring marginalized groups to the table reminds us how difficult it is to even understand it amongst the very groups that are self identifying. The time spent, if done poorly can cost us much more than we expect, as the film comes to a predictable, albeit symbolic, ending.
If you’d like to know more about the movie, check out their IMDb, Instagram, and Facebook pages.
Have you seen the movie? What are your thoughts? Want to talk to me about this movie? Feel free to chat with me on Twitter or leave a comment below
