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The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival will open with a world-premiere screening of the Gilda Radner documentary Love, Gilda, it was announced Tuesday.
The CNN Films feature, directed and produced by Lisa D’Apolito, offers an intimate look at the late Saturday Night Live star, who was an Emmy- and Grammy-winning comedian. The doc, made with support from Radner’s estate, tells her story through audiotapes, home movies, diary entries and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her, including longtime friend Martin Short; SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels; SNL alums Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Paul Shaffer, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph; current castmember Cecily Strong; Stephen Schwartz; former SNL writer Alan Zweibel; and Second City CEO Andrew Alexander.
“I fell in love with Gilda Radner while doing pro bono work at Gilda’s Club, the cancer support organization Gene Wilder founded in honor of Gilda, in Greenwich Village where I grew up,” D’Apolito said in a statement. “This started my journey to discover who Gilda was as a person and as a performer. Gilda inspired me and many other women with her remarkable spirit and unique talent that changed the world of comedy. I’m grateful and honored to share the extraordinary legacy of Gilda Radner at the Tribeca Film Festival.”
Love, Gilda was produced by 3 Faces Films in association with Motto Pictures.
Bronwyn Berry, Meryl Goldsmith and James Tumminia served as producers, as did Motto’s Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements and Carolyn Hepburn. Alan and Robin Zweibel and CNN Films’ Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton served as executive producers. Submarine is handling sales for the film.
“As a Festival that has always supported women’s voices and is largely run by women, we are incredibly proud to celebrate the inimitable voice of Gilda during the opening night of our Festival,” said Tribeca co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “Gilda Radner was a powerful comedic force of nature who opened doors and thrilled audiences while becoming one of the most prolific comedians of a generation. Her cutting-edge humor was only second to her dedicated leadership in cancer care with her eponymous Gilda’s Club.”
Added Tribeca Enterprises executive vp Paula Weinstein: “Love, Gilda is the right film at the right time and the perfect way to open our Festival. Gilda is a woman for the ages, an extraordinary talent in film, television, and theater who overcame her personal struggles to make us laugh, to make us cry. She understood the healing power of laughter not simply for her audience but in her own life as she struggled with cancer and led the way for all of us to make the world a better place.”
Tribeca’s opening-night film will screen at New York’s Beacon Theatre on April 18. The 17th annual edition of the festival is set to run through April 29.
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