Never mind splashy screenings for the likes of Baby Mama and Speed Racer. Tribeca '08 will largely be a forum for the Little Films That Can. And many won't. Some projects may have the money for a reasonably slick marketing push; some won't have enough coin to fly the director's family out for the premiere. Regardless of the camp into which they fall, we thought it only fair to allow the people in charge of these films, the directors, to appeal to our readers themselves.

We posed the same five questions to every filmmaker accepted into the festival and offered them the chance to reply. Below are the responses we've received, virtually unedited. (We've made a few snips for clarity; that's it.)

Tracey Hecht, director of Life in Flight

1 Why should someone watch your movie, in 100 words or less? (Don't just paste in your marketing blurb. Persuade our readers.)
I find my film, Life In Flight, isn’t for everyone. It’s not a big or loud film; it doesn’t hit you over the head, so to speak. It’s more a story to provoke in us thinking about who and what we are, and how we exist in the world. And ultimately about how we all have fears. Those private and personal fears we all struggle with on the day to day that hold us back, or hopefully, as the film explores, can also set us free. It’s more an introspective movie than a big splasher, but it’s got its charm.

2 Without spoiling your plot, describe a scene in your film that audiences will love.
The protagonist, Will (Patrick Wilson) is completely bogged down. The poor guy’s just buried under all the choices he’s made in life. And then this thing happens, this silly stupid thing when he’s driving in a car on the highway, and it just cracks him. All of sudden he remembers who he was and is outside of his mass of success and obligation and grown-up-ness and he just kinda snaps and let’s go. It’s pretty funny.

3 If your protagonist were an animal, what would he/she be and why?
Something in a cocoon, but in reverse order. Like he was already a butterfly, but then he got squeezed back in his cocoon, and then the movie follows him trying to bust out of all the constricting layers again. And not one of those nice silk cocoons either, or maybe partly made of silk, but also covered the way some cocoons are in twigs and vegetation. Ok, weird, I just made my protagonist an insect.

4 What will surprise me about this movie?
Hopefully that it stays with you. People keep telling me that it stays with them for weeks after they see it, and in a personalized way.

5 How would describe your filmmaking style or philosophy? How is that reflected in this project?
I like things to be beautiful. Even when they're struggled or undesirable or messy, I like the soul of things to be beautiful. So that's the way I like to try to tell a story, shoot a story and communicate a point.

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