The Tribeca Film Festival came to a smashing close today with the final screenings of THE GATES, the world premiere HBO documentary on last year's public art phenomenon in New York's Central Park. The concept of artists/collaborators Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who have made a career of wrapping prominent public spaces (including the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin and Biscayne Bay Islands in Miami), the project to create fabric-paneled gates in Central Park was always a controversial one.

Art advocates loved the idea of a "golden river" of saffron colored fabric adorning 7500 gates, while others saw it as an intrusion of public space and a conceit of both the artists and New York officials. In this fascinating film, the artistic, political, economic and social forces of New York clash as the artists steadfastly push to create one of the largest public art installations in history. Co-directed by legendary documentarian Albert Maysles and Antonio Ferrera, the film chronicles the artists' 26 year commitment to transform the winter darkness of the park into a garden of light and color. The film is a testament to the artists' determination and to the transitory beauty of the public exhibition (the gates were only up for less than a month). The art phenomenon attracted millions of people and now this documentary serves as a document of the process, the beauty, the struggle to bring a unique art exhibition into being. The New York-centric film was the perfect choice to end the 12 day celebration of film that marked the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Online Dailies Editor

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