Tue, May 4, 2021 at 4:15 PM
Join TCM host Dave Karger May 6 for this touching interview with award-winning actress, producer, and director Debbie Allen - presented by Citi, on of the sponsors of the annual TCM Film Festival. In this intimate conversation, Allen will discuss her life and career, beginning as a dancer and choreographer through her many successes in film and television. She will also share stories about her past challenges and experiences as a woman of color in the entertainment business and offer some unique advice for future generations.
This year is a strange and unusual one for film festival's everywhere. Perhaps not so strange since last year found many in the same position of having to deliver a destination event via the small screen. But each has found a way to provide their fans with a facsimile of the traditional festivities offered when in person. In this case, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has taken the opportunity to add aspects to their programming that was impossible to achieve in the past. Specifically speaking, live interviews that can be viewed at any time during the festival.
At the live TCMFF festivals you could catch a live conversation with a notable personality if you could fit it around your schedule of film screenings. If you missed one, then you missed it forever. The exceptions were the one-on-one interviews hosted by the late Robert Osborne, which involved a monumental superstar such as Sophie Loren and Michael Douglas. There were also the more casual conversations held at a small stage in the lobby of the Roosevelt hotel. These were short rumination's with stars who would be appearing at the screening of one of their films. A crowd of fifty or so would be standing by in the background for a chance to see a favorite star. But all that has changed, and in a very appealing way.
With the addition of HBOMax as a festival partner there are bonuses for which the viewing audience can. take advantage. There will be the addition of several more one-on-one conversations that do not require viewing at the time of airing. You no longer have to pen an exact time for these interviews. Each interview, such as the one with the incomparable Debbie Allen, can be watched at your convenience.
I suppose this new aspect to the festival is to make up for all the missed pre and post interviews with stars and experts at the screenings one experienced in the past. I'm okay with that. In fact, I hope it's a feature the festival continues to offer even after the lifting the current restrictions for public gatherings. It would be a nice gift to those at home unable to attend Hollywood festival, and provide an option for those actually in attendance struggling over the difficult choice over seeing a favorite film and hearing an interview that is a once in a lifetime event. Now they have a choice between live and taped as opposed to missing it all together. I hope TCM considers this possibility. It. would make a lot of homebound fans very happy.
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