Leslie Combemale

Two documentaries, both centered on incarcerated individuals, have been the highlight of Tribeca 2026 for me. One is Jail Time Records, the other is March Forth, which, like Jail Time Records, is also helmed by a male/female documentarian duo. Emmy Award-winning director Robe Imbriano partnered with Emmy-nominated director Valerie Hong to tell the story of Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sent to an adult prison at 16 years old for armed carjacking.

Part of life for city dwellers is the occasional eavesdropping on public transit, or the bizarre experience of running into someone you know, even in a different part of the city. Those are just two of dozens of occurrences captured in writer/producer/director Jess Zeidman's fast paced and often amusing 70-minute indie comedy Human Theories. It is made up of 40 vignettes that might and often do happen in city life, in this case specifically New York City life.

Oof. Grief is messy. Like me, probably many of you out there know that. But do you know about the grief of someone you love taking their own life? That's part of the premise of the German release I Spy With My Little Eye, but it doesn't automatically make this indie the downer it sounds. In the case of this film, writer Judith Rose Gyabaah and director Alisa Kolosova wrap the experience of loss around enduring female friendship. It is joy and pain and fun and frustration.