Tribeca Film Festival 2017: ‘Bobbi Jene’ Explores Love, Sacrifice, and Dedication

In the second of our five-part series on the fearless women of the Tribeca Film Festival 2017, ‘Bobbi Jene’ asks, “what are you willing to sacrifice?”

Success never comes easy. In fact, it always comes at a price. The new documentary Bobbi Jene, brought to us by Danish filmmaker Elvira Lind, explores the very question of what you’d be willing to sacrifice to pursue success.

The titular Bobbi Jene Smith is the subject of this moving documentary that is part of the Tribeca Documentary Competition. For an hour and a half, Lind takes us through a bittersweet journey of love, loss, and success. In the beginning, Smith has it all: she’s a successful dancer with the Israeli dance company Batsheva, she has a loving boyfriend (fellow company dancer Or Schraiber), and she is living in the only home she’s ever known. Then, she makes the decision to uproot her life — packing everything but the kitchen sink and heading off to San Francisco, CA, to further her career.

Check out the trailer below:

Lind takes an artistic approach to this documentary. She intersperses Smith’s conversations with her now-long-distance boyfriend with her sad, yet beautiful, choreography. This is exactly the kind of approach the Tribeca Film Festival 2017 appreciates. However, this writer isn’t sure if it will translate to the larger American market (read: Middle America). And that’s a shame, because this is a story that deserves to be told.

Smith — and Lind — speak to a bigger truth: as women, we are often told to be content with our position in life. If we “have it all,” we shouldn’t want for more. It takes a brave woman — a brave artist — to buck society’s conventions, and her own personal homeostasis, to get to that next level.

Next: Tribeca Film Festival 2017: How Malibu Sue and Donna Donna Brought New Wave to America

Bobbi Jene will air until April 28 at the Tribeca Film Festival 2017, at the Cinepolis Chelsea. General public tickets are available now.