Kathryn Bigelow to Premiere Virtual Reality Doc on Ivory Poachers at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

Barbra Streisand and Alejandro G. Inarritu are heading to Tribeca.

The two will take part in talks at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival: Streisand will participate in the Storytellers series, and Inarritu will partake in the Directors Series.

“It’s all about the story. It has to be a story I want to tell, a story I have to share, otherwise there’s no reason to make the film,” Streisand said Thursday in a statement. “A good story goes straight to the heart. It allows us to identify with the characters and broaden our own experience … and perhaps even change the way we view the world.”

The festival also will include the world premiere of Kathryn Bigelow and Imraan Ismail’s virtual-reality documentary short The Protectors: Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes, which transports users to a day in the life of African rangers protecting elephants from ivory poachers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The doc was created in partnership with African Parks, National Geographic, Patrick Milling Smith, Chris Milk’s Here Be Dragons and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures.

“We must stop the senseless slaughter of these magnificent and sentient creatures,” said Bigelow. “If not us, then who? Eliminating the market side of the ivory trade may take generations to be fully effective, and extinction will not wait. This film shows the park rangers of Garamba National Park, in the DRC. They are the last line of defense in a desperate war with poachers to stop the ivory trade at its source.”

The 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, is set to run April 19-30.

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