2008 Tribeca/ESPN Advisory Board

Amanda Beard

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
Movie: Muppet Movie

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
Parents put her in a water safety class as a small child

3)What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Winning an individual Gold Medal

 

Kate Mara

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
I'd say the first film I remember falling in love with was The Sound of Music...it is what made me fall in love with films. I just remember feeling so overwhelmed by it, and the fact that a movie can have that kind of affect on people certainly made me want to be apart of it. My mom used to show us all old classic films and movie musicals (The Wizard of Oz, Annie, West Side Story, etc.), which absolutely influenced my desire to be an actress. Its really the only thing I have ever wanted to do and it has a lot to do with the films I watched as a child.

What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
The most exciting thing I have ever witnessed in sports was this past Superbowl...its hard to even explain the experience my family and I had the day the Giants beat the Patriots in the Superbowl...but it was (without a doubt) the most thrilling day of my life thus far...becuase it was not just about winning, it was about believing and hope and all the things my grandfather taught my father, who in turn taught me. This past season was so exciting and unpredictable and emotional for my entire family, it's really impossible to describe. It gives the word "believe" a whole new meaning. Sports have such a huge effect on peoples lives and when your team actually makes it to the very top and then does the unimaginable, it is the most proud feeling. The feeling is still with me today...hopefully I can hang onto it through next season.

 

Jim Courier

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
The movie that hooked me was Chariots of Fire as I was (and still am) passionate about sports and very much interested in the sacrifice and commitment that the pursuit of perfection entails.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
My years in tennis have led me to my current role as a founder at InsideOut Sports & Entertainment. I enjoy the challenges presented as an event owner/operator, player, charitable foundation leader and commentator in tennis.

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Being on the field at the opening ceremonies in the Olympic Games in Barcelona with all of the athletes while the archer lit the flame from afar and being a part of two winning Davis Cup teams with terrific teammates.

 

Daniel Wilcox

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
Love And Basketball... because Shaniah Lathan exemplified a never ending love, the type of love that we all need, their will always be bumps and wrong turns in our lives... but as long as we know our goals even a bump can be smoothed out and a wrong turn can be fixed... and it also showed the struggle of two athletes making it... I loved that movie...

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
I guess my mom... she got me started playing football at an early age just to occupy my time and to keep me off the streets... and I think it helped...

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
A Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay... althought I didn't play in the game I was apart of that team... to see it from my perspective has been one of the most amazing experiences for me... and last year versus Cleveland we won and lost a game all in the same game... to win the game was exciting to loose it by a uncertian call was the worse... but the game was exciting all the way thru... and also the New England Patriots winning streak... I know that's 3 things... but that's what football has done for me... giving me many exciting experiences...

 

Drew Nieporent

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
Lawrence of Arabia – it was bigger than life.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
My parents' love of restaurants.

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Joe Namath's 1969 championship Super Bowl game.

 

Jon Tisch

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
One of the first films that I remember falling in love with, was Around The World in Eighty Days, which I saw in Cinemascope at Radio City Music Hall.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
Having grown up in the hotel industry, and being a third generation hotelier, this has been an industry that I have been a part of from my very early days.

3)What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Wining this years Super Bowl, and being a member of one of the co-owning families of the NY Giants has been a truly remarkable experience. I am still in awe of the game.

 

Jonathan Hock

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
The first film I fell in love with was Bang the Drum Slowly, with Robert DeNiro as a terminally ill catcher for the "New York Mammoths" baseball team. My father had been Ad Manager and a marketing executive at Paramount for years, and he took my friend and me to an internal Paramount screening at the old Gulf + Western building on Columbus Circle before the picture was released. My friend and I were 9 years old and there we were, shaking hands with people who actually made movies, seeing a picture before it was released - and a picture about baseball at that. On the way home, we stopped at a McDonalds at 11:30 PM or so (on a school night!). We sat in the car (our McDonalds in Queens didn't have seating back then), eating and talking about the movie and the issues it raised and how it made us feel. Looking back, I'm not sure if I fell in love with the movie so much as I fell in love with sitting around late at night eating and talking about movies! In any case, it is a very special film - I've seen it as recently as three or four years ago and I do still love it.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
I was looking for a job that would be easy to do with steady hours and little travel. It hasn't exactly worked out.

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Honestly the biggest thrill I've ever had professionally in sports was filming NFL games for NFL Films. The first time I shot a game, I ran out with the camera behind LA Rams QB Jim Everett during player introductions. The roar of the crowd pouring down on us from all sides literally shook me to my bones. I had such an adrenaline rush that I was violently shaking and had to sit on the sideline with my camera down for most of the first quarter before I stopped shaking. By the looks of some of my footage, I haven't stopped shaking....

 

Tom Quinlan

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
Brian's Song - a great story about friendship, perseverance and the human spirit.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
I was not tall enough for the N.B.A; so I knew I had to look elsewhere to make a living. Ha!

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Anything and everything my children participate in.

 

Rick Singer

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
I have probably seen Annie Hall 20 times. As someone who grew up just outside NYC, the film connected with me on so many levels. Woody Allen really brought NYC to life with all its beauty and blemishes. Based on my experiences at that time, the characters were so well written and true. While Allen's character (Alvy Singer) and I share the same last name (Alvy Singer), I didn't really identify with all of his neuroses; however I surely know people who would!

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
I was a huge sports fan when I was a kid, but never really dreamed that I could make a living at it. After beginning my career in advertising in Chicago, I moved on to a sports marketing agency, then to the NBA before finally settling in my current job running sports marketing for IBM. Managing IBM's involvement in the tennis Grand Slams, the Super Bowl, Masters and the Tonys is still a dream. I get to work with all of those properties in improving their businesses....some days it doesn't really seem like a job.

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
Seeing Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress with the winning touchdown in February was an incredible moment. I'm not a Giants fan, but feeling the stadium explode as the pass fell into Buress' hands was something I'll never forget. Seeing Eli and Tom Coughlin redeemed after such a challenging year added to the drama of the moment as well.

 

Joe Amodei

1) What was the first film you fell in love with, and why?
That's a hard question to answer! I was young, very young and I got carried away with the story of a bunch of very cool guys trying to escape from a prisoner of war camp. In particular there was this one guy who stole a motorcycle and jumped a barbed wire fence with the bike before finally being recaptured. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen on the screen. The Great Escape took me to another world. I'm not sure I ever came back.

2) What started you down the road towards your current profession?
Started working in the first video store in Philadelphia. They let me take home movies for free to watch. So I stayed, and stayed and…

3) What's the most exciting thing that you've witnessed or done in sports?
1980 Olympics US vs. USSR hockey game. Nothing else comes close. Or of course when Rocky Balboa levels Apollo Creed for the first time in the original Rocky film. But that wasn't real. Or was it?