Tribeca Film Festival announced today that Barbra Streisand and Alejandro González Iñárritu will be speaking live during Tribeca Talks taking place April 19-30 in New York City.

Additionally, the festival has noted that they will be hosting Kathryn Bigelow and Imraan Ismail’s virtual reality documentary short The Protectors: Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes. This VR project puts the viewer in the shoes of African rangers protecting elephants from ivory poachers.

“These three creative forces – Alejandro, Barbra, Kathryn –are true auteurs. They push themselves and their audiences by constantly entertaining and challenging us through their work.”

Alejandro González Iñárritu will be also a headlining speaker for the Director Talks series at Tribeca 2017. Iñárritu and Kathryn Bigelow are two of the most gifted filmmakers within this current generation. The both have produced award-winning projects, and both have bodies of work that reflect their passion for film and cinema.

“I am ecstatic that Alejandro and Barbra are joining us for Tribeca Talks. Alejandro’s vision inspires me; moments from each of his films are seared in my mind – there is so much inventiveness – you are on his trip. Everyone has recognized Barbra as a singer and songwriter but her voice as a filmmaker, her tenacity as a director and fearlessness as an activist is what I admire most about her.” – Tribeca’s Paula Weinstein.

Kathryn Bigelow, Academy Award-winning director, pairs with Imraan Ismail to create an interactive story to display a major environmental problem with poaching exotic animals.

“We must stop the senseless slaughter of these magnificent and sentient creatures, 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,” said Kathryn Bigelow.

In 2016, the film festival hosted over 30 virtual reality installations. It will be interesting to see how Bigelow’s storytelling compares to other VR films at Tribeca 2017.

Watch back over some of the Director Talks series from the Tribeca Film Festival with the YouTube Playlist below.