To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

The 9th Annual Tribeca Film Festival closed with a documentary of sorts, based on the book, "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

"Everybody thinks they know the way the world works, and we kind of do, but a lot of what we think is poorly formed,” said “Freakonomics” author Stephen Dubner. “And so we tried to use numbers to get below the surface and figure out what in the world is going on.”

“There was a lot of crying, a lot of praying [to bring this to the big screen],” said Morgan Spurlock, the movie’s co-director. “We were really lucky. We called both these guys and got a lot of input. With all these filmmakers, we all came from different perspectives and tried to make the different chapters really accessible to as many people as possible. I think their book is so brilliant with all the information that’s in it.”

The book was brought to the screen by six filmmakers – including Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney.

“I love these projects where you have a common goal but different directors each do different segments in their own way,” he said. “I thought, wow, that sounds like a lot of fun. Morgan Spurlock was involved. So was Eugene Jarecki. I recommended Rachel [Grady] and Heidi [Ewing]. So it was just a blast.”

Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, whose “Jesus Camp” was Academy Award-nominated, also participated in the film.

“The experiment paid ninth grade kids cash in order to improve their study habits,” Grady explained. “And the question is, can you bribe a ninth grader to not be a derelict? I can’t tell you the answer. You’ll have to see the movie.”

Another co-director was Eugene Jarecki, who won at Sundance for “Why We Fight.”

“I had read the book and I had been very much enamored with a particular section of the book, which, when they told me I was going to do the movie, I asked if I could do that chapter, about why crime fell in America in the 1990s,” Jarecki said. “They said no one else has done it because it’s too controversial. So I was lucky enough to be able to do that section.”

While the film festival has officially come to an end, NY1’s coverage will continue all throughout next week, concluding with a Whipple’s World special recapping the entire event.