The organizers of the ongoing Tribeca Film Festival have trumpeted this year’s edition as slimmed-down, what with 25% fewer films and a smaller geographic area. But most festivalgoers are still finding it a considerable challenge to navigate the hundreds of events spread out across the city over the course of only 10 days. With four days now in the can, here’s a survey of 10 not-to-be-missed events scheduled for this week:

MONDAY

‘57,000 Kilometers Between Us’ (1:30 p.m.)

Dir. Delphine Kreuter, 82 mins.The French photographer and video artist Delphine Kreuter’s feature film muses on technology, loneliness, alienation, and the hope that humans might triumph over modern obstacles to forge a meaningful connection. The digital film is populated by alienated parents, online children, and others who have lost track of their identities in a world seemingly created to distinguish and clarify them. Just as one of the film’s young characters fumbles unsuccessfully with an acoustic guitar, so does Ms. Kreuter craft a story of inexperienced amateurs drowning in static and turning to technology in the hope of making music with one another.

(Also showing Wed., Thurs., and Sat.)

‘Under Our Skin’ (5 p.m.)
Dir. Andy Abrahams Wilson, 103 mins.

One of the more arresting and creepy-crawly documentaries of the festival, Andy Abrahams Wilson’s “Under Our Skin” surveys the perceived truths and myths of Lyme disease, and makes the case that it is either today’s most ignored major disease or its most misdiagnosed psychosomatic disorder. Poring over the staggering numbers, the severe complications of the disease, and the large contingency of doctors calling it nothing more than an “epidemic of hysteria” that could damage the usefulness of antibiotics, “Under Our Skin” is persuasive enough to get under yours.

(Also showing Thurs. and Fri.)

TUESDAY

Regina Spektor, ASCAP Music Lounge (5 p.m.)

There’s more than just movies at the Tribeca Film Festival; musicians are performing routinely at the Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge, located at the Canal Room (285 W. Broadway, 212-941-8100). One of the festival’s most anticipated performances is by the punchy pop starlet Regina Spektor, who was born in Russia and is based in the Bronx. Ms. Spektor’s last album, 2006’s “Begin to Hope,” was one of the best reviewed of that year.

‘Katyn’ (6 p.m.)
Dir. Andrzej Wajda, 118 mins.

Nominated earlier this year for a foreign-language Oscar, the Polish film “Katyn” was an audience sensation in its homeland before making its way west. Andrzej Wajda’s film takes the perspective of an imprisoned Polish captain in telling the story of a country pinned precariously between Germany and Russia during their respective incursions in the dark years before and after World War II.

(Also showing Fri. and Sun.)

WEDNESDAY

‘This Is Not a Robbery’ (8 p.m.)
Dir. Lucas Jansen and Adam Kurland, 75 mins.

On Wednesday, audiences will have the chance to check out two documentaries focusing on unlikely, irrepressible heroes. In Lucas Jansen and Adam Kurland’s “This Is Not a Robbery,” we meet 87-year-old J.L. “Red” Rountree, a retired Texas businessman who decided late in life to rob banks. He probably didn’t intend, though, to become the oldest inmate in the Florida prison system. Rountree’s stickups were less about the money (he was collecting social security) than the thrill, and “Robbery” digs up the original news footage of his heists and talks to the detectives and judges who found themselves stunned to be chasing down an 87-year-old bank robber.

(Also showing Fri. and Sun.)

‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ (9 p.m.)
Dir. Gini Reticker, 72 mins.

Much the same verve and vitality are on display in “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a chronicle of how the bloody conflicts in Liberia following the 1996 election of Charles Taylor were quelled by thousands of women who rallied together to pray and protest for peace. Effectively shaming the men of the nation into submission — in part by withholding sex from those who engaged in violent acts — the galvanized population of women successfully ousted the nation’s leadership and brought about the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female leader in African history.

(Also showing Sat. and Sun.)

THURSDAY

‘Baghead’ (1:30 p.m.)
Dir. Jay Duplass, 81 mins.

“Baghead” at once pokes fun at and gives in to all the clichés of the horror and “mumblecore” genres, placing four friends in a remote cabin and watching as their attempt to define themselves as artists gives way to panic when strange nightly sightings fill them with fear. This film polarized audiences at Sundance, but its makers — Jay and Mark Duplass — have attracted a growing legion of fans, most recently playing on New York movie screens with their indie road trip drama “The Puffy Chair.”

(Also showing Sat.)

Harmony Korine, at the SoHo Apple Store (6:30 p.m.)

Various filmmakers are appearing in person throughout the festival at the SoHo Apple Store to discuss their latest projects. On Thursday, New Yorkers will have the chance to reacquaint themselves with Harmony Korine, the idiosyncratic writer of the 1995 street drama “Kids” and the director of 1997’s “Gummo.” Mr. Korine returns to theaters this year with “Mister Lonely,” which centers around a love affair between a Michael Jackson impersonator and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. For a complete list of filmmakers visiting the Apple Store, including Morgan Spurlock and Isabella Rossellini, visit apple.com/retail/soho/tribeca.

FRIDAY

‘War, Inc.’ (6 p.m.)
Dir. Joshua Seftel, 106 mins.

Dark humor meets timely satire in “War, Inc.,” a movie written in part by actor John Cusack about a fictional Middle Eastern country in which the world’s first entirely outsourced war is fought. Mr. Cusack plays an American hit man hired by a former vice president and current corporate executive to assassinate the leader of a rival company looking to take a cut of the action.

(Also showing Sat. and Sun.)

‘Empire II’ (9 p.m.)
Dir. Amos Poe, 182 mins.

Amos Poe’s “Empire II” is both a continuation of and variation on Andy Warhol’s eight-hour experiment “Empire,” which held a camera on the Empire State Building for eight hours. Filming the same landmark through his apartment window during the course of a year, Mr. Poe edits the sensory experience down to a three-hour collage, adding to the mix a musical score, occasional camera movement, and a full color palette. Three hours is a long time, particularly on a weekend evening, but “Empire II” promises to be the most daring cinematic experiment of the festival.

(Also showing Sat.)

ssnyder@nysun.com