Actor Robert DeNiro and two associates started the film festival just months
after the attacks to reinvigorate the Tribeca neighborhood, just north of the
World Trade Center. Mr. De Niro was born nearby and has business interests, including a restaurant,
in the area.
The Festival opened Tuesday evening with United 93, a film that
recounts the events aboard the airplane that crashed into a Pennsylvania
field after passengers prevented the hijackers from hitting their target.
It has been a controversial choice, but Robert De Niro thinks it was also
an obvious choice."
"Flight 93, if it was not opening the festival, it would seem strange,"
he said. "You cannot not be touched by it. It is a very, very good movie
and very direct, simple. I think it is important to see because it is kind
of a playback of what happened."
The topic is still so sensitive that the debut of United 93 provoked
front page stories in New York newspapers. Several other films at the
festival also focus on the events of 9/11.
One, The Saint of 9/11, is a documentary
about Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the New York City Fire
Department, who died in the collapse of one of the towers. Another
documentary, Heart of Steel, tells the story of the volunteers who banded
together immediately after the attack to search for survivors and help
clear the wreckage.
Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal says it is time for filmmakers to
deal with the subject.
"September 11th was the most photographed event in the world and I
think that the media has shown the events and the stories have come out
over and over again," she said. "I think it is time. After a number of
years artists digest it, whether of not it is a novelist or a sculptor or
filmmaker. I think it is very important to see a filmmaker's point of
view. In terms of why now? Why not now?"
In five years, Tribeca has grown into a major film festival with films
for every taste. There will be outdoor films, movies for children,
documentaries, foreign films, movies from major Hollywood studios and
movies made by independent filmmakers. Every year, the festival also
celebrates old films that are important to the history of cinema.
This year the festival is boasting 764 screenings of more than 270
films of every genre from more than two dozen nations, including China,
the Czech Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
Executive director Peter Scarlett and his staff viewed 4,100 films
before narrowing down to 270. But he says they all have a common thread.
"We use the criteria does the film change my life in any way? Does it
change the way I look at the world? Does it amuse me or does it give me
goose bumps or does it move me? Is it something I have not seen before,"
he said. "That is what the 270 films in this program have in common this
year."
The festival has become a community event, as was intended, with street
parties and family festivities throughout its two-week run.
Actor-director Ed Burns, a Tribeca resident, is debuting his latest
film, The Groomsman. He says the film festival is a boon to the community and to independent filmmakers.
"In speaking with other New York-based filmmakers, I know we all love
that fact that we now have our film festival," he said. "As a resident of
Tribeca from before the film festival, I have seen over the course of five
years what the festival has meant to my neighborhood, especially the years
immediately following 9/11. There was a lot of talk about 'people are
going to start to move out of Tribeca, restaurants were going to close,
retail shops were going to be vacant.' You walk around the neighborhood
now and you see that the opposite is true. A big part of that has to
do with this festival."
Much of the film festival's emphasis is on documentaries and films that
deal with serious topics. But it is the red-carpet appearance of famous
movie stars that has fans lining the streets. This year fans are sure to
be on the lookout for Tom Cruise and John Travolta, who will attend the
openings of their newest movies. |