Tribeca 25 (2026) Movie Script
1
[REPORTER] Nice sunny day.
And the only chance of a shower
for the rest of the workweek
might be late Thursday or
Thursday night.
[REPORTER] Get ready for the
second coming of Air Jordan.
[REPORTER] Primary day in the
polls are open in New York City.
Black voters are deciding
among about 250 candidates.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN ON RADIO] John and I
hung out with him one night
for a couple of hours,
and I just [INAUDIBLE]...
[ANNOUNCER] [INAUDIBLE]
[REPORTER] Giants lose their
opener
in Monday Night Football in
Denver.
Yankees and Red Sox
washed out in the Bronx.
[MAN] How many sugar?
[REPORTER] Good morning. 64
degrees.
It's Tuesday, September 11.
I'm Lee Harris.
Here's what's happening
[INAUDIBLE].
[BANG]
[MUFFLED SPEECH]
[SIREN WAILING]
[REPORTER] It's 8:52 here in New
York.
We understand that there has been
a plane crash on the
Southern tip of Manhattan.
You're looking at the World
Trade Center.
[SIREN WAILING]
[SCREAMS]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] I was
just about to go away out
of town for that day, and
my flight was canceled.
I went back downtown
and already checkpoints
had been set up in Canal Street
and so on.
I went through and got home and
my...
I lived about nine blocks north
of the World Trade Center.
I had my television, big
screen television to my left,
and I had the big picture window.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN] When I saw the South
Tower start to go down,
I had to look at the television
to confirm what I was seeing out
my window with my own eyes.
[MAN] It was unreal.
It was surreal.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It collapsed.
The top floors collapsed down.
I saw it blow and then ran like
hell.
Thank God.
I'm 69, but I can still run.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You didn't know what the future
would be.
It was so bad that you couldn't
even
comprehend the enormity of it.
That's not the right word, I
guess.
It was just...
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Tribeca was
one of those neighborhoods that
was sealed off, which meant
no one was coming back
anytime soon, if ever.
Businesses closed
the streets emptied
people scattered.
The air was toxic.
And it would take years to
understand
what it was doing to people.
It wasn't just the grief for the
nearly 3,000 who died that day.
It was a rupture in the
geography of the city.
People were afraid to come
downtown.
Bob and I wanted to help.
We knew we had to do something.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's crazy thinking it was 25
years ago.
The towers were in our
neighborhood.
So at that moment, we were human
beings
with hearts broken and
our community torn apart,
and a huge hole in the
ground left by terrorists.
What the hell could we do to
fight back?
And what the hell could we do
to say we're still here.
Screw you.
And we're going to show you
stories,
and we're going to do something.
And we are loud and proud.
We just did it.
And I think.
More of us have to.
Do.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] In 1989, Jane
and I started the Tribeca Film Center
If you look left out of my
office window,
you could see the towers.
They were always there,
which means after a while,
you just stop noticing them.
And then one day, they were gone.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
People needed to come together.
And that's what art does.
It unites us.
It pushes back against the things
that try to tear us apart.
[BONO] When freedom is under
such attack,
storytellers need to gather in
response.
It's creating an environment
where
people feel safe to tell their
story, whatever their story is.
[ANNOUNCER] Attention, please.
New York Central railroad's
20th century [INAUDIBLE].
[WOMAN] I fell in love with
New York to the movies,
and now New York needed
the movies to recover.
The fuck are you smiling about.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] To me, New
York is the most cinematic city
in the world.
It can be romantic, gritty,
lonely, desperate
or ready to explode.
[GLASSES RATTLING]
The city's famous for the big
stuff, the skyline, the bridges,
the landmarks everybody
recognizes.
But I always thought the places
that
got the least attention
were the most interesting.
I'm walking here.
Well lit, George.
You hear that, New York?
We don't quit.
Now, how do you like that?
Two and a half miles is as
wide as this cacophony gets.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] You see the
world through someone else's eyes
start to understand
how other people see things.
I'm as mad as hell.
Am I going to take this anymore.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] And somewhere
in there, your perspective shifts.
I personally figured
I was watching something
that somebody else would
never see again in the world.
But it was once in a lifetime.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] And no matter
what the city does to us,
we always come back to it.
I love this town.
[REPORTER] The site selected
for the Trade Center
was an old section of
Manhattan's lower west side.
The area housed a great
number of small businesses,
but the predominance of
electronic stores doors
caused it to be known as Radio
Row.
In 1966, the demolition began.
In all, 164 buildings had to be
torn down
and generations of power,
telephone, gas, steam, and water
lines had to be rerouted.
More than 250,000 people live
here,
in the neighborhoods that
surround the site
where the Twin Towers once stood.
[REPORTER] This area is a ghost
town, totally closed to the public.
There isn't even electricity in
many of these buildings right now.
I wish things were normal just
so we
didn't have to think about it.
I wish we could just go to a
movie theater and watch movies,
but none are open, I wish,
you know, it's hard.
[DENIS LEARY] It was devastation
downtown
in terms of the restaurants
and the businesses.
We had a lot of friends
that worked as waiters
and people that ran clubs.
I mean, it was just terrible
down there.
It was dying.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We started
organizing these events called
dinner downtown.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] I had this
idea of inviting people
to come to these dinners.
My goal was have a meal, save a
job.
They kept growing in size.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] So you got a
sign with four other celebrities
to go to a restaurant, and you're
going to have dinner in one
restaurant
and then go to another
place to have dessert.
It was like 30 teams or some
crazy thing.
It put smiles on people's faces.
You can't underestimate the
power of that.
Not only to rejuvenate the
neighborhood,
but to lift people's
spirits in a genuine way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At one dinner downtown,
there was this Con Ed worker
who had lost his son sitting
next to me.
He said he felt like it was
finally OK to leave the house
to do something besides mourn.
That was in November 2001.
[REPORTER] Dozens of New York
notables
are trying to jumpstart the
tourism industry with a $40
million advertising campaign.
If it's not such a big deal,
why don't you be the turkey?
-You want me to be the turkey?
-Yeah, come on.
[DE NIRO] We were doing
everything we could think of
to get New York to
feel like New York again.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We thought,
how do we give our community
something to look forward to?
Could we give our neighbors a
new memory?
Bob and I talked about
doing a film festival,
but this felt like the right
time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca Film Festival is a
unique opportunity for people
to join together in the Downtown
community to share their love for cinema.
And if anybody could do this,
it's
Bob De Niro, and Jane Rosenthal.
[MARTIN SCORSESE] I thought it
was a great idea. They had a vision.
You don't go into a battle
without having
a strategy or a plan. And they
had that.
And I've seen a lot of things
start and just crumbled.
This did not.
This is the time to do it.
It's very important for many
reasons, many obvious reasons.
And so let's do it.
[APPLAUSE]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] The festival
was an act of defiance.
We had 120 days, 1,300
volunteers, no money,
no blueprint, just an idea in a
neighborhood that needed people
back in it.
This wasn't just about movies.
It was about whether
downtown was coming back.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Some
of the toughest things
were figuring out what movie
theaters we could go into.
We had to go in wearing Hazmat
suits.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We had
to get the city on board,
business leaders, politicians.
Mike Bloomberg showed up
first just as a supporter,
then as the mayor.
Nobody slept much.
You looked out the window,
it was still smoking.
That kept things in perspective.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Our
city had been attacked.
It felt like this is what you
had to do.
There was this mantra that we
had,
whenever people would
get upset about something
or complaining about something
or whatever it was, we'd say,
look left.
That's what we're doing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHOIR SINGING] Trouble don't
last always
We all know it won't last
Trouble don't last always
[DE NIRO] We weren't sure how
it would feel to go from
a recovery operation
in Lower Manhattan to
suddenly screening movies.
We invited Nelson Mandela
to open the first festival.
[APPLAUSE]
It really gave us a way forward.
[NELSON MANDELA] I know that
your media will continue
to bring the world
closer together, allowing
us to share in the lives
and cultures of others.
I thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Our goal was to celebrate
the power of filmmaking,
but more importantly, to
revitalize our neighborhood that
was devastated on September 11.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] The mission of
the Film Festival is simple,
to bring 50,000 people to Lower
Manhattan over the next four
days, to use the power
of filmmaking not only
to entertain, but also
to rebuild our city.
We invite everyone to come and
join us.
This neighborhood in particular
is
even before September,
was just being born,
and now it needs all this
healing.
So I think it's a perfect
thing they've done.
Now, the great thing about the
movie business is that it draws crowds.
So when you have a film festival,
you're going to have people
down in the neighborhood
and that's going to help all of
the
restaurants and all of
the smaller businesses.
We live down here.
I saw firsthand just how
devastated the neighborhood was.
So when Jane and Bob
called about the festival,
it was a no-brainer to jump in
and do
whatever they asked me to do.
And that's what our community
needed
to be in a room laughing
and crying together.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] That first
year, it
was important to have a comedy
because you wanted to laugh.
If you laughed, your endorphins
come out
and then you feel better.
You just go.
OK. But I'll be back.
I'm really scared.
I've been to a lot of film
festivals.
I love them and I believe in
them.
And I've seen it firsthand time
and time
again what a fabulous vitamin
B12 injection to the buttock
they can be to any area,
any city, any town.
Now, obviously, the
neighbors really rejuvenated.
More people are walking
up and down the street
than I've ever seen in months.
People seem to be having a good
time, talking about movies
thinking about the neighborhood,
which is really the whole point of it.
[WHOOPI GOLDBERG] The thing
that Bob and Jane really
did was to say to people,
listen, yes, this happened.
We're not afraid.
Downtown will not just be
revitalized,
but it will be reinvigorated.
Part of the responsibility
that Bob and Jane took on
was saying, quite loudly, we are
not
going to take this lying down.
We're going to bring downtown
back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[GARYDON CARTER] I live downtown.
We had started work on a
documentary about 9/11,
and I wanted Bob, who is the
unofficial mayor of Tribeca,
to be the front person for it.
It's hard to weigh what
happened on September 11.
[GARYDON CARTER] But then he and
Jane
came up with the idea of doing
a film festival downtown.
And I don't know anybody who
could say no to Bob De Niro.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Graydon Carter
had
the idea of doing a Vanity
Fair party at the courthouse.
And that's where the
festival felt real, like,
oh my God, we've really done
something.
Look, it's real.
[GARYDON CARTER] At the event,
if anybody
needed to know where the
bathrooms were,
they'd ask any nearby billionaire
because the billionaires had
all had trials in the building
and knew exactly where
the men's rooms were.
In the Tribeca Film Festival,
that
was the beginning of putting
the city back together.
Now it's part of the cultural
schedule of the city.
[BONO] The festival started
as a reaction to 9/11,
but it was also the birth
of something very special.
What can we do to keep our
neighborhood
alive and moving forward?
[PETER SCARLET] We all had
different visions of cinema.
Jane had a vision.
Bob had a vision.
I had a vision.
Marty Scorsese was
involved at the beginning.
In fact, Marty began supplying
films
for retrospectives and the
idea that a film festival
would be new films, but also
classic films, silent films,
be all kinds of cinema.
This was part of what a film
festival is supposed to be,
and what Tribeca became.
[APPLAUSE, MUSIC PLAYING]
For me, this Manhattan is the
universe,
and so everything I see is,
and everything I react to,
is filtered through my
experience in the city.
Bob you know that when we
were downtown because we knew
each other I think we were 16.
Where did you hang out?
Two blocks South of where you
were...
right where we shot,
actually, at Kenmare Street,
Mulberry Street, that area.
[MARTIN SCORSESE] No matter
what the immigrant group is,
the immigrant experience, I
think, it's
generally the same pattern of
who are we in this country.
What are we?
It's a great experiment.
Will it continue?
Can we make it continue?
[LOUD EXPLOSION, MUSIC PLAYING]
[SIDE CONVERSATION]
You've seen the pictures of
me and Fellini and Sergio Leone.
Oh, my God, that's great.
My parents, at a certain point
had
to be moved from Elizabeth Street
because they couldn't go up
and down the stairs anymore.
So they got them an apartment
in an elevator building.
Yeah, on Third Avenue?
On 13th Street and Third Avenue, remember?
The first time I visited the
apartment Sergio was with me.
I said, this is a grand occasion
the first time you're
visiting the apartment. And
my mother made all this food for
him.
She liked him. She he
was a very good eater.
[LAUGHTER]
But at that time, this place,
the only excellent restaurant,
for example, in place was the
Odeon.
Everything else was dead empty.
There was nothing here except
the Odeon.
He stayed here for quite a while.
And as we did, it became more
lively.
Places opened.
People started to move down here.
So the place started to come
together.
I was here at the time of...
where it was just the very, very
beginning
of the development of the
place, put it that way,
where people actually started
to be encouraged to come here
and also to create it.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] When I first
moved here,
and I would say I was living in
Tribeca
and people would say to me, I
thought you moved to New York.
And I'd say, I have moved to New
York.
It's Tribeca.
It's the triangle below Canal
Street.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] If you look at a
map of Lower Manhattan
in the early 1800s, this place
was mostly open fields right
at the edge of the city.
[PAUL GOLDBERGER] The closeness
to the water, the accessibility
of all the piers, the
wholesale food market,
all those things drove
Tribeca to become what it was.
And this area became a rather
beautiful
little industrial village.
In the '70s, there was still
a certain amount of industry,
but not enough to really keep
it going as artists began to be
priced out of Soho.
They trickled down below Canal
Street
and into this industrial area
that was weirdly off the radar.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] There
were very few people.
I mean, it was bleak.
If you think of Marty's film
After Hours, it was like that.
But there was a lot of freedom.
And you can hang yourself with
it, or you can find it to be liberating.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] Tribeca became a place
where you could live and
work in the same room,
where young families moved
into former factories.
Like so much in New York,
it wasn't designed that way.
It just worked.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The space that I remember,
particularly during the day,
was all trucking.
Trucks everywhere.
Then at night, it was dead.
Empty.
It was really good for stealing
hubcaps or any kind of sex
that you wanted or drugs.
Nobody could see anything. I'm
talking about before or after hours.
So Tribeca, all of a sudden,
now is like the Elysian Fields.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, I knew guys used to
steal hubcaps,
take cars from here.
[laughter]
Not that I did. I'm just saying.
[REPORTER] In this corner of
New York City, between the Wall
Street traders and the Soho Art
Galleries,
De Niro is building a film
community,
a place for ideas, talent and
money
can get together outside of
Hollywood.
When I saw this building, I said
it'd be nice to have a place
that would have everything
like a restaurant, a screening
room, especially this one, which
is a state of the art screening
room.
Don't ask me all the details, but
I know it is, where a lot of people
would be brought together in
film.
Creative people who
just by being together,
things would... ideas would come
up
and projects and so on that we
don't even
know what they would be.
I mean, the whole thing will
take on a life of its own.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Jane and I started working
together.
I saw this building and
I thought, oh, gee, it'd
be great if we could do
something.
It was my dream.
And we actually got it done.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] I grew up in
the village a few blocks North.
In the late '70s, I was looking
around for gym space to train
for Raging Bull.
That's when I fell for the
neighborhood.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] The neighborhood
was the mercantile and butter
and egg district.
This building was the former
Martinson Coffee and Tetley
Tea building.
If you walked by this block, it
really
did smell of coffee roasting.
If you walked a little further
South,
you got to the Nutt district.
[DE NIRO] The whole point was
to build a place for
independent film in New York.
People from LA always said New
York's a nice place to visit,
I wouldn't want to live there.
Well, that was how it went for me.
LA is a nice place to visit. I
wouldn't want to live there.
We want it to be down here.
It was more unique, special.
This building seemed perfect.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] What we
did is take a manufacturing
building that was actually
for physical manufacturing
and turn it into a place of
creating and manufacturing
stories and creativity.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The first festival was only four
days.
And then we had to immediately
start the second festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is my pleasure to announce
the second annual Tribeca
Film Festival will be returning
to Lower Manhattan this spring.
[SHEILA NEVINS] Slowly, it began
to craft a celebrity aura to it.
It went from this emotional 9/11
experience to becoming a very
valid festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca helped give
respect to documentaries.
It became part of the business.
Find out who made it.
Find out what else they've done.
Here's a name you never heard of
before.
[REPORTER] Virunga it's a story
about a British oil company that
was illegally exploring for
oil within a national park.
There was a lot of people
that didn't want this film
to see the light of day.
A year after the film launched
at Tribeca,
SOCO international formally
withdrew from the Virunga National Park.
And then people started talking
about the film as an awards contender.
[PETER SCARLET] There's a
contingent of filmmakers you know
will show up at Tribeca.
They're the cream of the
crop of Film Festival talent.
Taxi to the Dark Side, it
had the premiere at Tribeca,
went on to win the Oscars.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Just thought that this would
be a helpful time for us all
to now that the first
screenings are up to actually
look at it day by day.
Are we front loading things
that we think are impactful?
Does every day have a good
balance?
[CARA CUSUMANO] I think we've
really
become a discovery festival.
It's the part of the job that
I think is the most exciting
is that we could potentially be
changing
someone's life, changing
culture, putting fingerprints
on what the film culture
in this country looks like.
Voice of the Rainbow,
Mouthful of Gold, The Long Haul,
those are the ones I see
on this list that could
go into a 250 to 350 size.
An iconoclast could fill
one of those Sunday slots.
Hi. My name is Damien Chazelle.
I'm the writer and director of
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
and this is my first
Tribeca Film Festival.
One of my first years
we saw Damien Chazelle's
first film, Guy and Madeline
on a Park Bench.
He's gone on to such
incredible success since then.
[LIZA DOMNITZ] Mind boggling.
There's a whole lot of
filmmakers that have started here.
Ryan Coogler had his first short
here, which was called Locks.
We chose writer director
Nia DaCosta's Little Woods.
Nia DaCosta, she's
a wonderful filmmaker that
has since completely blown up.
Oh, wow.
[NIA DACOSTA] Winning something
like that on your first film
is so impactful.
It makes people pay attention.
It's one of the things I really
love about Tribeca
is that they genuinely
are focused in expanding
the kinds of films that we get
to see
and from different kinds of
people.
My career was made there because
that's where I sold my film,
and that really changed my
trajectory.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We just kept
doing what we set out to do,
finding new voices, new ways to
tell
stories, different perspectives,
people with something to say.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
We'd like to present the
Founders Award
for best narrative feature.
The winner will receive 25,000, as
well as an art award valued at $50,000.
[NANCY LEFKOWITZ] The art
awards program is something
that Jane conceived of
in the very early days
because we are a competitive
festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Every year, approximately 10
artists
contribute original artwork from
their collection or something
that they make for the festival,
and it
serves as a filmmaker prize.
It's really one art form
celebrating another.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] Viable piece
of art,
it's a nice thing to give to
somebody.
It grows with them.
I never had a sense of
community in my life.
To be a part of the Tribeca Film
Festival,
and to be a part of what
it did for other people,
I was very proud to be part of
that.
-How's it going?
-How are you doing?
[BEN THOMPSON] When I first
started at the festival,
most of the films we showed
were on 35 or 16 millimeter.
When digital came along, that
opened up
the ability to make films
for so many more people.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The more people who are making
films, [INAUDIBLE] stories that
are being told, the more
different types of stories
you're going to get.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[WOMAN] Part of what a festival
does
is bring people together
to watch all kinds of films
and have discussions afterwards
and hear
what a filmmaker was thinking
and engage
in some real interesting
conversations.
That night, I was the
happiest moment of my life.
[ANNOUNCER] Ladies and
gentlemen, please give it up
for the director and cast of The
Godfather and The Godfather Part two.
I've been asked by big shots, how
do you make a film that is
successful financially and also
artistically?
And I said to him, risk.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Michael, Michael.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[HECKLING]
Good evening, everyone, and
welcome to the 25th Tribeca festival.
[APPLAUSE]
It's hard to believe that
it's been half a century
since the brilliant Martin
Scorsese delivered us
Taxi Driver, starring our
very own Robert De Niro.
[APPLAUSE]
They are joined here tonight
by other incredible artists
at the heart of Taxi Driver,
Jodie Foster and Paul Schrader.
[APPLAUSE]
Jody was only 12 years old
when she starred in Taxi
Driver and Paul, the
extraordinary screenwriter
who brought Taxi Driver
to life in a singular
force of American cinema.
Please join me in welcoming
Martin Scorsese, Robert De
Niro, Jodie Foster, Paul
Schrader, and W. Kamau Bell.
[APPLAUSE]
Taxi Driver is about
a disaffected young man
who has problems connecting
romantically
with women and hyperfocuses on
politicians in the wrong ways
and wants to be the hero in his
own story.
Why do you think this is
relevant today?
[LAUGHTER]
There's something absolutely
100% true
and authentic about the
character's disaffection and
loneliness that I didn't really
understand but that I knew was really true.
Mr. Scorsese, what do you think?
Why is this film endured?
When I saw the cab, I began to
realize
that it's that arc of despair.
New York in the summer
has got great steam.
[LAUGHTER]
The steam comes up and
the cab came through.
I said, oh my God, look at that.
And somebody said, oh, it's supposed
to be the hell metaphor. I
wasn't making a metaphor.
It's the cab coming through
the steam. [LAUGHTER]
Really it was.
Can we spare some words for
that era of New York City,
and what it was like to film in
that era?
There was something in
the shoot of the film,
and you could feel in the
temperature,
you could feel a violence all
around you,
and you could taste it in a way.
And it was the city.
It was falling apart.
Really was falling apart.
I was sitting there in the
village saying,
this is the greatest
fucking place on Earth.
[LAUGHTER]
It really was.
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
So I'm not going to be
able to leave here alive if I
don't ask about one scene in
particular from Taxi Driver.
Do you remember?
I think so.
[LAUGHTER]
Would you happen to remember
what the famous line from that scene is?
Yes, I know it.
[LAUGHTER]
Are you talking to me?
[LAUGHTER]
I'll add one more thing.
I'm the only one here.
[LAUGHTER]
That's the point.
That was the point. You're
right.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] It didn't matter
how much we expanded or grew.
We never forgot where we came
from.
[REPORTER] You're opening
up the festival this year
with a movie, United 93,
which, of course, tells
the story of the flight that
crashed in Pennsylvania.
You couldn't think of not opening
the festival with the movie,
let's put it that way.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We
invited all the families
to come to the festival.
They never felt part
of the national grief.
That was for the Pentagon.
It was for New York.
They didn't talk about United 93.
This is a movie to see,
to be strong, to be strong.
Not to be afraid of nobody.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[NANCY LEFKOWITZ] There
were sobs in that theater.
It was people grieving.
We were there for each other.
Collectively, singularly.
Harkens back to why we built
the festival in the first place.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca is not actually a
triangle.
It's a quadrilateral that speaks
to exactly what Tribeca is.
It's just little tilted,
a little quirky, a little
surprising, unexpected.
It isn't just borders on a map.
It's a feeling.
It's a vibe.
At the heart, we are about a
community, and bringing people together.
And there's nothing
like a New York audience
because it's as diverse as every
point of view that can exist in the world.
It's here in New York.
[WOMAN] I feel like we're
an audience festival.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] First festival,
it
was about how many people
we could bring downtown.
That first year, David Bowie
played.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
How you doing.
Having a good time?
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Music became
part of the festival going
forward because it was a way to
celebrate,
and we needed to start to feel
good again.
[CARA CUSUMANO] Elton John
performed,
and he played your song and
dedicated it to New York City.
This one's for you with my love.
[PIANO PLAYING]
And now we have Taylor Swift
and Miley Cyrus coming.
And we had Nas come with
his Time Is Illmatic film.
Nas is New York.
Hip hop is New York.
[APPLAUSE]
[NAS] Opening the Tribeca Film
Festival,
Robert De Niro comes out
and introduces the film.
This film tells the story
of the making of an artist
and the making of an album
here in our hometown.
[NAS] It was a surreal
moment, to say the least.
I want to thank Robert De Niro.
He plays me in all his movies.
[LAUGHTER]
[NAS] Artists in the city were
born with this obligation
to represent New York.
You have to express it in your
art.
I love you guys.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[REPORTER] Governor Cuomo just
announced the first confirmed
case in New York City.
[REPORTER] The number of
cases has climbed to 5,000.
[REPORTER] Coronavirus crisis
in the nation's largest city
is exploding.
[REPORTER] Bars, restaurants,
entertainment venues shut down
in an attempt to slow the
rapidly spreading virus.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] In March of
2020, everything stopped.
New York shut down almost
overnight.
Theaters went dark, streets were
empty.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We were one
of the first festivals that
had to pause during COVID.
I was struck by the fact
that we started the festival
to bring people together.
In COVID, we couldn't touch each
other.
Tribeca is now helping New
York rejuvenate post-COVID.
We've been through a grueling year,
and it's been devastating, frustrating,
at times frightening.
Today, we're thrilled to be
able to bring the Tribeca Film
Festival to all five boroughs as
a tribute
to storytelling and cultural
richness of every part of New York.
[CHEERING]
[REPORTER] Tribeca will be the
first in-person film festival
to take place in all of North America
since the pandemic began over a year ago.
[REPORTER] Well, first
of all, congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jon Chu had one of his early
short films here at Tribeca.
[JON CHU] This is where we
started.
When we came here for the first
time,
we were wide-eyed and innocent
within the heights being there.
It couldn't have been
more full circle for us.
We were back, and it was this
community
in Washington Heights
where we premiered it,
where we shot the movie.
So to come back there
after being locked down
to be outside just felt like
a return to not just home,
but to normalcy.
It was like breathing air again.
[PETE TORRES] You just saw
people come back and just
for an hour or two, they were able to
forget everything going on in the world
and in their lives.
We brought them entertainment.
That was originally what
Tribeca was all about.
It was amazing to see just New
Yorkers being New Yorkers again.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] Film has the
ability
to take people out of
the world they live in
and show them other things.
That's, for me, the beauty of
the arts.
You are able to share.
This is what I think and this is
who I am.
What am I doing?
I never come downtown?
I hate downtown.
Artists reveal certain truths that
some people are afraid to face, and
that's why they're artists.
At the end of the day, artists are
just trying to point out what's going on.
Art is inclusive.
It brings people together, like
tonight.
Art looks for truth,
art embraces diversity.
And that's why art is a threat.
That's why we are a threat
to autocrats and fascists.
And this isn't just an American
problem, it's a global one.
Unlike a film, we can't
just all sit back and watch.
We have to act, and we have to
act now.
[REPORTER] Another suspected
explosive was found in the mail.
That package sent to the Tribeca
offices of actor Robert De Niro.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] Bob is
really fearless in what
he's willing to take on.
I feel betrayed by my country.
It doesn't have to be perfect,
but it does need to return to the
values that gave us our
strength, and humanity.
[APPLAUSE]
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] I'm particularly
proud of him and his voice as
an independent, free person, speaking
about the situation that we're living in.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Someone like
Bob, when he uses his words,
can bring people's
attention to certain issues.
[REPORTER] You're always about
lifting up everybody around you?
-[DE NIRO] Yeah, of course.
-Why is that?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You have to.
You have to lift people up.
[REPORTER] Why?
You have to bring them together.
Period.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You can't divide people.
You can't win that way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's a no win situation.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We give out an
award that the late Paula Weinstein started
in honor of Harry Belafonte
for artists and activism.
Artists are the gatekeepers of
truth.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] This year, we're giving
Belafonte Award to Bruce Springsteen.
He's not afraid to fight back
with his words, his music,
and about what's been
going on in this country.
This past winter, federal troops
brought death and terror to
the streets of Minneapolis.
[BONO] Bruce is exactly the
right person to write that lament,
"Streets of Minneapolis," right at the
moment when we all needed to hear.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN] Through
the winter's ice and cold
America tells its story in
cinema.
Cinema is where the American
dream was
encoded before it was exported.
And what followed?
American music.
Johnny Cash was America,
Aretha Franklin was America,
Harry Belafonte was America.
Bruce Springsteen is America.
[APPLAUSE]
Some songs managed to
change, not just the room
that they recorded in, or they
can change
the atmosphere of a time.
And we know how serious you feel,
what you're feeling for your
country.
I always work for me inside out.
So you're sitting around,
and I'm just pissed off.
And if you... art has the
chance to shape culture.
Culture shapes politics.
Culture and politics shape the
nation.
And that's the business we're in.
Bruce Springsteen.
[APPLAUSE]
As if you didn't know.
[APPLAUSE]
[MARTIN SCORSESE] If you look
through history, the town is destroyed.
People leave it.
They'll go to another place.
They didn't leave.
Instead, put back in and
resurrected,
really the spirit of the city.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We had done a film, Gangs
of New York at the time,
and the draft riots took place
right here.
And that was one of the worst
riots in American history.
So these cataclysms occur.
But it didn't stop the evolution.
[PETER SCARLET] Tribeca has
become
a festival you have to be
thinking about in the festival
world, wherever you are.
There's an energy downtown.
It's things going on in the
streets.
[SHEILA NEVINS] It was a
celebration,
and it really said life goes on.
And it really said film is
important.
It's like Coney Island for the
soul.
That's what the festival is.
And for me, it's always shiny
that way.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] It's super important
to have these film festivals, where
people can actually commune,
communicate,
and have a dialogue.
That's what it's about really.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] At film
festivals, you're not arguing,
you're listening.
And I think listening is
becoming a lost skill.
[APPLAUSE]
The pillars that we've put in
place
in terms of artists and activism,
hopefully that's something
that can bring people together
for another 25 years.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
There are so many of our
new colleagues here that
don't remember 9/11.
Some of you weren't
even born on 9/11, 2001.
I want to invite all of you to
the 9/11 Museum and Memorial.
We'll have a tour.
I've been a part of the
museum since the beginning.
And I'm excited about showing it
to you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN] Two square memorial
pools, the waterfalls, right?
That's where the towers once
stood.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is foundation hall,
and foundation hall
is an archeological site.
So that wall has a lot of
importance.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The slurry wall served as a
symbol of resilience after
the 9/11 attacks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We're going
through the story of 9/11,
but just as important is
also what happened on 9/12.
People came together.
You suddenly got to know
who your neighbors were.
That brought the festival
together
and the community together.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] New Yorkers
and the rest of this country
proved that it wasn't about
rebuilding the steel and glass.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It was about showing the
world what we represent,
that we're here for each other
and that we will continue
to go on no matter what.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Patti Smith.
(SINGING) There were desserts
I saw the fountains
And like cream
The waters rise
And we strolled there together
We learned to laugh or criticize
I was dreaming
In my dreaming
God knows a pure view
As I surrender into my sleeping
I commit
My dream to you
(SPEAKING) Come on
(SINGING) People have the power
To dream
People have the power
To vote
People have the power
To match
People have the power
To love
Power to dream
To rule
To wrestle the world from fools
It's decreed
The people rule
Well, it's decreed
The people rule
Listen,
I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our
union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the Earth's
revolution
We have the power
People have the power
Don't forget it
Use your voice.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
[REPORTER] Nice sunny day.
And the only chance of a shower
for the rest of the workweek
might be late Thursday or
Thursday night.
[REPORTER] Get ready for the
second coming of Air Jordan.
[REPORTER] Primary day in the
polls are open in New York City.
Black voters are deciding
among about 250 candidates.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN ON RADIO] John and I
hung out with him one night
for a couple of hours,
and I just [INAUDIBLE]...
[ANNOUNCER] [INAUDIBLE]
[REPORTER] Giants lose their
opener
in Monday Night Football in
Denver.
Yankees and Red Sox
washed out in the Bronx.
[MAN] How many sugar?
[REPORTER] Good morning. 64
degrees.
It's Tuesday, September 11.
I'm Lee Harris.
Here's what's happening
[INAUDIBLE].
[BANG]
[MUFFLED SPEECH]
[SIREN WAILING]
[REPORTER] It's 8:52 here in New
York.
We understand that there has been
a plane crash on the
Southern tip of Manhattan.
You're looking at the World
Trade Center.
[SIREN WAILING]
[SCREAMS]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] I was
just about to go away out
of town for that day, and
my flight was canceled.
I went back downtown
and already checkpoints
had been set up in Canal Street
and so on.
I went through and got home and
my...
I lived about nine blocks north
of the World Trade Center.
I had my television, big
screen television to my left,
and I had the big picture window.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN] When I saw the South
Tower start to go down,
I had to look at the television
to confirm what I was seeing out
my window with my own eyes.
[MAN] It was unreal.
It was surreal.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It collapsed.
The top floors collapsed down.
I saw it blow and then ran like
hell.
Thank God.
I'm 69, but I can still run.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You didn't know what the future
would be.
It was so bad that you couldn't
even
comprehend the enormity of it.
That's not the right word, I
guess.
It was just...
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Tribeca was
one of those neighborhoods that
was sealed off, which meant
no one was coming back
anytime soon, if ever.
Businesses closed
the streets emptied
people scattered.
The air was toxic.
And it would take years to
understand
what it was doing to people.
It wasn't just the grief for the
nearly 3,000 who died that day.
It was a rupture in the
geography of the city.
People were afraid to come
downtown.
Bob and I wanted to help.
We knew we had to do something.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's crazy thinking it was 25
years ago.
The towers were in our
neighborhood.
So at that moment, we were human
beings
with hearts broken and
our community torn apart,
and a huge hole in the
ground left by terrorists.
What the hell could we do to
fight back?
And what the hell could we do
to say we're still here.
Screw you.
And we're going to show you
stories,
and we're going to do something.
And we are loud and proud.
We just did it.
And I think.
More of us have to.
Do.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] In 1989, Jane
and I started the Tribeca Film Center
If you look left out of my
office window,
you could see the towers.
They were always there,
which means after a while,
you just stop noticing them.
And then one day, they were gone.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
People needed to come together.
And that's what art does.
It unites us.
It pushes back against the things
that try to tear us apart.
[BONO] When freedom is under
such attack,
storytellers need to gather in
response.
It's creating an environment
where
people feel safe to tell their
story, whatever their story is.
[ANNOUNCER] Attention, please.
New York Central railroad's
20th century [INAUDIBLE].
[WOMAN] I fell in love with
New York to the movies,
and now New York needed
the movies to recover.
The fuck are you smiling about.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] To me, New
York is the most cinematic city
in the world.
It can be romantic, gritty,
lonely, desperate
or ready to explode.
[GLASSES RATTLING]
The city's famous for the big
stuff, the skyline, the bridges,
the landmarks everybody
recognizes.
But I always thought the places
that
got the least attention
were the most interesting.
I'm walking here.
Well lit, George.
You hear that, New York?
We don't quit.
Now, how do you like that?
Two and a half miles is as
wide as this cacophony gets.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] You see the
world through someone else's eyes
start to understand
how other people see things.
I'm as mad as hell.
Am I going to take this anymore.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] And somewhere
in there, your perspective shifts.
I personally figured
I was watching something
that somebody else would
never see again in the world.
But it was once in a lifetime.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] And no matter
what the city does to us,
we always come back to it.
I love this town.
[REPORTER] The site selected
for the Trade Center
was an old section of
Manhattan's lower west side.
The area housed a great
number of small businesses,
but the predominance of
electronic stores doors
caused it to be known as Radio
Row.
In 1966, the demolition began.
In all, 164 buildings had to be
torn down
and generations of power,
telephone, gas, steam, and water
lines had to be rerouted.
More than 250,000 people live
here,
in the neighborhoods that
surround the site
where the Twin Towers once stood.
[REPORTER] This area is a ghost
town, totally closed to the public.
There isn't even electricity in
many of these buildings right now.
I wish things were normal just
so we
didn't have to think about it.
I wish we could just go to a
movie theater and watch movies,
but none are open, I wish,
you know, it's hard.
[DENIS LEARY] It was devastation
downtown
in terms of the restaurants
and the businesses.
We had a lot of friends
that worked as waiters
and people that ran clubs.
I mean, it was just terrible
down there.
It was dying.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We started
organizing these events called
dinner downtown.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] I had this
idea of inviting people
to come to these dinners.
My goal was have a meal, save a
job.
They kept growing in size.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] So you got a
sign with four other celebrities
to go to a restaurant, and you're
going to have dinner in one
restaurant
and then go to another
place to have dessert.
It was like 30 teams or some
crazy thing.
It put smiles on people's faces.
You can't underestimate the
power of that.
Not only to rejuvenate the
neighborhood,
but to lift people's
spirits in a genuine way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At one dinner downtown,
there was this Con Ed worker
who had lost his son sitting
next to me.
He said he felt like it was
finally OK to leave the house
to do something besides mourn.
That was in November 2001.
[REPORTER] Dozens of New York
notables
are trying to jumpstart the
tourism industry with a $40
million advertising campaign.
If it's not such a big deal,
why don't you be the turkey?
-You want me to be the turkey?
-Yeah, come on.
[DE NIRO] We were doing
everything we could think of
to get New York to
feel like New York again.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We thought,
how do we give our community
something to look forward to?
Could we give our neighbors a
new memory?
Bob and I talked about
doing a film festival,
but this felt like the right
time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca Film Festival is a
unique opportunity for people
to join together in the Downtown
community to share their love for cinema.
And if anybody could do this,
it's
Bob De Niro, and Jane Rosenthal.
[MARTIN SCORSESE] I thought it
was a great idea. They had a vision.
You don't go into a battle
without having
a strategy or a plan. And they
had that.
And I've seen a lot of things
start and just crumbled.
This did not.
This is the time to do it.
It's very important for many
reasons, many obvious reasons.
And so let's do it.
[APPLAUSE]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] The festival
was an act of defiance.
We had 120 days, 1,300
volunteers, no money,
no blueprint, just an idea in a
neighborhood that needed people
back in it.
This wasn't just about movies.
It was about whether
downtown was coming back.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Some
of the toughest things
were figuring out what movie
theaters we could go into.
We had to go in wearing Hazmat
suits.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We had
to get the city on board,
business leaders, politicians.
Mike Bloomberg showed up
first just as a supporter,
then as the mayor.
Nobody slept much.
You looked out the window,
it was still smoking.
That kept things in perspective.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Our
city had been attacked.
It felt like this is what you
had to do.
There was this mantra that we
had,
whenever people would
get upset about something
or complaining about something
or whatever it was, we'd say,
look left.
That's what we're doing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHOIR SINGING] Trouble don't
last always
We all know it won't last
Trouble don't last always
[DE NIRO] We weren't sure how
it would feel to go from
a recovery operation
in Lower Manhattan to
suddenly screening movies.
We invited Nelson Mandela
to open the first festival.
[APPLAUSE]
It really gave us a way forward.
[NELSON MANDELA] I know that
your media will continue
to bring the world
closer together, allowing
us to share in the lives
and cultures of others.
I thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Our goal was to celebrate
the power of filmmaking,
but more importantly, to
revitalize our neighborhood that
was devastated on September 11.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] The mission of
the Film Festival is simple,
to bring 50,000 people to Lower
Manhattan over the next four
days, to use the power
of filmmaking not only
to entertain, but also
to rebuild our city.
We invite everyone to come and
join us.
This neighborhood in particular
is
even before September,
was just being born,
and now it needs all this
healing.
So I think it's a perfect
thing they've done.
Now, the great thing about the
movie business is that it draws crowds.
So when you have a film festival,
you're going to have people
down in the neighborhood
and that's going to help all of
the
restaurants and all of
the smaller businesses.
We live down here.
I saw firsthand just how
devastated the neighborhood was.
So when Jane and Bob
called about the festival,
it was a no-brainer to jump in
and do
whatever they asked me to do.
And that's what our community
needed
to be in a room laughing
and crying together.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] That first
year, it
was important to have a comedy
because you wanted to laugh.
If you laughed, your endorphins
come out
and then you feel better.
You just go.
OK. But I'll be back.
I'm really scared.
I've been to a lot of film
festivals.
I love them and I believe in
them.
And I've seen it firsthand time
and time
again what a fabulous vitamin
B12 injection to the buttock
they can be to any area,
any city, any town.
Now, obviously, the
neighbors really rejuvenated.
More people are walking
up and down the street
than I've ever seen in months.
People seem to be having a good
time, talking about movies
thinking about the neighborhood,
which is really the whole point of it.
[WHOOPI GOLDBERG] The thing
that Bob and Jane really
did was to say to people,
listen, yes, this happened.
We're not afraid.
Downtown will not just be
revitalized,
but it will be reinvigorated.
Part of the responsibility
that Bob and Jane took on
was saying, quite loudly, we are
not
going to take this lying down.
We're going to bring downtown
back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[GARYDON CARTER] I live downtown.
We had started work on a
documentary about 9/11,
and I wanted Bob, who is the
unofficial mayor of Tribeca,
to be the front person for it.
It's hard to weigh what
happened on September 11.
[GARYDON CARTER] But then he and
Jane
came up with the idea of doing
a film festival downtown.
And I don't know anybody who
could say no to Bob De Niro.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Graydon Carter
had
the idea of doing a Vanity
Fair party at the courthouse.
And that's where the
festival felt real, like,
oh my God, we've really done
something.
Look, it's real.
[GARYDON CARTER] At the event,
if anybody
needed to know where the
bathrooms were,
they'd ask any nearby billionaire
because the billionaires had
all had trials in the building
and knew exactly where
the men's rooms were.
In the Tribeca Film Festival,
that
was the beginning of putting
the city back together.
Now it's part of the cultural
schedule of the city.
[BONO] The festival started
as a reaction to 9/11,
but it was also the birth
of something very special.
What can we do to keep our
neighborhood
alive and moving forward?
[PETER SCARLET] We all had
different visions of cinema.
Jane had a vision.
Bob had a vision.
I had a vision.
Marty Scorsese was
involved at the beginning.
In fact, Marty began supplying
films
for retrospectives and the
idea that a film festival
would be new films, but also
classic films, silent films,
be all kinds of cinema.
This was part of what a film
festival is supposed to be,
and what Tribeca became.
[APPLAUSE, MUSIC PLAYING]
For me, this Manhattan is the
universe,
and so everything I see is,
and everything I react to,
is filtered through my
experience in the city.
Bob you know that when we
were downtown because we knew
each other I think we were 16.
Where did you hang out?
Two blocks South of where you
were...
right where we shot,
actually, at Kenmare Street,
Mulberry Street, that area.
[MARTIN SCORSESE] No matter
what the immigrant group is,
the immigrant experience, I
think, it's
generally the same pattern of
who are we in this country.
What are we?
It's a great experiment.
Will it continue?
Can we make it continue?
[LOUD EXPLOSION, MUSIC PLAYING]
[SIDE CONVERSATION]
You've seen the pictures of
me and Fellini and Sergio Leone.
Oh, my God, that's great.
My parents, at a certain point
had
to be moved from Elizabeth Street
because they couldn't go up
and down the stairs anymore.
So they got them an apartment
in an elevator building.
Yeah, on Third Avenue?
On 13th Street and Third Avenue, remember?
The first time I visited the
apartment Sergio was with me.
I said, this is a grand occasion
the first time you're
visiting the apartment. And
my mother made all this food for
him.
She liked him. She he
was a very good eater.
[LAUGHTER]
But at that time, this place,
the only excellent restaurant,
for example, in place was the
Odeon.
Everything else was dead empty.
There was nothing here except
the Odeon.
He stayed here for quite a while.
And as we did, it became more
lively.
Places opened.
People started to move down here.
So the place started to come
together.
I was here at the time of...
where it was just the very, very
beginning
of the development of the
place, put it that way,
where people actually started
to be encouraged to come here
and also to create it.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] When I first
moved here,
and I would say I was living in
Tribeca
and people would say to me, I
thought you moved to New York.
And I'd say, I have moved to New
York.
It's Tribeca.
It's the triangle below Canal
Street.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] If you look at a
map of Lower Manhattan
in the early 1800s, this place
was mostly open fields right
at the edge of the city.
[PAUL GOLDBERGER] The closeness
to the water, the accessibility
of all the piers, the
wholesale food market,
all those things drove
Tribeca to become what it was.
And this area became a rather
beautiful
little industrial village.
In the '70s, there was still
a certain amount of industry,
but not enough to really keep
it going as artists began to be
priced out of Soho.
They trickled down below Canal
Street
and into this industrial area
that was weirdly off the radar.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] There
were very few people.
I mean, it was bleak.
If you think of Marty's film
After Hours, it was like that.
But there was a lot of freedom.
And you can hang yourself with
it, or you can find it to be liberating.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] Tribeca became a place
where you could live and
work in the same room,
where young families moved
into former factories.
Like so much in New York,
it wasn't designed that way.
It just worked.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The space that I remember,
particularly during the day,
was all trucking.
Trucks everywhere.
Then at night, it was dead.
Empty.
It was really good for stealing
hubcaps or any kind of sex
that you wanted or drugs.
Nobody could see anything. I'm
talking about before or after hours.
So Tribeca, all of a sudden,
now is like the Elysian Fields.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, I knew guys used to
steal hubcaps,
take cars from here.
[laughter]
Not that I did. I'm just saying.
[REPORTER] In this corner of
New York City, between the Wall
Street traders and the Soho Art
Galleries,
De Niro is building a film
community,
a place for ideas, talent and
money
can get together outside of
Hollywood.
When I saw this building, I said
it'd be nice to have a place
that would have everything
like a restaurant, a screening
room, especially this one, which
is a state of the art screening
room.
Don't ask me all the details, but
I know it is, where a lot of people
would be brought together in
film.
Creative people who
just by being together,
things would... ideas would come
up
and projects and so on that we
don't even
know what they would be.
I mean, the whole thing will
take on a life of its own.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Jane and I started working
together.
I saw this building and
I thought, oh, gee, it'd
be great if we could do
something.
It was my dream.
And we actually got it done.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] I grew up in
the village a few blocks North.
In the late '70s, I was looking
around for gym space to train
for Raging Bull.
That's when I fell for the
neighborhood.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] The neighborhood
was the mercantile and butter
and egg district.
This building was the former
Martinson Coffee and Tetley
Tea building.
If you walked by this block, it
really
did smell of coffee roasting.
If you walked a little further
South,
you got to the Nutt district.
[DE NIRO] The whole point was
to build a place for
independent film in New York.
People from LA always said New
York's a nice place to visit,
I wouldn't want to live there.
Well, that was how it went for me.
LA is a nice place to visit. I
wouldn't want to live there.
We want it to be down here.
It was more unique, special.
This building seemed perfect.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] What we
did is take a manufacturing
building that was actually
for physical manufacturing
and turn it into a place of
creating and manufacturing
stories and creativity.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The first festival was only four
days.
And then we had to immediately
start the second festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is my pleasure to announce
the second annual Tribeca
Film Festival will be returning
to Lower Manhattan this spring.
[SHEILA NEVINS] Slowly, it began
to craft a celebrity aura to it.
It went from this emotional 9/11
experience to becoming a very
valid festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca helped give
respect to documentaries.
It became part of the business.
Find out who made it.
Find out what else they've done.
Here's a name you never heard of
before.
[REPORTER] Virunga it's a story
about a British oil company that
was illegally exploring for
oil within a national park.
There was a lot of people
that didn't want this film
to see the light of day.
A year after the film launched
at Tribeca,
SOCO international formally
withdrew from the Virunga National Park.
And then people started talking
about the film as an awards contender.
[PETER SCARLET] There's a
contingent of filmmakers you know
will show up at Tribeca.
They're the cream of the
crop of Film Festival talent.
Taxi to the Dark Side, it
had the premiere at Tribeca,
went on to win the Oscars.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Just thought that this would
be a helpful time for us all
to now that the first
screenings are up to actually
look at it day by day.
Are we front loading things
that we think are impactful?
Does every day have a good
balance?
[CARA CUSUMANO] I think we've
really
become a discovery festival.
It's the part of the job that
I think is the most exciting
is that we could potentially be
changing
someone's life, changing
culture, putting fingerprints
on what the film culture
in this country looks like.
Voice of the Rainbow,
Mouthful of Gold, The Long Haul,
those are the ones I see
on this list that could
go into a 250 to 350 size.
An iconoclast could fill
one of those Sunday slots.
Hi. My name is Damien Chazelle.
I'm the writer and director of
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
and this is my first
Tribeca Film Festival.
One of my first years
we saw Damien Chazelle's
first film, Guy and Madeline
on a Park Bench.
He's gone on to such
incredible success since then.
[LIZA DOMNITZ] Mind boggling.
There's a whole lot of
filmmakers that have started here.
Ryan Coogler had his first short
here, which was called Locks.
We chose writer director
Nia DaCosta's Little Woods.
Nia DaCosta, she's
a wonderful filmmaker that
has since completely blown up.
Oh, wow.
[NIA DACOSTA] Winning something
like that on your first film
is so impactful.
It makes people pay attention.
It's one of the things I really
love about Tribeca
is that they genuinely
are focused in expanding
the kinds of films that we get
to see
and from different kinds of
people.
My career was made there because
that's where I sold my film,
and that really changed my
trajectory.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] We just kept
doing what we set out to do,
finding new voices, new ways to
tell
stories, different perspectives,
people with something to say.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
We'd like to present the
Founders Award
for best narrative feature.
The winner will receive 25,000, as
well as an art award valued at $50,000.
[NANCY LEFKOWITZ] The art
awards program is something
that Jane conceived of
in the very early days
because we are a competitive
festival.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Every year, approximately 10
artists
contribute original artwork from
their collection or something
that they make for the festival,
and it
serves as a filmmaker prize.
It's really one art form
celebrating another.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] Viable piece
of art,
it's a nice thing to give to
somebody.
It grows with them.
I never had a sense of
community in my life.
To be a part of the Tribeca Film
Festival,
and to be a part of what
it did for other people,
I was very proud to be part of
that.
-How's it going?
-How are you doing?
[BEN THOMPSON] When I first
started at the festival,
most of the films we showed
were on 35 or 16 millimeter.
When digital came along, that
opened up
the ability to make films
for so many more people.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The more people who are making
films, [INAUDIBLE] stories that
are being told, the more
different types of stories
you're going to get.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[WOMAN] Part of what a festival
does
is bring people together
to watch all kinds of films
and have discussions afterwards
and hear
what a filmmaker was thinking
and engage
in some real interesting
conversations.
That night, I was the
happiest moment of my life.
[ANNOUNCER] Ladies and
gentlemen, please give it up
for the director and cast of The
Godfather and The Godfather Part two.
I've been asked by big shots, how
do you make a film that is
successful financially and also
artistically?
And I said to him, risk.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Michael, Michael.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[HECKLING]
Good evening, everyone, and
welcome to the 25th Tribeca festival.
[APPLAUSE]
It's hard to believe that
it's been half a century
since the brilliant Martin
Scorsese delivered us
Taxi Driver, starring our
very own Robert De Niro.
[APPLAUSE]
They are joined here tonight
by other incredible artists
at the heart of Taxi Driver,
Jodie Foster and Paul Schrader.
[APPLAUSE]
Jody was only 12 years old
when she starred in Taxi
Driver and Paul, the
extraordinary screenwriter
who brought Taxi Driver
to life in a singular
force of American cinema.
Please join me in welcoming
Martin Scorsese, Robert De
Niro, Jodie Foster, Paul
Schrader, and W. Kamau Bell.
[APPLAUSE]
Taxi Driver is about
a disaffected young man
who has problems connecting
romantically
with women and hyperfocuses on
politicians in the wrong ways
and wants to be the hero in his
own story.
Why do you think this is
relevant today?
[LAUGHTER]
There's something absolutely
100% true
and authentic about the
character's disaffection and
loneliness that I didn't really
understand but that I knew was really true.
Mr. Scorsese, what do you think?
Why is this film endured?
When I saw the cab, I began to
realize
that it's that arc of despair.
New York in the summer
has got great steam.
[LAUGHTER]
The steam comes up and
the cab came through.
I said, oh my God, look at that.
And somebody said, oh, it's supposed
to be the hell metaphor. I
wasn't making a metaphor.
It's the cab coming through
the steam. [LAUGHTER]
Really it was.
Can we spare some words for
that era of New York City,
and what it was like to film in
that era?
There was something in
the shoot of the film,
and you could feel in the
temperature,
you could feel a violence all
around you,
and you could taste it in a way.
And it was the city.
It was falling apart.
Really was falling apart.
I was sitting there in the
village saying,
this is the greatest
fucking place on Earth.
[LAUGHTER]
It really was.
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
So I'm not going to be
able to leave here alive if I
don't ask about one scene in
particular from Taxi Driver.
Do you remember?
I think so.
[LAUGHTER]
Would you happen to remember
what the famous line from that scene is?
Yes, I know it.
[LAUGHTER]
Are you talking to me?
[LAUGHTER]
I'll add one more thing.
I'm the only one here.
[LAUGHTER]
That's the point.
That was the point. You're
right.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] It didn't matter
how much we expanded or grew.
We never forgot where we came
from.
[REPORTER] You're opening
up the festival this year
with a movie, United 93,
which, of course, tells
the story of the flight that
crashed in Pennsylvania.
You couldn't think of not opening
the festival with the movie,
let's put it that way.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We
invited all the families
to come to the festival.
They never felt part
of the national grief.
That was for the Pentagon.
It was for New York.
They didn't talk about United 93.
This is a movie to see,
to be strong, to be strong.
Not to be afraid of nobody.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[NANCY LEFKOWITZ] There
were sobs in that theater.
It was people grieving.
We were there for each other.
Collectively, singularly.
Harkens back to why we built
the festival in the first place.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Tribeca is not actually a
triangle.
It's a quadrilateral that speaks
to exactly what Tribeca is.
It's just little tilted,
a little quirky, a little
surprising, unexpected.
It isn't just borders on a map.
It's a feeling.
It's a vibe.
At the heart, we are about a
community, and bringing people together.
And there's nothing
like a New York audience
because it's as diverse as every
point of view that can exist in the world.
It's here in New York.
[WOMAN] I feel like we're
an audience festival.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] First festival,
it
was about how many people
we could bring downtown.
That first year, David Bowie
played.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
How you doing.
Having a good time?
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Music became
part of the festival going
forward because it was a way to
celebrate,
and we needed to start to feel
good again.
[CARA CUSUMANO] Elton John
performed,
and he played your song and
dedicated it to New York City.
This one's for you with my love.
[PIANO PLAYING]
And now we have Taylor Swift
and Miley Cyrus coming.
And we had Nas come with
his Time Is Illmatic film.
Nas is New York.
Hip hop is New York.
[APPLAUSE]
[NAS] Opening the Tribeca Film
Festival,
Robert De Niro comes out
and introduces the film.
This film tells the story
of the making of an artist
and the making of an album
here in our hometown.
[NAS] It was a surreal
moment, to say the least.
I want to thank Robert De Niro.
He plays me in all his movies.
[LAUGHTER]
[NAS] Artists in the city were
born with this obligation
to represent New York.
You have to express it in your
art.
I love you guys.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[REPORTER] Governor Cuomo just
announced the first confirmed
case in New York City.
[REPORTER] The number of
cases has climbed to 5,000.
[REPORTER] Coronavirus crisis
in the nation's largest city
is exploding.
[REPORTER] Bars, restaurants,
entertainment venues shut down
in an attempt to slow the
rapidly spreading virus.
[ROBERT DE NIRO] In March of
2020, everything stopped.
New York shut down almost
overnight.
Theaters went dark, streets were
empty.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We were one
of the first festivals that
had to pause during COVID.
I was struck by the fact
that we started the festival
to bring people together.
In COVID, we couldn't touch each
other.
Tribeca is now helping New
York rejuvenate post-COVID.
We've been through a grueling year,
and it's been devastating, frustrating,
at times frightening.
Today, we're thrilled to be
able to bring the Tribeca Film
Festival to all five boroughs as
a tribute
to storytelling and cultural
richness of every part of New York.
[CHEERING]
[REPORTER] Tribeca will be the
first in-person film festival
to take place in all of North America
since the pandemic began over a year ago.
[REPORTER] Well, first
of all, congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jon Chu had one of his early
short films here at Tribeca.
[JON CHU] This is where we
started.
When we came here for the first
time,
we were wide-eyed and innocent
within the heights being there.
It couldn't have been
more full circle for us.
We were back, and it was this
community
in Washington Heights
where we premiered it,
where we shot the movie.
So to come back there
after being locked down
to be outside just felt like
a return to not just home,
but to normalcy.
It was like breathing air again.
[PETE TORRES] You just saw
people come back and just
for an hour or two, they were able to
forget everything going on in the world
and in their lives.
We brought them entertainment.
That was originally what
Tribeca was all about.
It was amazing to see just New
Yorkers being New Yorkers again.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ROBERT DE NIRO] Film has the
ability
to take people out of
the world they live in
and show them other things.
That's, for me, the beauty of
the arts.
You are able to share.
This is what I think and this is
who I am.
What am I doing?
I never come downtown?
I hate downtown.
Artists reveal certain truths that
some people are afraid to face, and
that's why they're artists.
At the end of the day, artists are
just trying to point out what's going on.
Art is inclusive.
It brings people together, like
tonight.
Art looks for truth,
art embraces diversity.
And that's why art is a threat.
That's why we are a threat
to autocrats and fascists.
And this isn't just an American
problem, it's a global one.
Unlike a film, we can't
just all sit back and watch.
We have to act, and we have to
act now.
[REPORTER] Another suspected
explosive was found in the mail.
That package sent to the Tribeca
offices of actor Robert De Niro.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] Bob is
really fearless in what
he's willing to take on.
I feel betrayed by my country.
It doesn't have to be perfect,
but it does need to return to the
values that gave us our
strength, and humanity.
[APPLAUSE]
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] I'm particularly
proud of him and his voice as
an independent, free person, speaking
about the situation that we're living in.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] Someone like
Bob, when he uses his words,
can bring people's
attention to certain issues.
[REPORTER] You're always about
lifting up everybody around you?
-[DE NIRO] Yeah, of course.
-Why is that?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You have to.
You have to lift people up.
[REPORTER] Why?
You have to bring them together.
Period.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You can't divide people.
You can't win that way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's a no win situation.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We give out an
award that the late Paula Weinstein started
in honor of Harry Belafonte
for artists and activism.
Artists are the gatekeepers of
truth.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] This year, we're giving
Belafonte Award to Bruce Springsteen.
He's not afraid to fight back
with his words, his music,
and about what's been
going on in this country.
This past winter, federal troops
brought death and terror to
the streets of Minneapolis.
[BONO] Bruce is exactly the
right person to write that lament,
"Streets of Minneapolis," right at the
moment when we all needed to hear.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN] Through
the winter's ice and cold
America tells its story in
cinema.
Cinema is where the American
dream was
encoded before it was exported.
And what followed?
American music.
Johnny Cash was America,
Aretha Franklin was America,
Harry Belafonte was America.
Bruce Springsteen is America.
[APPLAUSE]
Some songs managed to
change, not just the room
that they recorded in, or they
can change
the atmosphere of a time.
And we know how serious you feel,
what you're feeling for your
country.
I always work for me inside out.
So you're sitting around,
and I'm just pissed off.
And if you... art has the
chance to shape culture.
Culture shapes politics.
Culture and politics shape the
nation.
And that's the business we're in.
Bruce Springsteen.
[APPLAUSE]
As if you didn't know.
[APPLAUSE]
[MARTIN SCORSESE] If you look
through history, the town is destroyed.
People leave it.
They'll go to another place.
They didn't leave.
Instead, put back in and
resurrected,
really the spirit of the city.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We had done a film, Gangs
of New York at the time,
and the draft riots took place
right here.
And that was one of the worst
riots in American history.
So these cataclysms occur.
But it didn't stop the evolution.
[PETER SCARLET] Tribeca has
become
a festival you have to be
thinking about in the festival
world, wherever you are.
There's an energy downtown.
It's things going on in the
streets.
[SHEILA NEVINS] It was a
celebration,
and it really said life goes on.
And it really said film is
important.
It's like Coney Island for the
soul.
That's what the festival is.
And for me, it's always shiny
that way.
[JULIAN SCHANBEL] It's super important
to have these film festivals, where
people can actually commune,
communicate,
and have a dialogue.
That's what it's about really.
[JANE ROSENTHAL] At film
festivals, you're not arguing,
you're listening.
And I think listening is
becoming a lost skill.
[APPLAUSE]
The pillars that we've put in
place
in terms of artists and activism,
hopefully that's something
that can bring people together
for another 25 years.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
There are so many of our
new colleagues here that
don't remember 9/11.
Some of you weren't
even born on 9/11, 2001.
I want to invite all of you to
the 9/11 Museum and Memorial.
We'll have a tour.
I've been a part of the
museum since the beginning.
And I'm excited about showing it
to you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN] Two square memorial
pools, the waterfalls, right?
That's where the towers once
stood.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is foundation hall,
and foundation hall
is an archeological site.
So that wall has a lot of
importance.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The slurry wall served as a
symbol of resilience after
the 9/11 attacks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[JANE ROSENTHAL] We're going
through the story of 9/11,
but just as important is
also what happened on 9/12.
People came together.
You suddenly got to know
who your neighbors were.
That brought the festival
together
and the community together.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DE NIRO] New Yorkers
and the rest of this country
proved that it wasn't about
rebuilding the steel and glass.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It was about showing the
world what we represent,
that we're here for each other
and that we will continue
to go on no matter what.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Patti Smith.
(SINGING) There were desserts
I saw the fountains
And like cream
The waters rise
And we strolled there together
We learned to laugh or criticize
I was dreaming
In my dreaming
God knows a pure view
As I surrender into my sleeping
I commit
My dream to you
(SPEAKING) Come on
(SINGING) People have the power
To dream
People have the power
To vote
People have the power
To match
People have the power
To love
Power to dream
To rule
To wrestle the world from fools
It's decreed
The people rule
Well, it's decreed
The people rule
Listen,
I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our
union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the Earth's
revolution
We have the power
People have the power
Don't forget it
Use your voice.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]