Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal talk about starting the Tribeca Film Festival after 9/11: ‘We felt like we had to do something’ |
Robert De Niro recently talked about how the Tribeca Film Festival, one of the most popular film festivals, came to be. She shared details about how the event started after the 9/11 tragedy and how De Niro and a few others took the initiative to make it happen despite everything that was happening at the time.
Robert De Niro talks about the origins of the Tribeca Film Festival
While speaking with PEOPLE, the veteran actor recalled his early years in the industry. He shared, “We had talked about maybe doing a festival. It wasn’t really a serious conversation. We were mulling it over. And then when 9/11 happened, we wanted to revitalize the neighborhood, to say the least. So we talked about doing it and said, ‘Let’s do it.'” “I just made the commitment.”De Niro’s partner, Jane Rosenthal, aimed to create a space to unite the community after the division caused by 9/11. During the interview, he added, “I mean, we felt like we had to do something because I keep saying we weren’t firefighters or steelworkers, so what could we do to help? Have the screening, put on a show and try to provide a new memory.” Rosenthal further shared that it was the “mindset of the producers” at the time that gave them enough confidence to be able to finish work on a film festival in three months, the same way they could make a movie in three months.De Niro and Rosenthal recently starred in ‘Tribeca 25,’ a documentary about how ‘The Intern’ actor and Jane Rosenthal created the Tribeca Festival from scratch, especially around the time of the 9/11 attacks, when resources were scarce to bring the community back together.The outlet shared an excerpt from the ‘Goodfellas’ actor’s segment in the film, where De Niro added that they had minimal resources compared to many other film festivals. He recalled: “We had 120 days, 1,300 volunteers, no money, no blueprint, just an idea and a neighborhood that needed people to re-engage. It wasn’t just about movies; it was about whether the center would come back.” In the film segment, Rosenthal mentioned, “Some of the hardest things were figuring out which movie theaters we could go to. “We had to go in wearing protective suits.”The festival was announced in November 2001 and first began on May 8, 2002. For the first edition of the film festival they received around 10,000 proposals, of which only 150 were selected and projected on the screens for five days.
During the film, De Niro said, “You looked out the window and [the site of the Twin Towers] I was still smoking. That kept things in perspective,” as Jane shared that even when things got tough, she simply reminded herself to “look left” to remember why they had organized the film festival in such a hurry in the first place.The documentary premiered on Netflix and will be available for streaming.
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