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CNN Live At Daybreak
Tribeca Film Festival Opens, Promotes Manhattan
Aired May 10, 2002 - 06:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Don't have to tell you this New York is still suffering in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. And now some bigwigs are using their influence to help get the big apple back on its feet.
Sandy Kenyon, a Contributing Editor for "Parade" magazine, has this report.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the opening of the first Tribeca Film Festival.
SANDY KENYON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "PARADE" (voice-over): The official launch was well cast, with politicians, former presidents and Academy Award-winning directors. But it was Robert De Niro who took center stage.
ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: Our goal was to celebrate the power of film-making, but more importantly to revitalize our neighborhood that was devastated on September 11.
KENYON: This native son says it's the least he could do for the neighborhood next to ground zero, where he's lived for more than a decade.
DE NIRO: I saw the buildings come down and it was just unbelievable. You know everybody says that. They have that same reaction. It's like, as my son says, it's like watching the moon fall. You couldn't believe it.
KENYON: De Niro and his business partner, Jane Rosenthal, came up with the ambitious plan: more than 150 pictures from over a dozen countries. What began with the film "About a Boy" ...
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HUGH GRANT, ACTOR: I'm a bloody (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I'm bloody (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
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KENYON: ... will end with the latest "Star Wars" epic. JANE ROSENTHAL, FESTIVAL CO-FOUNDER: For us, it's really about driving people into lower Manhattan. It's about having as many people as possible come down here, shop in our stores, see movies and have a good time.
KENYON (on camera): Since 9-11, more than 10,000 businesses have closed or moved from here, and an estimated 100,000 jobs in lower Manhattan have been lost.
DE NIRO: Of course it's coming back, but we would like to help it come back a lot faster.
KENYON: Helping him out were plenty of famous friends anxious to show their support.
BILLY JOEL, MUSICIAN: Are you talking to me?
HELEN HUNT, ACTRESS: Robert De Niro, so that helps.
KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: When he phones, you answer the call.
KENYON: This being New York, not everybody is so enthusiastic.
ROBERT WURZBURG, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER: The agenda of the festival is one thing, and it just doesn't include a certain part of the film community.
KENYON: Among the titles that are included in the festival, a documentary about September 11. A film about a father learning how to grieve with his son. "The hole in the sky is a hole in our hearts," say the founders of the Tribeca film festival. But they are determined to give new meaning to an old refrain and "make a brand new start of it in old New York."
From "Parade" magazine, I'm Sandy Kenyon for CNN, New York.
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