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The “Tribeca Film Festival” was originally created in response to the terror of September 11th. Now the 20th anniversary edition is supposed to bring people together again after a gigantic year of crisis.
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New York – From day one, the Tribeca Film Festival has had to do more than just show new films – even when it opened in 2002, it was instead about giving hope back to a battered city.
“The festival was created with the mission to bring people together after September 11th,” remembers actor Robert De Niro of the early days after the terrorist attacks in 2001. He is one of the founders of the festival and once wanted with his colleagues to be a sign of the artistic Set the city’s resilience.
Seen in this way, this year’s edition could be exactly what the metropolis, which was badly hit by the corona pandemic last year, needs. From June 9th to 20th there will be almost exclusively open-air demonstrations in front of a live audience in all five parts of the city. The award gala on June 19 also marks the first post-pandemic event at the famous Radio City Music Hall in the heart of Manhattan.
The New Yorkers are getting back together
After around 33,000 deaths in the city, the festival is said to be the next sign of a return to normality in the cosmopolitan city. “Now, when New York emerges from the shadow of Covid-19, it seems only logical to bring people back together personally for our 20th birthday,” says De Niro, one of the most famous citizens of Tribeca, a neighborhood in southwest Manhattan.
Started as a neighborhood idea, the Tribeca has grown into a large commercial project. Since 2019, Lupa Systems has held a majority stake in Tribeca, an investment company owned by James Murdoch, the family-split son of right-wing conservative media giant Rupert Murdoch (Fox News). Nevertheless, the film festival is not one of the world’s top leagues in the industry calendar. Cannes and Sundance are more important for business, the Berlinale and the Venice Film Festival are artistically braver, and even in New York itself there is a highly attractive competitor in the form of the Film Festival.
And yet: The openly displayed love for New York does not detract from it, the opening film this year also plays with it. “In The Heights” is the name of the colorful musical story about the Latino district of Washington Heights, where hardly any tourists get lost, but where Latinos in particular have shaped one of the last vibrant corners of Manhattan for decades.
Latin American flair in north Manhattan
With its rousing dance scenes, the film has what it takes to become a summer blockbuster and was originally conceived for the stage by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has been adored in New York since his gigantic success with the political musical “Hamilton”. The world premiere will not take place in Tribeca in the southern tip of Manhattan, but rather high up in the north in Washington Heights – at the same time as the outdoor shows in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, which are sold out at lightning speed.
The film does not run in the festival’s official competition, but it is of secondary importance anyway. 66 films and documentaries are shown there. More than usual, it will also be about black filmmakers, and a specially created prize for activists, the “Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award”, will be presented for the first time this year. It goes to Stacey Abrams, a Democratic politician who has been fighting against injustices in the US electoral system for years as a black rights activist.
New at the film festival this year are separate program areas for video games and podcasts. Fittingly, the festival has a new name that no longer includes the “film”: “Tribeca Festival”. Perhaps a sign that the Tribeca sees itself not only as an industry-relevant film festival – but as a showcase for the creative storytellers of this indestructible metropolis.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210607-99-897436 / 1
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