Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Sep 6
Netflix Premieres 'Tribeca 25' on Sept. 11 as Documentary Revisits Festival's Post-9/11 Revival
Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Sep 6

Netflix Premieres 'Tribeca 25' on Sept. 11 as Documentary Revisits Festival's Post-9/11 Revival

2 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Sep 6

Summary

  • Sept. 11 marks the Netflix debut of “Tribeca 25,” a documentary tracing how Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal turned the Tribeca Film Festival into a symbol of Lower Manhattan’s recovery after 9/11.
  • Eight months after the attacks, the first festival opened in May 2002 and drew more than 150,000 people, giving a devastated neighborhood what the founders described as a needed sign of life and hope.
  • De Niro recalls watching the towers fall from Lower Manhattan and seeing the area blanketed in toxic dust, experiences that pushed the long-discussed festival idea into urgent action.
  • Nearly 25 years on, the festival has brought thousands of films and millions of dollars downtown, while helping launch filmmakers including Ryan Coogler and Damien Chazelle.
  • De Niro and Rosenthal say the festival still sees art as a response to national trauma, with De Niro casting it as an ongoing act of defiance against the Trump administration.

Insights

How did a makeshift film festival born from 9/11 ashes transform Lower Manhattan into a thriving cultural powerhouse?
What untold stories will De Niro and Scorsese reveal in today's highly anticipated premiere of the "Tribeca 25" documentary?