The Tribeca Film Festival

Originally created for a writing class.


It is April 25th, the start of the week that I have been anticipating for nearly two years now. The TriBeCa Film Festival was starting. This would be the third time in the four year history of the festival that I would be able to offer my services as a volunteer, traipsing gladly by car into the city for the chance to be surrounded by my future peers as they celebrate both their artistic visions and the spirit of humanity rising against adversity. This festival, a consideration in the minds of its founders, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese and Craig Hatcoff, for a couple of decades, found its reason for being in the wake of the Sept. 11th World Trade Center that nearly shut down the once-vibrant lower Manhattan area.

Walking in the area of now-barren TriBeCa, which gets its name from its location as the Triangle Below Canal, and at the foot of the concave space that once housed the mighty Twin Towers shortly after the attacks, I had the sense of what it must have been like in Hiroshima after the atom bomb hit. Stores that once did brisk business amongst the carefree and product-hungry were faced with the prospect of having no one to patronize their stores except for police, construction crews and government officials, too busy cleaning up the wreckage to buy anything but food and drinks and basic necessities.

If it hadn’t been obvious to me on that Tuesday morning of the attack itself that I must do my part to help, that rainy, wintry day walking in the wreckage of the area with a friend proved it to me. Doubly I felt the call because I grew up with the New York City skyline as the fourth wall to my room. Well aware on the day of the event that I, not being a First Responder, construction person, or having other necessary skills to be of use, was best staying away. The feeling of helplessness that overwhelmed me was similarly felt by those all around me.

The creation of the TriBeCa Film Festival, amazingly created in less than six months, was a call for a return to a positive spirit in the lower parts of one of the liveliest cities in the world. The defiance of bringing back a heartbeat to a place that was gravely wounded was felt all around. While many consider the entertainment business to be too busy creating a world of make-believe and interested in fluff to have a place in the affairs of the world, TriBeCa proved that it was that injection of levity that was able to return the magic to New York City. It took the world of make-believe to help make people believe again.

It is unfathomable to some that New York City, one of the two centers of the American Film, Theatre and acting world did not have a major anchoring film festival much like Cannes or Sundance, but that all changed with the creation of the TriBeCa Film Festival. Having just finished its fourth consecutive year, it has grown to be a force in the film world, a force in New York City, and a much-anticipated event. Bringing together several thousand people from all over the world to celebrate the power and voice of film in one of the most accessible forums, with its central location, many hotels, and easy transportation, it has become a festival for the masses. It encourages the public to attend at least one film in its recently enlarged 11 days of screenings, with relatively cheap prices for tickets ($15), including in its roster world-wide premieres complete with celebrities in attendance, and many repeats of popular films. The breadth of film topics is revolutionary, from the experimental shorts, to the multiple foreign entries, to the Hollywood commercial releases. This is a festival that truly has something for everyone.

For me, not only was I given the chance to use the skills and talents I have to give back, but it has given back to me as well. I’ve been able to meet people I now consider life-long friends, to mingle with those who hunger for film as much as I do. I've met people of all strata in the business, but even more, it gave me the impetus and experience to rebuild myself, much like its native TriBeCa, moving from my native New Jersey into my beloved Manhattan, to pursue a career in writing, film, and Special Events. This festival, with the goal of giving back to New York City, has not only been the phoenix to rise up out of the ashes, but it has created a thriving center around which many people have gathered and recreated their own lives.

Perhaps it is a bit Hollywood to say that this story has a happy ending as we remember the fallen heroes and innocent victims of the 9/11 tragedy recently, but nothing is more Hollywood than the spirit of the people of New York. It is a city that never sleeps, and the festival has helped prove that no one can dim its lights.