Film legend Robert De Niro has lived or worked in Lower Manhattan for years.
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Niro → live → years
"You know, the East Side is another world to someone like me who's Lower Manhattan," he said.
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he → know → me
So, for De Niro, the attacks on 9/11 hit especially close to home: "I was just about to fly to California.
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I → hit → California
I was at a meeting in Midtown, and instead of going to the airport, I came back down here, and saw the tower, the North Tower, the smoke coming out, and so on.
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I → go → tower
And then saw the South Tower fall.
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Tower → see → ?
I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe it.
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I → believe → it
I looked to my left where I have a big television and so confirmed it on CNN.
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I → look → CNN
"
"You had to look on the TV to confirm what you were seeing?" I asked.
"
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I → have → what
What I was seeing with my own eyes, yeah!
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seeing → see → eyes
And in the weeks that followed, he saw his old neighborhood become a ghost town.
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neighborhood → follow → weeks
"The thing I remember most is, right up here it was with the dust that was wet down, as I say, every day, every few hours maybe, with the sanitation water trucks to keep that stuff down."
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I → remember → stuff
In fact, most of Lower Manhattan was covered in the dust from nearby Ground Zero, a poisonous plague that drifted through the air, and into people's homes and lungs.
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that → cover → homes
De Niro taped up his windows, worried that the dust was toxic.
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dust → tap → windows
But when the dust finally began to settle, De Niro and his longtime business partner, producer Jane Rosenthal, started to look for ways to pull Lower Manhattan out of the ashes.
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Niro → begin → ashes
Rosenthal said, "As a mother of two little girls.
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Rosenthal → say → girls
I was scared: What's going to happen again?
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What → go → ?
I mean, it's all those feelings.
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it → mean → ?
But it's also like, okay, how can we help?
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we → help → ?
If we can help, if we can do something, then something good will come of it."
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something → help → it
They'd kicked around the notion of starting a film festival in Tribeca before, but after 9/11, it took on a new urgency as a way to help heal a shattered city.
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it → kick → city
In May 2002, only eight months after the attacks, the very first Tribeca Film Festival opened, drawing big crowds and even bigger names, like Nelson Mandela.
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Festival → open → Mandela
De Niro said, "It just seemed like the right thing to do."
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It → say → thing
Rosenthal said, "How do you give your neighbors a hug and say, 'This is going to be okay?'
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This → say → hug
How do you say to everybody, 'Okay, we need something to look forward to'?"
And for the 150,000-plus people who lined up for the first festival, that's exactly what it was.
De Niro says he never had a doubt: "I wasn't thinking, I was just being, We're going to do it."
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We → say → it
Nearly 25 years later, a new documentary about the history of the festival, "Tribeca 25," premieres on Netflix this coming Friday, Sept. 11.
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documentary → premier → Netflix
De Niro is famous for bringing a certain level of passion to his film roles, and he's just as fiery off-screen when it comes to politics.
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it → bring → politics
He joined in the nationwide
, and told the crowd in New York City, "We're going from the streets to the ballot box, because we all deserve a country with no kings."The Tribeca Film Festival was created as a reaction to real-world tragedy – the 9/11 attacks – and the founders say they're still on a mission to use art as an antidote to what they see is real trauma in America.
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they → join → America
Rosenthal said, "We're a festival that was started because of an act of war.
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that → say → war
It was to say to the rest of the world, 'We're still here.'"
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We → say → world
De Niro called the creation of the festival "an act of defiance," and says it continues to be one towards the Trump administration.
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it → call → administration
"Well, it is, it is," he said.
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he → say → ?
"And we felt if anyone was going to start coming at us or coming in with the nonsense, we're going to be ready for it.
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we → feel → it
And we now see more and more how insane this administration is, how insane Donald Trump is, and he has to be gotten out.
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he → see → ?
And we've got to get back on track with this country.
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we → get → country
So, however we can do something with this festival to oppose him and all the destruction he's responsible for, we're there."
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we → do → him
The administration's usual response to De Niro's criticism is that he has "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
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he → have → Syndrome
Asked to comment, De Niro replied, "'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is because of what he's done.
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he → ask → what
They revert it.
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They → revert → it
He reverts things and inverts them and twists them around.
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He → revert → them
A three-year-old could do it.
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old → do → it
…and 12 more, not listed.
