Tribeca Film Festival returns to NYC

Tribeca Film Festival's 20th anniversary live programme is helping revive New York's cultural life. Stars of the silver screen, overjoyed to be back in the city, have gathered to celebrate independent filmmaking.

Jury member and actor Bryan Cranston expressed feelings widely shared.

Bryan Cranston: "To have the Tribeca Film Festival come back after Covid lockdown, when everybody was contained, and quarantined and tight, and now to be able to loosen that up and enjoy and celebrate. It's what society needs, not just in, you know, New York for the Tribeca but all around the world to celebrate art."

As the location of the World Trade Centre attacks, TriBeCa in Lower Manhattan, stood at the centre of a city shaken by 9/11. Tribeca Film Festival, founded in 2002 in the shadow of ground zero by actors including Robert De Niro, helped revitalise the district.

Actress Sharon Stone considers the parallels of current times.

Sharon Stone: "We all lost. There really aren't any of us here that didn't lose - we all lost. We lost our jobs, we lost our bearings, we lost our loved ones, we lost our sense of security and self. We all lost in this epidemic."

The 2020 festival was forced to go entirely digital. While for its 20th anniversary some elements remain online, there are high expectations that the live events will bring people back together.

One TriBeCa resident at the first festival, actress Helen Hunt, recognises its capacity to empower people to heal.

Helen Hunt: But I remember when it started and how much healing it brought at the time. So it's doing it again."

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