The Hot Blog

"The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane
Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a response to the attacks on the World
Trade Center." So claims the "About Us" page of the Tribeca Film
Festival's website, tribecafilmfestival.org.

De Niro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff, and scores of publicists and
journalists, have repeated this claim endlessly over the last five
years. That claim, however, is demonstrably false. Easily accessible
records reveal that The Tribeca Film Festival was being developed long
before September 11, 2001.

As mentioned, the Tribeca Film Festival website is
tribecafilmfestival.org. If the festival was founded as a response to
September 11, De Niro, Rosenthal, Hatkoff, and company, would have
purchased the domain name after that horrible day.

However, internet domain registration records, easily accessible
through domaintools.com, reveal that Tribeca Film Center, Inc., had
purchased the tribecafilmfestival.org domain on January 10, 2001 -
eight months and one day before September 11, 2001. Related records
reveal that Tribeca Film Center, Inc., had purchased
tribecafilmfestival.com on April 13, 2000 - nearly one year and five
months before September 11, 2001.

(See http://whois.domaintools.com/tribecafilmfestival.org and
http://whois.domaintools.com/tribecafilmfestival.com)

Many of the same people are behind the Tribeca Film Festival and the
Tribeca Film Center. According to TribecaFilmCenter.com, the Tribeca
Film Center was "co-founded in 1989 by Robert De Niro and Jane
Rosenthal," and there is no reason to dispute that.

But if the Tribeca Film Festival was founded "as a response to the
attacks on the World Trade Center," why would Tribeca Film Center,
Inc., have purchased tribecafilmfestival.org more than eight months
before September 11, 2001, and tribecafilmfestival.com nearly one year
and five months before the towers came down?(1) Certainly the
responsibles of Tribeca Film Center, Inc., could not have known what
would happen on September 11, 2001. They must have had other reasons
for developing their festival - reasons developed long before
September 11, 2001.

For De Niro, Rosenthal, Hatkoff, and company, to claim, endlessly,
that the festival was founded specifically "as a response to the
attacks on the World Trade Center" willfully misrepresents the history
of their institution. They have wrapped themselves in the flag of
9/11, to shield them from criticism as they have created a chaotic,
arrogant institution that annually turns Lower Manhattan into a zoo
for movie stars and "destination" tourists, an "event" whose
gentrifying presence contributes to endlessly spiraling cost of living
increases. These cost of living increases are now forcing many Lower
Manhattan residents out of the neighborhood that they had lived in and
rebuilt after the most horrific day in modern American history. In
part because of the Tribeca Film Festival, these true 9/11 heroes have
been displaced by trendy restaurants, expensive hotels, and caravans
of wealthy movie stars, club goers, and other wealthy tourists.

It is time for Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Craig Hatkoff, and
company, to stop talking about their festival as a service to the
community, and "as a response to the attacks on the World Trade
Center." It is time for them to talk about their other reasons for
establishing the festival, specifically the reasons they were
cultivating before September 11. Then, they should stop this,
offensive, crass exploitation altogether.