Harrowing September 11 drama to open Tribeca Film Festival

AFP ^ | April 23, 2006

[West Coast Conservative]

The Tribeca Film Festival, founded in the shadow of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, opens this week with the world premiere of the first major movie to address the events of that fateful day.

"United 93," which chronicles the drama aboard the hijacked United Airlines flight that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, was always going to be a risky choice of curtain raiser for the New York-based festival.

Four and a half years down the road, memories of September 11 remain raw enough in the city for a film like "United 93" to stir powerful emotions, and some have questioned whether the time is yet right for the movie industry to take on the subject.

One multiplex cinema in Manhattan decided to yank the movie's theatrical trailer after angry and sometimes tearful complaints from patrons.

The film's British director, Paul Greengrass, has repeatedly rejected the timing concern in a series of interviews running up to Tuesday's premiere.

"Why are people saying it's too soon?" Greengrass said. "Like the people on that flight, we need to agree about what to do about terrorism. And I think we need to have that conversation now."

In his push for accuracy, Greengrass interviewed more than 100 family members and friends of those who died and cast real flight attendants and pilots as the doomed flight's crew members.

The annual Tribeca Film Festival, now in its fifth year, was originally conceived as a way of reinvigorating the lower Manhattan neighbourhood, from which it takes its name, after the 2001 attacks.

The co-founders included Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, who have watched the festival mushroom into what the New York Times described as "an orgy of cinema" that has outgrown the Tribeca area and spread over much of Manhattan.

"We had thought of doing a film festival before, and if there was ever a time to do it, after 9/11 was it," De Niro told Time Out magazine. "I hope at this point we've accomplished our goals and made a contribution."

The Oscar-winning actor acknowledged that "United 93" was a controversial choice for the festival opener.

"Some will be ready, and some will not be ready," he said. "Not everyone is going to feel good, of course. But after four and a half years, it feels like the right thing to do."

This year's 13-day festival features 174 feature films -- including 90 premieres -- and 100 shorts. The movies cover just about every theme imaginable, from the debate over evolution versus intelligent design to the underground music scene in Iran.

Last year, overall screening attendance was 138,000, and this time there will be 240,000 seats available citywide.

Blockbuster fare on offer includes the megabudget disaster remake "Poseidon" and the Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission Impossible III," but Tribeca is also seeking to take a leaf out of the Sundance Film Festival's book by showing a large number of independent films in search of distribution.

This year, submissions reached a record high of 4,100 entries, more than three times the number received in the festival's inaugural year.

[Cindy]

ARTICLE SNIPPET:

""Why are people saying it's too soon?" Greengrass said. "Like the people on that flight, we need to agree about what to do about terrorism. And I think we need to have that conversation now.""

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ON THE NET...

http://www.truthusa.com/911news.html
http://www.truthusa.com/911news2.html
http://www.truthusa.com/911.html

http://www.internet-haganah.com/jihadi/
http://www.internet-haganah.com

http://www.memri.org/jihad.html
http://www.memritv.org

http://www.jihadwatch.org