‘Tribeca 25’ Doc Trailer Highlights Post-9/11 Festival Origins

Tribeca Studios has set a Sept. 11 Netflix debut for Matt Tyrnauer‘s Tribeca 25 documentary about the post-9/11 origins and history of the festival.

The trailer, which The Hollywood Reporter is debuting exclusively below, opens with De Niro reflecting on the city before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“To me, New York is the most cinematic city in the world and the towers, they were always there, and then one day they were gone,” the Tribeca co-founder says. “You couldn’t even comprehend the enormity of it. It was devastation downtown.”

Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal adds that she and De Niro “wanted to help” and do something “to fight back” as they began working on the festival as a way to revitalize downtown Manhattan.

From there, the trailer includes glimpses of the early days of the festival and the opening night ceremony from the first festival in 2002, a five-day showcase of 150 films, as figures like Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep and Whoopi Goldberg get involved.

“We are not going to take this lying down,” Goldberg says in the preview. “We’re going to bring downtown back.”

Moving forward, the trailer offers a look at the illustrious filmmakers and actors the festival has welcomed over its past 25 editions, with Bruce Springsteen, Nas and others speaking about the power of art.

“Hopefully it’s something that can bring people together for another 25 years,” Rosenthal says of the festival.

Tribeca 25 features exclusive new interviews with De Niro and Rosenthal as well as festival alums Jon M. Chu and Nia DaCosta, never-before-seen archival footage and reflections from Scorsese, Goldberg, Springsteen and Nas as well as Bono, Denis Leary, Graydon Carter, Julian Schnabel, Sheila Nevins and others. The documentary chronicles the festival’s evolution from its 9/11 civic response origins to it becoming a major cultural event. Tyrnauer also uses the festival to explore broader topics like the roles of cities and art the and human need for connection.

“It is, in many ways, a love letter to New York and to the movies — to the belief that storytelling is one of humanity’s oldest and most powerful acts: a way of making meaning, building community and imagining what comes next,” Tyrnauer said in a statement. “Ultimately, it’s a story about resilience, creativity and the enduring human need to gather, connect and find meaning in moments of upheaval.”

Rosenthal added, “Tribeca began with a simple idea: bring people back downtown and let artists help us find a way forward. It grew into something we never could have imagined, but its heart hasn’t changed. We still need places where artists can take risks and people can come together, listen to one another and see the world differently. Matt understood that. He captured not only how Tribeca began but why it still matters.”

And in his own statement, De Niro said in part, “I hope this film reminds people that we all have a voice, and that what we do with it matters.”

Producers on the Tribeca Studios and Tyrnauer Media film are Tyrnauer, Jenny Ewig and Dan Crane. Berry Welsh serves as an executive producer and Keelin Ryan is a co-executive producer.