The Tribeca Film Festival was started by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in an effort to breathe new life into the TriBeCa neighborhood after the attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001, which were detrimental to the area's economy and overall vitality. The inaugural festival was launched after only 120 days of planning, thanks to more than 1,300 volunteers. Attended by 150,000 people, it generated more than $10 million in revenue for local merchants - an instant success that guaranteed growth in the following years.
Grow it did - since its founding, the juried Festival has attracted more than two million attendees from the U.S. and abroad, and has generated over $425 million in economic activity for New York City. 2008 marked the Festival's seventh year and drew a total of 400,000 moviegoers. From April 23rd through May 4th, the Festival showcased movies that wouldn't otherwise receive wide distribution on twenty-one screens throughout lower Manhattan, amounting to eleven days of independent full-feature films, documentaries, and short films by over 140 directors (including no less than 64 first-time directors).
The festivities did not limit themselves to the silver screen - at least a hundred parties were thrown in conjunction with the Festival; musical acts like Nick Lowe and Regina Spektor performed at the Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge; families crowded the streets at the all-day Family Festival Street Fair. Tribeca Talks, a series of panel discussions about the business of entertainment, returned to this year's Festival, along with the TFF art gallery, which exhibited the work of thirteen acclaimed New York-based artists, among them Ross Bleckner and Francesco Clemente. In addition to cash awards and in-kind services provided by Festival sponsors, winning filmmakers at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival took home an original work of art created by one of these thirteen artists. Their work was exhibited throughout the Festival at the newly opened Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, designed by Lyn Rice Architects.
For the fourth year in a row, Moleskine produced a limited-edition belly-banded notebook for the Festival. This year's edition, encased in a box branded with the TFF logo, was accompanied by a full-color catalog featuring the contemporary artwork eventually awarded to the Festival's prize winners. The notebooks were presented to the jurors, artists and VIP guests of the 2008 Festival at the Art Award Program Event on April 23, and at the Festival's opening luncheon.
