New York's 9/11 Festival and United 93
June 2006 Movie News
The Festival of New York: Held in early May, the Tribeca Film Festival is a celebration of small, indie stories. It was founded by staunch New Yorker Robert De Niro in 2002. His goal for holding the festival (in its fifth year) was to bring energy back to Manhattan after 9/11. Perhaps appropriately enough the opening movie this time around was United 93, the tale of the hijacked plane that went down in PA after the passengers clobbered the terrorists. There were many other films along the same theme, including: Heart of Steel, a story about a group of selfless volunteers who assisted the dazed and confused right after the 9/11 attack; Saint of 9/11, about a chaplain of the fire department killed at the World Trade Center; and Civic Duty, a fictional story about a paranoid accountant who is fired and focuses his delusions about terrorists plots on a young Islamic student moves in next door.
Perhaps the best smmary of the spirit behind the festival was done by the executive director, Peter Scarlet. "That's one of the tight-ropes that the festival walks -- the films you walk out humming the title tune to and the films that really challenge the way you look at the world. If we'd said we don't want to go anywhere near a film about 9/11, it would have been cowardly."
Speaking Of...: The famous (or infamous) flight of United 93 (actual site pictured left), Universal Pictures is set to donate over $1.15 million dollars toward a memorial near Shanksvilla, PA. This honor of the crew and passengers of the doomed flight has received a total of about $9 million dollars of private donations thus far. This is but a fraction of the hoped-for $30 million, but a further donation of 10% of the box office revenue of the movie should close the gap and bring this monument closer to completion. Now all the organizers have to do is get permission from Congress. Good luck to them, but I remain cautiously hopeful that this will indeed happen.
The Most Famous Baby of Namibia: Has to be Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Born late May, the seven-pound girl was delivered by c-section at Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital. Reported in good health, her parents Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt remain sequestered away and fiercely protected by the Namibian government. The couple did, however, donate $300,000 to the government to help other babies and their families.
UFO Fever!: Yes, another video of fuzzy objects in the sky hits the shelves for the gullible late May. The producer? None other than Dan Aykroyd. Known for his comedic talent and very funny in the movie Ghostbusters, I was sad to see that he is deeply into this woo. Which just underlines my view, perhaps wrong, that you can enjoy the acting of many stars while avoiding or not thinking about their personal lives or political opinions.
