Robert De Niro on helping revive Lower Manhattan after 9/11

September 6, 2026 / 10:08 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Film legend Robert De Niro has lived or worked in Lower Manhattan for years. "You know, the East Side is another world to someone like me who's Lower Manhattan," he said.So, for De Niro, the attacks on 9/11 hit especially close to home: "I was just about to fly to California. I was at a meeting in Midtown, and instead of going to the airport, I came back down here, and saw the tower, the North Tower, the smoke coming out, and so on. And then saw the South Tower fall. I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe it. I looked to my left where I have a big television and so confirmed it on CNN.""You had to look on the TV to confirm what you were seeing?" I asked. "What I was seeing with my own eyes, yeah! It was weird." Robert De Niro and correspondent Tracy Smith in Tribeca. CBS News And in the weeks that followed, he saw his old neighborhood become a ghost town. "The thing I remember most is, right up here it was with the dust that was wet down, as I say, every day, every few hours maybe, with the sanitation water trucks to keep that stuff down."In fact, most of Lower Manhattan was covered in the dust from nearby Ground Zero, a poisonous plague that drifted through the air, and into people's homes and lungs. De Niro taped up his windows, worried that the dust was toxic. Which it was. An ash-covered street near Ground Zero, after the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 in New York City. Anthony Correia/Getty Images But when the dust finally began to settle, De Niro and his longtime business partner, producer Jane Rosenthal, started to look for ways to pull Lower Manhattan out of the ashes. Rosenthal said, "As a mother of two little girls. I was scared: What's going to happen again? I mean, it's all those feelings. But it's also like, okay, how can we help? If we can help, if we can do something, then something good will come of it."They'd kicked around the notion of starting a film festival in Tribeca before, but after 9/11, it took on a new urgency as a way to help heal a shattered city.In May 2002, only eight months after the attacks, the very first Tribeca Film Festival opened, drawing big crowds and even bigger names, like Nelson Mandela. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, left, shakes hands with Hugh Grant at the opening ceremony of the Tribeca Film Festival on the steps of City Hall, May 8, 2002, in New York. Joining them are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, festival co-organizer Robert De Niro, and Whoopi Goldberg. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan De Niro said, "It just seemed like the right thing to do." Rosenthal said, "How do you give your neighbors a hug and say, 'This is going to be okay?' How do you say to everybody, 'Okay, we need something to look forward to'?"And for the 150,000-plus people who lined up for the first festival, that's exactly what it was.De Niro says he never had a doubt: "I wasn't thinking, I was just being, We're going to do it."Nearly 25 years later, a new documentary about the history of the festival, "Tribeca 25," premieres on Netflix this coming Friday, Sept. 11. Since 2002, the Tribeca Festival, in addition to films, has grown to feature concerts, filmmaker talks, industry panels, podcasts, virtual reality and games at venues throuhgout the city. Tribeca Festival De Niro is famous for bringing a certain level of passion to his film roles, and he's just as fiery off-screen when it comes to politics.He joined in the nationwide "No Kings" rallies last spring, and told the crowd in New York City, "We're going from the streets to the ballot box, because we all deserve a country with no kings."The Tribeca Film Festival was created as a reaction to real-world tragedy – the 9/11 attacks – and the founders say they're still on a mission to use art as an antidote to what they see is real trauma in America. Rosenthal said, "We're a festival that was started because of an act of war. It was to say to the rest of the world, 'We're still here.'" De Niro called the creation of the festival "an act of defiance," and says it continues to be one towards the Trump administration. "Well, it is, it is," he said. "And we felt if anyone was going to start coming at us or coming in with the nonsense, we're going to be ready for it. And we now see more and more how insane this administration is, how insane Donald Trump is, and he has to be gotten out. And we've got to get back on track with this country. That's all. So, however we can do something with this festival to oppose him and all the destruction he's responsible for, we're there."The administration's usual response to De Niro's criticism is that he has "Trump Derangement Syndrome." Asked to comment, De Niro replied, "'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is because of what he's done. They revert it. He reverts things and inverts them and twists them around. It's a lot of silly nonsense. A three-year-old could do it. That's just a way to deflect, and we all know that. But the point is, things being said now here have to be allowed to be said." CBS News De Niro's a little less willing to talk about all he's done to bring downtown back, but the city speaks for itself – and he says he never feared it wouldn't recover from 9/11. "I always felt it would come back," he said. "It could never not come back. Like anything, it could take time."In 25 years, the Tribeca Festival has brought thousands of films and millions of dollars to Lower Manhattan; helped launch the careers of directors like Ryan Coogler and Camien Chazelle, among others; and, yes, it also helped revive a city. "I'm very proud of what we've done," he said. "That's all."And while there are many film festivals in the world, he admits Tribeca needed this one. "Yeah, we did, I think."To watch a trailer for the documentary "Tribeca 25," click on the video player below: TRIBECA 25 Official Trailer | Coming to Netflix September 11 by Tribeca on YouTube For more info:Tribeca Festival (Official site)"Tribeca 25" debuts on Netflix September 11 Story produced by John D'Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler. Remembering 9/11: Where tragedy left its marksRemembering 9/11: Andrew Card on the moment everything changedRemembering 9/11: When Gander provided safe haven in a time of crisisRemembering 9/11: "Come From Away": Transforming tragedy into art, darkness into lightRemembering 9/11: 9/11 changed the U.S.; Can we change back?See more:Tribeca Festival at 25: NYC festival celebrates music, Broadway and New York stories In: Robert De Niro 9/11 Tribeca Festival