From art house to blockbusters

The word “tentpole” is used to describe a blockbuster movie that can appeal to everyone. If it were applied to a festival, the Tribeca Film Festival would be it.

The sixth annual festival opens today with a wide selection of international art house fare, populist premieres and family friendly films -- 157 features and 88 shorts jammed into 12 days of screenings, panel discussions and parties.

Since being founded in response to the Sept. 11 attacks by Robert De Niro, his producing partner, Jane Rosenthal, and her husband, entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff, the Tribeca festival has gradually developed an identity as diverse as the city itself.

“We’re showing everything from an avant-garde film called ‘Passio’ with live music by Arvo Part at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine -- to ‘Spider-Man 3,’ ” said chief festival programmer and executive director Peter Scarlet.

“You can’t get two things that are more unlike each other, but it’s that almost surreal juxtaposition of different kinds of things that I think is an example of how we’re trying to redefine what a film festival is.”

Tribeca was launched in 2002, as Rosenthal says, because of an “act of war.” She and De Niro wanted to do something to benefit their neighborhood, just north of where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

They began with no long-term plans, but five years later, the festival has become an international fixture -- nestled between the more domestic Sundance Film Festival in January and the preeminent international fest, Cannes, in mid-May.

Because of its origins, Tribeca will always be defined by its connection to Sept. 11 and the continuing reverberations of that tragedy.

Though Tribeca in its early years intentionally opened with heartwarming comedies such as “About a Boy,” last year it confronted its history by opening with “United 93,” the documentary-like recounting of the flight that was hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

The festival has increasingly highlighted films that deal with post-Sept. 11 issues, such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. That mission expands this year with a series of global warming-themed short films produced by the SOS (Save Our Selves) campaign.