Tribeca Film Festival Kicks Off With Al Gore

The 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival opened up on Wednesday evening with a gala hosted by former Vice President Al Gore, along with showings of nine SOS shorts. The festival has attempted to expand its social mission with a line-up consisting of numerous global warming-themed films.

According to mLive reports, "The festival, which was founded after the Sept. 11 attacks to rejuvenate Lower Manhattan, opened with the premiere of nine short films produced by SOS (Save Our Selves), an organization to raise awareness on climate change."

Al Gore, who starred in the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," said artists play an important role in the movement.

"Art, music, film, dance, poetry — all the arts — have long been our greatest tools to explore the regions of imagination that defy our efforts to think rationally about subjects that our emotions tell us are too painful to contemplate," Gore stated.

Tribeca, which held its first festival in 2002, was founded by Robert De Niro, his producing partner, Jane Rosenthal, and her husband, the entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff.

"The Tribeca Film Festival sprang from needs of community," Rosenthal said. "We've learned that every bit helps."