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Scott Rechler: Welcome to Recalibrate Reality: The Future of New York. Our guest today is Jane Rosenthal, an Oscar and Emmy nominated producer and the CEO of Enterprises. Jane and her business partner, , established the shortly after the attacks of September 11th. In this episode, Jane and I discuss the complexity of playing the first in-person film festival in North America since the pandemic began, and how this year's festival will help play a role in the recovery for all of New York City. And so now, let's Recalibrate Reality with Jane Rosenthal. Jane, welcome to Recalibrate Reality.

Jane Rosenthal: Thanks, Scott. Nice to be here.

Scott Rechler: It's great. And I appreciate you taking the time. I know you're busy. You have the 20th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival coming up on June 9th. And of course, you're doing this coming off of the worst pandemic in over a 100 years. So it's obviously an extraordinary time for you, but I'd like to start giving you a little bit of background how Tribeca Film Festival actually started, because I'm not sure people really realize that it really started post 9/11. It's become such a great institution as its own standing. So maybe you can give a little background about the formation, those early days post 9/11 and how the Tribeca Film Festival came about?

Jane Rosenthal: Well, our offices that Bob De Niro and I have, our downtown Tribeca Film Center. We've been here for 30 years, but who's counting? And after, I was a block and a half south when the first plane hit the tower on West Street, and just trying to get out of the area. Shortly thereafter, must have been like four weeks later, I went downtown and went to Little Italy and there was nobody on the streets. There was nobody in the restaurants, and it was at that point I thought, "Okay, what happens if I could get 10 friends to invite 10 friends and maybe we'd have a 100 people and we could go into Little Italy and help the restaurants." And it was more about have a meal and save a job. So we did that right away. And within, the first one had about 400 people.

Jane Rosenthal: And the second one we did had 700, and then the third one had over a 1,000. And it was at that point that we had thought, and then Bob and I had talked about doing a film festival, but you don't quit your day job and start a film festival. And it was, "Okay if there was ever a time to start a film festival, it would have been right then, because the world didn't need another film festival, but at that moment in time Tribeca did." We needed something to look forward to. We needed something to tell people it was okay, not just to come downtown, because people didn't want to come from uptown downtown, but to tell the world that we were fine. And no better way to do that then through film and through the gathering together of people and artists separately, when that first film festival we had invited Nelson Mandela to come and speak, and it wasn't ... It was like, it was we announced we're doing a film festival November 2001.

Jane Rosenthal:

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We're still in a city that was so much in that recovery mode. We hadn't gone to rebuilding at that point. And we just didn't think you could have movies and have people start coming to movies. So we had asked Mandela to come and speak, and he did. And we were on the steps of City Hall. Mike Bloomberg, Pataki, Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Mandela. And he got up and talked about the power of movies that when he was in Robben Island, the one night that he would look forward to was a movie night, because it was that night that he and his jailers were one. They laughed at the same things. They talked about the same things. They talked about family. It was no longer that sense of who's the prisoner and who is the jailer. They were human beings. And he talked about the capacity of what movies and entertainment could, how it just brings people together. And that was very much in our minds when we had started Tribeca.

Scott Rechler: When you first did the festival after 9/11, did you expect this to be an annual event?

Jane Rosenthal: No, I didn't expect it to be an annual event at all. And not only that, but I had no clue when we started and we had announced basically Q4 of 2001 that we were doing something, second quarter of 2002, that any potential sponsors would have already spent their money. So suddenly we're out there. And it was also when you said something about 120 days. My attitude was as a producer, "Okay, I can prep a movie in three months. I could prep a film festival." It was ignorance was bliss. Because I think had I realized everything, it would never have happened. And Craig [inaudible 00:05:49] was also instrumental and very helpful at that time. And it was actually Ken Chenault who was then at American Express, agreed to come in and sponsor the festival.

Jane Rosenthal: And it wasn't that, "Oh, this is it." He wasn't even sure what we were doing exactly, but he was reopening American Express and their office was downtown. And he really did it as, really supported us as a chance to give his employees something to look forward to when they came back. I remember being on my way home after that first festival and Bob called me and asked me about something, and I gave him the answer and he said, "Well, why didn't you tell me, you know, next year." I was like, "Next year? You've got to be kidding." Here we are-

Scott Rechler: 20 years later. But as you said, ignorance is bliss. The other day I think that listening to you, and you're seeing these, that in these crises like this, there's chaos and then comes clarity, right? I mean, there's this chaos is the, how are you going to put something together like this? But you're a producer, and you're going to just start plowing, moving forward then step-by-step and then there was the clarity of the film festival, and voila.

Jane Rosenthal: Yeah, voila, just take off. That's what I always say. It was kind of, that's why I always like the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy, who could just click her heels and go home. I'm still trying to click my heels and go home, but it's ... Look, we approached things those first several years. And I suppose we still do at this time, like where no is not an option. So how are we going to make it work?

Scott Rechler:

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Well, it's perseverance, right? That's really a key thing through these moments is you need to persevere through these challenges. But I think one of the things, and I commend you because I feel a lot of people, as we came through the pandemic felt because we had to isolate, that almost was an excuse to not take action. And whereas again, you think post 9/11 there was this call to action, here there was a period of time we sort of surrendered to the virus for public safety reasons. But the reality is you planned, you could actually move forward in a safe and responsible way and find ways to help reactivate our city, re-energize our city, and bring it back to life, which is more important now than ever before after what we've just lived through these last year plus months.

Jane Rosenthal: I was obsessed with how we were going to be able to gather again. Very much so, because that inclination after 9/11 was to be able to bring people together safely and be able to give people again a new memory and something to look forward to. So how are we going to ever be able to gather? It's our human instinct is to give somebody a hug, is to hold their hands and how are we going to be able to do that? So it was, so we were determined.

Scott Rechler: One of the themes that comes up a lot as we've talked about the COVID experience versus 9/11 was that 9/11 gave us the ability to all to come together and try to work our way through the crisis. I think the film festival is a great example, whereas COVID part of the challenge was, we're owned by design of trying for public health purposes, staying apart, right? Almost instinctively countered everything that we think about in terms of our community, but even in the face of that you now have decided to do another film festival. And you started that, when did you start to think about having this festival?

Jane Rosenthal: You know, we started planning a year ago, but that said, we were pivoting our festival a year ago into a virtual film festival. At which point we also did a series of drive-ins all over the country and Orchard Beach and Nickerson Beach here in New York. We then, we immediately started planning for what would happen in 2021. At the time we started you didn't ... Who thought that it was going to be this long? You were thinking at the time that you were going to have to be isolated for a month, no one ever thought it was this amount of time. But as we looked at the schedule and as we started planning for this festival, we really looked at being outdoors and we knew we could move our dates, the whole industry's calendar of film festivals and awards had changed.

Jane Rosenthal: So we started planning for an outdoor event. We're going to be in all the boroughs and from the Bronx to the Battery, Staten Island, Brooklyn. We have traveling screens going around to all different neighborhoods, a schedule of that can be found on our Tribeca Film Festival website. And it's going to be exciting. I mean, we're doing things differently and that's what you have to do during these times. But it's also exciting about the creativity that comes out of that as you're forced to do something that pulls you out of your comfort zone.

Scott Rechler: Even you go back to 9/11, right? Or you said 120 days you planned the first film festival. If it wasn't for that adrenaline and that desire to have the impact on New York when it needed the most, you wouldn't have been able to do. And here, again, you're sort of rising to the occasion, because it sounds like you

RR Rosenthal Podcast Audio (Completed 06/02/21) Page 3 of 10 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jun 02, 2021 - view latest version here. were planning this where still there was unclear if there was going to be the need for extreme social distancing, face mask wearing. And while some of that has subsided, you've had to plan a whole festival, assuming there was going to be all these different restrictions, and doing it outdoors, and bring it to not just Manhattan, all of New York.

Jane Rosenthal: It's been a challenge, but I suppose after 19 years it's nice to have a new challenge. And we work very closely with the Department of Health, New York State Department of Health in terms of what they believe the guidelines were going to be by June. And so we knew that we would have to be socially distanced. You can purchase your pods and or reserve your pods in two or four pods right now where it's six feet apart. I do hope that they'll go to three feet apart. And we also announced that with fully vaccinated audiences we're going to open Radio City on June 19th for our closing night. And that will be, it will be a 100% capacity. So again, fully vaccinated. So that will be exciting for us.

Scott Rechler: In terms of the events that you're having outdoors and at Radio City, I mean, can you give us a feel in terms of just some of the outdoor locations and what is your big finale going to be this year at Radio City?

Jane Rosenthal: Our outdoor locations are at the Battery. That's one of our largest locations, or at Brookfield Place, it's a smaller location, Hudson Yards. We're also at Pier 76, part of the Hudson River Park Trust. Now it will be, it goes from, it used to be the tow pound, where the first, the event that will happen on Pier 76 in that park. We're also at Empire Outlets and Staten Island and MetroTech Commons in Brooklyn. So all over the place. And then our borough to borough chart scope from Flushing Meadows and Rockaway Beach, Astoria Park, then Cortland, Soundview and Gladwin Park.

Scott Rechler: So every New Yorker can have a taste of the Tribeca Film Festival this year?

Jane Rosenthal: Absolutely. And if you can't actually get to one of our physical locations, you can go onto our site and we've launched Tribeca At Home, which is, you'll see the second screenings of films that are in competition. Plus some films that didn't have their premieres here last year, that will be premiering this year and some other special treats along the way. So that's at Tribeca At Home if you can't make it physically to the festival.

Scott Rechler: In terms of the Radio City, which I think is great that you're going to be able to bring in full capacity like that. It's got to be one of the first venues of full capacity, I guess it's actually probably the first physical film festival post pandemic also, right?

Jane Rosenthal: Correct. We're the first film festival in person in North America, so since the pandemic started. So, there's a lot of different logistics than you've have in years past, especially where you're screening, we

RR Rosenthal Podcast Audio (Completed 06/02/21) Page 4 of 10 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jun 02, 2021 - view latest version here. have these giant LED screens, so we can screen in the afternoon. And again, even the Spring Studios, which we use as a hub where we're screening a lot of our VR installations, those are now done where you'd have a lot of people in that room. Those are now done timed and ticketed. So allowing you to see all the installations, but we're moving people through in a timed capacity. So, they're just, there've been a lot of changes for us. I think something like what we're doing with our VR installations is actually a good thing and something we should adopt moving forward.

Scott Rechler: And this just speaks so much of what is great about New York, right? And the resilience that we have as a city going back post 9/11. And again, here we are hit with another crisis and when people would always ask, "How's New York going to survive?" It's really, it's the business community, it's the civic community, it's the cultural community that comes together and sort of takes on the mission of rebuilding, of re-energizing our city. And re-imagining it for what that recovery would be. And the resilience that we have. And I think this is, you're leading the way here, which is fantastic. And I think the other thing that we've seen is outgrowth of each of these crises has been new things. So the Tribeca Film was an outgrowth of 9/11. Now, even the way that you're thinking about the film festival going forward, you'll probably have a lot of these different elements of them continue to be able to touch more New Yorkers, tell more stories, give New Yorkers an ability to understand and have access to the things they otherwise wouldn't have access to.

Jane Rosenthal: Without question. Plus it allows us to transport our projects, the work of these new filmmakers to all parts of the country. So that's exciting. And to have more of a national audience and eventually more of an international audience, but it doesn't go, just because you're streaming something on your computer doesn't mean that you don't want to gather, and that you don't want to see comedies and laugh together. Because there's nothing like that. Like great big laughter you hear when you're together with a big audience, or hearing music with people. So one experience doesn't preclude the other, they're just different. And hopefully we'll all get to enjoy both, whether it's at Tribeca or at Radio City or at a Broadway show.

Scott Rechler: And I think that that sort of speaks to one of the great debates post this pandemic, which is that now that people have seen that they can do things remotely, the question is that a genie out of the bottle and that more things are going to be done remotely, either through video streaming or video conference or in person. I know when it comes to workplaces, the question about whether people are going to work from home or come back to the workplaces, and similarly, as you were describing, the feeling of community and engagement and energy, you don't get that sitting by yourself at home or get that streaming with someone, or video conferencing with someone. I wonder though, as you think about streaming and movie theaters, right? Because there's some elements of different sectors of the economy that may become obsolete or not as competitive in a post-COVID world, do you think that streaming video is going to be something that impacts people going to movie theaters in the future?

Jane Rosenthal: I think the movie theater business model has had to change for a while. And certainly when you look at the day and date and the windowing of theatrical releases, so that's had to change, that's had to change for a while. And it was, I produced the movie, , and at the time 2019, Netflix was asking the

RR Rosenthal Podcast Audio (Completed 06/02/21) Page 5 of 10 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jun 02, 2021 - view latest version here. theaters for a, I believe it was a six week window, exclusive window in the theater before it was going to go on the platform. And they were saying, "No, they only wanted three months," which wasn't the Netflix model. Netflix then went to a number of independent theaters. And we were in over 1,200 independent theaters and even more internationally. So, that model has had to change. That doesn't mean that just because you watched it, stream on whatever device you want, that you don't want to go to a movie theater.

Jane Rosenthal: I strongly believe that movie theaters have to just change that experience. It was, so much of it was about leaning back and having a glass of wine and in these smaller venues. I think we want bigger venues and we want a real experience. It's going to take you to another place. So it will be interesting to see how theaters are going to recalibrate. That said, I think we're all just tired of being on Zoom and can't wait to be in a theater and see things where you're also not staring at yourself.

Scott Rechler: Right, now, there's no doubt there's a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for social interaction. And I think that's going to be, you're going to see that as I'm sure the film festival unfolds with the amount of energy of all of the participants as it comes out. But I think post that to your point, I think all businesses, all organizations are going to have to say, "Okay, what was true yesterday is not going to necessarily be true in a post-pandemic world and have to pivot and start thinking about a post- pandemic playbook to run their business, to get the best of some of the virtual new tools that we've seen and the best of being together in locations, but make those experiences as meaningful as possible like you were describing for the movie theaters?

Jane Rosenthal: Without question, that's going to have to be, I mean, that's going to have to be in office spaces too. What do you do to make that experience more enjoyable? I think we've also discovered that workplace is not just your physical location, and it will be different, but I think it's potentially exciting. I also think when I think about the city, I mean, the city at a certain point was not affordable for a certain kind of artist to come here and work, whether it's actors or other performing arts. And I think the city is going to just benefit tremendously from a new wave of people coming in that are new creative forces. You think about whether it was Soho in the '70s, and artists coming in or Tribeca and artists coming in and then everybody else wants to move in after that, but.

Scott Rechler: Yeah, well, I think that's where we really as a city come together post-COVID and say, "Okay, how are we going to re-imagine ourselves and try to reinvent ourselves to be better than we were before?" And affordability of housing and creating those vibrancy of the neighborhoods and dealing with some of the capacity that we had on our transit systems and new things that had come popped up, like outdoor dining that has changed the nature of our streetscapes are great assets that hopefully we'll continue to embrace and will enhance the character of our communities.

Scott Rechler: I wanted to pivot for a second to something, and I also have always found special about Tribeca is throughout the 20 years, is your focus on giving voice to the voiceless and the storytelling, and focusing on social inequities and issues that we're developing that people were trying to understand, and you,

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Tribeca would provide films and documentaries that would provide different perspectives, as well as people being brought together. And now in particular, coming off of what we've just come through where we've had such a clear inequities of how COVID hit and from a public health standpoint on what our recovery is going to be going forward. And some of the communities that have been sort of more of the marginalized communities in this situation, in this, the Tribeca Film Festival, what are you doing in terms of thinking through and sort of really promoting awareness of some of the social inequities?

Jane Rosenthal: Well, first of all, Tribeca has always been about having diverse voices, if you think that we were started because of an act of war in essence, and wanting to hear both sides of a story. There's nothing like looking at a film in a room with a group of people, a documentary where you're going to hear different points of view, whether you like them or not. And the one thing about watching a film sometimes is you have to listen, you can't talk over somebody, you have to listen. And that has been some of what goes on that has gone on in our body politic and news, the various news shows, people just talk over each other, you can't hear. So again, it's Tribeca has always been about diverse voices.

Jane Rosenthal: This year our closing night is on June 10th. So we have a day-long celebration of black creators and all different subject matters. We're highlighting black creators throughout all of our different verticals, whether that's in podcasting, or in our VR, or documentaries or shorts, and really celebrating the voices of the African diaspora, with again a special emphasis on African American artists and filmmakers. We're going to give the first Harry Belafonte Award for artists in activism, this year it will go to, Stacey Abrams will be here. So that will be a very special day. One of my favorite films in the festival that will be screening on June 10th is an extraordinary documentary about Dick Gregory and what he went through as both an extraordinary comic, but how he was this truth teller and really his, the part he played in the civil rights movement and how he really had to throw his whole body into what he did to, into his activism to make his point.

Jane Rosenthal: That's just a really terrific doc. And then we will also, closing night at Radio City is a film that we haven't announced yet, but will shortly. It's the untitled Dave Chappelle movie, and Dave will be here and a special performance by a number of musical guests afterwards. So we'll screen his film and then we'll go have a party.

Scott Rechler: I've always been left the film festival, like with more insights about different people, different cultures, different character. And to your point, it feels like when, particularly some of those documentaries you're stepping in to watch someone's life unfold and that you otherwise wouldn't have seen and have new perspective for. So it's something that I think it's a gift to New York. And when I also think about New York and film, one of the things I always think is special about New York is that it's probably the one city, maybe there's Paris also, that itself is a character in so many films, right? And I love, so I want to just out of curiosity, if you had to think about of a couple of films where New York plays the starring role, what would some of your favorite New York films be?

Jane Rosenthal:

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Well, there's Breakfast at Tiffany's, because I have to. If you look at Goodfellows, Taxi Driver, I'm not just saying that because of authors or iconic movies, King Kong, Harry Met Sally. I mean that was, I don't know, there's so many movies made in New York. It was going back to that first festival when we started to raise money and talk about it. The first thing I just remember saying is, "I fell in love. As a kid growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, I fell in love with New York through the movies." And now New York needed the movies to come back. And that's, I love New York as a character and I think why I always wanted to live here.

Scott Rechler: One thing I love about New York and you're doing it right, is this sense of civic engagement and love for and passion for the city. I had Marcus Samuelsson on, and he was talking about his commitment in response to COVID of being so actively involved and trying to deal with the public health crisis. And the community was reflecting on his time of watching people, how they responded in 9/11, and watching other restaurateurs and people like yourself. And it shows you that it's sort of as a community, we pass that forward, the sense of responsibility amongst ourselves to make sure that our city thrives.

Scott Rechler: I want one last question for you. So we have the mayor race coming up in June, and whoever probably wins the Democratic primary is going to probably be our next mayor. And I've been asking each of the guests a question relative to their expertise in the mayor. And you are not someone that shies away from being tapped for public service or advice in this regard. So if the mayor called you and said, "Jane, I need to make sure that New York City stays the predominant center of arts, culture, the theater, the magnet for the greatest talent around the world that want to come live and work here. What would you recommend some of the key things that I do from a policy standpoint to ensure New York maintains that position in the world?

Jane Rosenthal: Well, if you're looking at it and talking to me strictly as somebody in the arts, then I would say, "We certainly need more space for working artists here to exist. They need studios. We need rehearsal spaces. We need better tax credits to ensure that people are going to come here and continue to work." So those are just a handful of things that you start to look for in terms of the arts. That said, there's a lot of stuff that we need to do as a city to get our infrastructure back up and running. And certainly with broadband for all is one example how we can start pushing that forward in terms of the inequity in our systems.

Scott Rechler: I think also, Jane, and you've said it before, even on the ... One of the things about New York is diversity of talent. And I've seen that in Tribeca over the years, and not having things like broadband puts people at a disadvantage to be able to share that talent, or have the opportunity to grow and expose their skills, so. But what you laid out I think are clear, we have to think about the ingredients that makes New York what New York is. And one of those ingredients are having our creative class, our actors, our artists, and that diversity of actors and artists that are here. So we need to make sure that there's the affordability, there's the space and the infrastructure in place where they can thrive in the city, or the city is not going to be the city.

Jane Rosenthal:

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It felt so weird. When you think about this, when you just said the city not being the city. To hear the silence in the city was one of the saddest things. I mean, there were so many different moments that tore your heart away during this pandemic, but hearing that sound of silence, seeing nobody on the streets. Seeing nobody in restaurants or stores was just heartbreaking, but the silence itself was really, it was really heartbreaking.

Scott Rechler: Yeah, no, I remember my first day back in the office in June of last year, coming off the subway and walking down the streets and seen all of the restaurants boarded up and just being alone on 50th Street, walking down, and to your point, it felt like there was just such a large void of in a city that usually had so much energy around it, that it felt like it sucked a part of your own life out of you when you went and we're in the city and that. But it's changing, thanks to leaders like yourself that are as passionate about our city and making sure that we have a path forward. And I think Tribeca is going to play a great role in that this year. So I look forward to it. And I appreciate you taking the time today to share your thoughts with us. And again, thank you for all you do for the city and your leadership.

Jane Rosenthal: Oh, thank you, Scott for all you do too, I appreciate that.

Scott Rechler: Thank you, Jane.

Jane Rosenthal: You've been to the festival, so we appreciate you so much. So thank you.

Scott Rechler: Thank you. I look forward to seeing you at the festival, and keep pushing through, have the adrenaline carry you through, it's only a couple of weeks left.

Jane Rosenthal: It will, it will.

Scott Rechler: All right.

Jane Rosenthal: Thank you.

Scott Rechler: Thanks, Jane, be safe. I'll speak to you soon, bye-bye. That concludes this week's episode of Recalibrate Reality. Nelson Mandela once said that, "Movies are a powerful and evocative tool for fostering understanding, and through that a tolerance of the world." Movies and storytelling as a whole give us the freedom to experience a world that is different than ours. They have the power to educate, to connect and to help gain a better understanding of the world. And after the horrific experience of

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COVID-19, along with humanitarian and economic crisis left in its wake, we need movies and the power of storytelling more than ever. Thank you again to Jane Rosenthal on Tribeca Film. Thank you to the Regional Plan Association and the 92nd Street Y, and thank you to the team for making this week's episode possible. From 75 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, I'm Scott Rechler. See you next week.

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