TRIBECA
2006
After 14 years in the making, it was triumph enough just to finish the film, but to then be invited to the Tribeca Film Festival and to have Dorothy’s image projected onto the Big Screen was an honor that brought me to tears.
I stuck up flyers in neighborhoods known to Dorothy: Chinatown… Little Italy… Lower Manhattan - one on a light pole on Kenmare St. where Dorothy had once lived. I sat in parks where she sat in protest during the Civil Defense Drills. My New York experience was surreal and often emotional - my hotel was just a few blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.
The last night of the festival was the awards party in Chinatown. All the hard efforts of the volunteers, the staffers, the founders and fellow filmmakers, were applauded and celebrated. Through the crowd I spotted Albert Maysles, the great documentarian. We had met years earlier and he remained supportive of my endeavor. He kissed my forehead and said “Dorothy Day, I love that woman!”
Being included in the ultimate New York City party (The Tribeca Film Festival), to have Albert Maysles anoint my forehead... to have friends fly in... to have a premiere party at Elaine's... to have cameraman Sam Shinn and editor Alejandro Valdes-Rochin present... to have those who knew Dorothy Day in the audiences, was all beyond my wildest dreams.
Thank you Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff
(Founders of the Tribeca Film Festival)
