Martin Scorsese Helps Kick Off Tribeca Film Festival

The 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival was commenced on Wednesday night with a community celebration held on the lower Manhattan waterfront near Ground Zero. Festivities included a performance by Elton John, including classic songs such as "Tiny Dancer" and "Rocket Man," and appearances by legendary director Martin Scorsese and Denis Leary. Appearing at the festival this year are a wide range of new independent features, shorts and documentaries, including Last Night, a relationship drama starring Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington, and The Union, a rockumentary about the making of the Elton John/Leon Russell album of the same name, as well as old favorites such as Alan Parker's Fame and The Muppets Take Manhattan. The festival was founded in 2001 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, in an attempt to boost lower Manhattan's economic and cultural recovery after the September 11 attacks. –ZACHARY BLOCK