CityViews: What's In Store At This Year's Star-Studded Tribeca Film Festival

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- In this installment of CityViews, Sharon Barnes-Waters sits down with Cara Cusumano, the Director of Programming for the Tribeca Film Festival, which kicks off next month.

The festival, now in its 16th edition, was first held in a city still reeling from the 9/11 attacks. From the smoldering ashes of the downtown area, it gave New Yorkers a reason to smile and even dare laugh again.

"Our first festival was in 2002 and the mission was really about bringing people back downtown and creating a moment of community for people to come together around film," Cusumano says. "Really help revitalize that neighborhood when it needed it the most."

Years later, that mission has evolved.

"We've really become a key event in the film calendar, and become a storytelling festival, and something that can embrace not only film but the breadth of creative work that's being done on television, online, we have an amazing talk series," she says. "So the scope of the festival and the ways that we have interacted with the artistic community and the New York community have really grown."

The festival also draws some famous supporters.

"This year, you know, we have Barbra Streisand will be here as part of our talk series. We have a wonderful director series where we just speak with filmmakers, and Paul Feig is going be part of that, Alejandro Inarritu, Jon Favreau," she says. "So we're really excited by the kinds of people who want to come and try and be part of this."

The 16th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival will be held April 19-30. For the full lineup of events and ticket information, click here.