Robert De Niro And NYC Mayor Eric Adams Fete Common With Social Justice Tribute – Tribeca Festival
deadline.comCommon said working on the film Selma turned him into an activist and that a recent seven-month stay in London, where police don’t carry guns, “felt like a weight was off my shoulders” as he talked over his life and career at an event awarding him the Tribeca Festival’s second annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award.NYC Mayor Eric Adams made a surprise cameo at the fest, which has been dotting the city with films, talks and music for 21 years now except during pandemic-shuttered 2020. “I think about this amazing festival which opened after 9-11 when no one thought we could come back.
Covid is not terrorism, but it brought terror… But we came back,” Adams said, praising the musician, actor and philanthropist for his efforts in prisons and schools and for using his work as artist for social justice.Common played civil rights activist James Bevel in Selma, the 2014 film by Ava DuVernay.
It won the Best Original Song Oscar for ‘Glory,’ by Common and John Legend. The song also took the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
The film was nominated for Best Picture.The Chicago native said his mother first planted the seeds of activism and that he’d already launched his Common Ground Foundation, dedicated to empowering high school students from underserved communities to become future leaders.
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