Sir Elton launches film festival

Music from Sir Elton John helped launch the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

In a waterfront celebration a stone's throw from where the World Trade Centre towers stood, the festival got under way with Cameron Crowe's documentary on the collaboration between John and Leon Russell, The Union.

It was followed by a short performance by John.

"I'm honoured. I'm frightened," said John, introducing the film he had yet to see himself.

The event was held outdoors and for free at the World Financial Plaza, where the hole in the skyline is still deeply felt and the rebuilding construction is prominent.

The locale was fitting, since it was the attacks of September 11, 2001, that initially drove Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal and her husband, the entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff, to found the festival with the aim of revitalising its namesake neighbourhood and Manhattan.

"The Tribeca Film Festival started nine years ago with a flash of inspiration and a surge of passion," said Rosenthal. "I could have never have imagined that we would find ourselves here today nearly a decade later."

The festival trotted out other attractions too, including a performance of Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles with the PS22 elementary school choir, remarks from comedian Denis Leary and an introduction from Martin Scorsese.

"For me, movies and music have been inseparable. They always have been and they always will be," said Scorsese. "And I know that the same holds true for Cameron Crowe."

The Union documents the studio sessions between John and his hero, Russell, a famed singer, songwriter and piano player who was a ubiquitous session player early in his career and has been a sometimes-forgotten legend from the earlier days of rock 'n' roll.

Crowe, whose films include Almost Famous and Say Anything, captures the two musicians working with producer T Bone Burnett and John's long-time lyricist, Bernie Taupin, as well as numerous guest musicians.

Though Russell is apprehensive at the start of the collaboration - which would result in the album The Union - the 69-year-old is gradually stirred and enlivened by the work.