People have a tendency to stereotype shorts as being a means to an end (for filmmakers to) eventually produce a full-length feature. On the contrary, these short films stand on their own.
The aim is to give people a kind of handle on what's going on in this troubled world.
My colleagues and I are pleased to have been able to select an especially strong group of films and eagerly await the opportunity to share our excitement about them with our audiences.
These are the kind of films that are the responsibility of a festival.
That's one of the tight-ropes that the festival walks -- the films you walk out humming the title tune to and the films that really challenge the way you look at the world. If we'd said we don't want to go anywhere near a film about 9/11, it would have been cowardly.
New York is a big town and has the biggest of everything, so it should not be daunted by having a huge festival.