Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and actor Robert De Niro has once again defended his decision to back “Vaxxed”, the controversial anti-vaccination documentary pulled from the movie gala’s schedule following a critical uproar online.
The 72-year-old actor, whose 18-year-old son suffers from autism, appeared on the “Today” show on NBC to re-state his belief that “Vaxxed” should have been shown at the annual film festival he curates, reported Entertainment Weekly. “I think the movie is something that people should see. There was a backlash I haven’t fully explored, and I will but I didn’t want it to start affecting the festival in ways I couldn’t see. But definitely there is something to that movie.”
“Vaxxed” is directed by the British ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped of his practitioner’s license after an article he published in the Lancet in the late ‘90s argued that MMR vaccinations were linked to children developing autism as they got older. Those findings were found to be based on false data, but Wakefield has continued to campaign on the matter.
De Niro said that he wasn’t against the principle of vaccination, but he argued that he “wanted to know the truth” and had hoped to open the matter to debate by screening the film. “There is something there that people aren’t addressing,” he said, adding that part of him does regret removing “Vaxxed” from the schedule. At the end of March, the decision was taken by De Niro in consultation with the New York festival’s organisers to remove “Vaxxed” from its billing, despite the star’s vocal support for the film
Source: PTI
