Tribeca Film Festival pulls controversial anti-vaccination documentary

In an abrupt about-face, theTribeca Film Festival in New York has pulled a controversialanti-vaccination documentary a day after festival co-founderRobert De Niro publicly defended the decision to show Vaxxed:From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.

"My intent in screening this film was to provide anopportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeplypersonal to me and my family," De Niro said in a statement. "Butafter reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca FilmFestival team and others from the scientific community, we donot believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I hadhoped for."

Vaxxedis co-written and directed by Andrew Wakefield, aformer surgeon and medical researcher who published adiscredited 1998 research paper that claimed that the measles,mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism. Wakefieldwas accused of professional misconduct and falsifyinginformation in that study, and the Lancet, the journal that ranthe research, retracted the piece. The British doctor has beenbarred from practising medicine in the U.K.

Anti-vaccination movement led to increase in measles, mumps

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is nolink between vaccination and autism. The anti-vaccinationmovement has lowered vaccination rates, which in turn has beenlinked to a recurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases such asmeasles and mumps.

De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, have an autisticchild, and in a statement on Friday, the actor and director saidhe believed "it is critical that all of the issues surroundingthe causes of autism be openly discussed and examined."

The reaction on Twitter, Facebook and social media platformswas intense. The decision also was criticized in the creativecommunity, with documentary filmmaker Penny Lane (Our Nixon)writing an open letter to the festival saying that includingVaxxedthreatened its credibility.

In the face of mounting outrage, De Niro said that he hadbecome concerned about the content of the picture."The festival doesn't seek to avoid or shy away fromcontroversy," De Niro's statement continues. "However, we haveconcerns with certain things in this film that we feel preventus from presenting it in the festival program. We have decidedto remove it from our schedule."