The Tribeca Film Festival in New York City has pulled from its schedule this month a controversial documentary asserting a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism.
The actor Robert De Niro, a festival co-founder, had said in a statement March 25 that because he and his wife had a child with autism, “we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined.”
But there was a backlash to a festival platform that would include the film “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.” The film is directed by a British gastroenterologist whose study linking vaccines to autism was retracted by the medical journal The Lancet in 2010.
A day later, De Niro and Tribeca Film announced they were canceling the screening because “we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion.”
