7 Days In September
Just finished watching this excellent documentary about 9/11 on A&E. No doubt it will be showing on the west coast later tonight and it will likely be shown once or twice more in the week to come. I strongly recommend watching it.
The week surrounding 9/11 is shown through the eyes and lens of a number of amateur and documentary film makers who took to the streets of New York City in the wake of the tragedy. Moments swing from the momentous to the mundane, from world-shattering realities to the most intimate and normal of actions. The two hour documentary is tremendously powerful, intense and moving, catching scenes that two years later can still stop the heart with emotion and horror.
One scene continues to stay with me. They show people passing out chalk in Union Square to allow the passersby to express their thoughts on the sidewalk, comfort to families, political statements. And they show people reacting to these statements, arguing where America should go from here. An older man and a young woman are shown yelling at each other, one for and one against going to war. During their heated debate they come to realize that two days earlier they were both part of rescue teams finding bodies at Ground Zero and as the woman breaks down saying, "How am I to process this? How? How?" the man takes her in his arms to comfort her, the divisions between them neutralized for the moment by their common grief.
The documentary is followed up with a round-table with the same film makers two years later, within the last few weeks (one woman references the black-out).
Riveting television, sensitive and insightful. I hope a lot of people see it.
The week surrounding 9/11 is shown through the eyes and lens of a number of amateur and documentary film makers who took to the streets of New York City in the wake of the tragedy. Moments swing from the momentous to the mundane, from world-shattering realities to the most intimate and normal of actions. The two hour documentary is tremendously powerful, intense and moving, catching scenes that two years later can still stop the heart with emotion and horror.
One scene continues to stay with me. They show people passing out chalk in Union Square to allow the passersby to express their thoughts on the sidewalk, comfort to families, political statements. And they show people reacting to these statements, arguing where America should go from here. An older man and a young woman are shown yelling at each other, one for and one against going to war. During their heated debate they come to realize that two days earlier they were both part of rescue teams finding bodies at Ground Zero and as the woman breaks down saying, "How am I to process this? How? How?" the man takes her in his arms to comfort her, the divisions between them neutralized for the moment by their common grief.
The documentary is followed up with a round-table with the same film makers two years later, within the last few weeks (one woman references the black-out).
Riveting television, sensitive and insightful. I hope a lot of people see it.