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 Jon H from Finland at JonHs.net
has pulled together a remarkable list of 9-11 related documentaries
online. All are free to watch and most are created by unfunded groups
and individuals. There's a few extreme conspiracy theories but it's is
still an impresive collective example of citzen filmmaking.
So much seems to have happened in the five years since
Tom ran up the stairs of the Netribution office building to the roof to
tell me that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Centre. He'd
watched the second plane hit live after his brother had called from The
Ivy asking what was going on as two of the more powerful people in
British news were besieged during their lunch by frantic paging. I meanwhie had just
filmed Natty, a politically alert British rapper perform his song
'There's A War Going on Outside'.
The rest of the day was a surreal rush around London in a daze of shock,
interviewing other socially driven hiphop heads such as Task Force,
Rodney P, Skitz and Fallacy. It was the first - and indeed last - time
I had paid-up camera and sound assistants working for me and in the
midst of this I managed to not ask some of the UK's best and most
conscious rappers one single question about what was going off around
us, instead just sticking to script. (and I still haven't forgiven
myself).
And then coming home, curling up with my
girlfriend, who didn't want to watch the TV, yet still watching mesmerised the
same footage on channel after channel, with tear filled eyes. The next
day I remember driving with Tom to a recording studio, with all the
newspapers we could buy. We wondered if it was the beginning of the end
and if nuclear strikes would begin the first wave of retribution, yet it didn't make us
deviate from our shot list. I wonder what it would have taken.
Below the links is the write-up from Dashiel St Damien - our then
New York correspondent - shortly after the planes first hit. I find her
cheerfulness amidst the tragedy poignant still.
Documentaries
9/11 Related
9/11 Lectures & Conferences
9/11 Interviews & TV-shows & Programs
9/11 Short, Important Video Clips
9/11 Audio
9/11 Written (links)
9/11 News (links)
big apple peelings by dashiel st damien | from new york | September 12, 2001
The End of the World (Trade Center) is Nigh!
On
Sunday we tuned in to see "Band of Brothers" mainly to see whom we knew
in it. We carried on watching cos it’s pretty bloody good and it got me
to thinking about a way of life that complacent Gen X’s like myself
cannot comprehend.
A few years
ago a visiting American friend made a rather glib "It was so long ago,
who cares" comment about the VE /VJ celebrations to my parental units.
This lead to one of those protracted "you don’t know you’re born. We
slept under the dining table, went to school wearing a gas mask, had
only one egg to feed a family of nine for a month!" sort of lectures.
We squirmed. They were, as parents so often are, of course completely
right. I know we hear the "we shall not forget" speeches, but we do. We
have.
I vaguely remember the
Falklands but it was so far away. Kuwait was made personal because my
boyfriend at the time was sent, I knew guys that didn’t come back, but
even so it was still far away.
I am
British- grew up in Blighty but buggered off to NY for university and
drama school and been here ever since, this is my home; the explosion
was three blocks from my old office. My apartment was in the area that
will be closed to civilians for the time being.
I
was in Harrods the day it was bombed - I had been pick pocketed.
Without money to shop, we went home. We missed it by an hour.
In 1993 I went to class opposite the world trade center. It was Friday,
my friends and I always met for lunch on the ground floor of the world
trade center on Friday. I had an exam that day but being the
bottom-snogging straight A student that I was, I wangled out of the
test. I wandered around the trade center but couldn’t be bothered to
wait another half hour for my friends. I went home. I heard the
explosion as I walked in to my flat.
Today,
I think, went some way to reminding us just what a privileged existence
we have. Suddenly getting a certain actor to commit to our feature or
the worrying wobble that my bottom has developed since becoming
car-bound in LA, didn’t seem all that important.
This
affects us all, it’s so awful and so close to home. By six degrees of
separation or less, there are few of us whose lives will not be
touched.
Three of the four
aeroplanes were scheduled to fly to LA, the Emmy award-winning producer
David Angel responsible for Frasier and Cheers amongst others, and his
wife Lynne was on one of those flights. The Emmy’s have been cancelled
for this weekend.
In NY last
month Madonna cancelled a concert due to laryngitis, there was to be no
make up concert but tickets were refunded except for those from
scalpers, they then intended to have a "no refund policy". Her LA
concert has also been cancelled I think EVERYONE will understand this
time. All sporting events are off and theme parks are closed. Even
Disneyland, the company that has had the temerity to publicize their
"Electrical Parade", in a time of electric shortages and rolling black
outs has closed their park. It is the first time since the
assassination of JFK.
As I write
this it is 12 hours since two planes crashed into the twin towers, 12
hours since I started watching the news. 12 hours since I started
trying to call NY. I still haven’t been able to get a line through. The
wonders of the Internet have meant I have received a lot of messages to
confirm the safety of my friends. It seems quite a few lives were saved
by "boring meetings uptown", or "running late to work". Well thank god
for hangovers and lousy subway services).
I still have many, many unanswered.
As
I write this I feel helpless, there is nothing I can do, I would like
to give blood, unfortunately I am black listed for life. I lived in the
UK during the 80’s. Despite being vegetarian I am still considered a
potential mad cow carrier. Of course I have an ex husband that believes
I have had it for quite a while!
Thoughts prayers and good wishes for us all…
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