Twin Towers (2002) |
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Like the Naudet brothers' 9/11, Twin Towers began as a documentary about New York City's public safety workers and became a relevant record of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Law and Order producer Dick Wolf was looking for a new reality show and found a perfect, exciting group to film: NYPD Emergency Services Squad 3. This elite force is on call for a variety of extreme situations — armed sieges, rescues on ice, climbing massive bridges to help potential jumpers — making it a natural for Wolf's type of TV show. The program never aired, but the footage shot is the backbone for this Oscar-winning documentary short. The squad - who always wants to be first to the scene - took a heavy blow when the twin towers collapsed: 14 men died, including Joseph Vigiano, a talented officer who had roots in public service (his dad and brother were firefighters). In a brief 33 minutes, we hear from father John Sr. and the men of squad C about the brothers, the job, and that fateful September day. The film doesn't have the verisimilitude of 9/11 nor is it a dynamic film; it feels more like an excellently produced segment of a TV news magazine. Yet this tribute is unquestionably moving, effective, and a testament to everyday heroes.
- Doug Thomas
© Amazon.com. Used with permission.
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World Trade Center: Anatomy of the Collapse (2002) |
From the back cover: "The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were designed to be impervious to an attack by airplane. But the events of September 11 revealed a horrific flaw in the plans. Find out how and why the two towers, once thought to be indestructible, were reduced to rubble. CGI Graphics and eyewitness accounts unravel the split-second events of the 11th of September in visual detail, explaining the answers to the questions that haunt the American public." |
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World Trade Center: In Memoriam (2002) |
From the back cover: "For a time, its towers were the tallest buildings on earth, and The World Trade Center-an engineering marvel-came to symbolize American prosperity and strength. Recalling a more innocent era, this new production from The History Channel was filmed just months before the towers' tragic demise and subsequently enriched with heartfelt reflection from host Harry Smith. World Trade Center: In Memoriam charts the history of the towers' construction, revealing the controversies, decisions and innovations that surrounded the project, and-through interviews with those who proudly and ambitiously dreamt, designed and built the complex-examines the monument as both architectural achievement and cultural icon. What emerges is not ony a tribute to a building, but an inspiring and intimate story of the birth and growth of an American symbol." |
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WTC: The First 24 Hours (2002) |
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Beginning with the World Trade Center's North Tower afire and billowing dense smoke, and ending on the vast expanse of ash-brown debris the following morning, The First 24 Hours documents "ground zero" in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Shot independently over a 24-hour period, the film is first a witness to the fall of the twin towers, as a line of fire and a buckle in the armature signal imminent collapse. It is then an intimate view of the smoldering monochromatic site and the surrounding solitary streets, the ashen outskirts of New York's financial center, desolate and strewn with debris, the epicenter, a steel moonscape of Dresdenesque remains. People on the site work monotonously, in a fervor, then dazed, trance-like. The images speak for themselves, intentionally devoid of commentary and music.
- © Amazon.com. Used with permission.
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