11/14/01: IF I WERE DIRECTING...

The following was my response to my ex-husband’s email request to his friends who are filmmakers and journalists to produce a documentary about September 11 attacks and America’s course of action since:

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It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.  You are all impressive.

The circumstances which led to the September 11 attacks is a story that needs telling.   And if someone could tell the whole story, the facts would speak for themselves about who’s to blame.  Obviously, a handful of terrorists don’t just wake up one morning and say, it’s a beautiful day, after breakfast why don’t we hijack a bunch of planes filled with infidels and crash them into the center of global economic power!

I want to know the story.  I want to know the real history of relations between the U.S. and the people who perpetrated the attack.  There are as many interesting and relevant story angles as there are people involved, starting generations ago.  But the President himself has told us repeatedly where the real story is: “Follow the Money.”   

A documentary which simply lays out the history of financial transactions, fortunes made and the power wielded by these fortunes, governed by human qualities of greed, fear and misguided intent, will tell the primary story.  In my opinion, documentarians would not need to interject their personal judgment in the presentation of these facts.  From whichever angle the story is told, if it’s told honestly, there are no innocents when the end result is over 3,000 people murdered, except many of the victims.

For a smaller scale example, look at the NYC Fire Department.  They are national heroes, we focus on their personal stories of heroics.  These stories are vital to our healing and remembering the positive power of being human.  The stories you won’t hear much of, if at all, are of firemen looting victims’ apartments, fighting with NYPD and protesting against the Mayor in their need to hoard grief.  A story which followed the actions of certain firemen and left it up to you to determine if they were good guys or bad might leave you vaguely disillusioned, but you would probably decide that the FDNY are good guys.

In contrast, the people who allowed, aided indirectly and perpetrated the attack you might find to be bad guys with a few misguided good guys in their midst.  But the point I’m trying to make is that to truly document what lead to the attack and ensuing retaliation, the documentarians would not need to have any conclusions in mind while laying out the facts.  Perhaps, they wouldn’t even need to ask the question, “Who’s to blame?”  Really, who isn’t?

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Thank you for your vote of confidence that I could help produce a documentary.  I was a VP at VH1, until their recent round of lay offs.  However, I was VP of Convergence Strategy.  My expertise is in building large entertainment Web sites and helping TV executives develop shows and revenue packages which incorporate multiple media platforms.  I don’t produce TV shows, there are many people on this mail more qualified to produce a documentary.

I am putting together a memory book, of sorts, of the WTC attack.  I live a few blocks from where the Towers once stood, I was home during the attack.  I watched the Towers burn, the second plane flew over me before disappearing into the South Tower.  I saw people jumping out of the buildings and the collapses.  Since then, I have made a point of connecting with survivors, with victims’ families, with my neighbors, with City officials, with NYPD officers, National Guards and other new residents of my neighborhood, with myself! to try and process what happened, what I saw.  I took pictures during the attack and continue to document my personal experiences “behind the wall” in Downtown Manhattan.  I am definitely interested in finding answers.  I might have something that could contribute to a documentary about the attacks, and as you can see I’m not short on opinions about such a documentary, but I’m not qualified to produce it.

best,

Mary

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