Too Soon?

The Tribeca Film Festival opened tonight here in New York City. Created in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the festival is to “enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience.” The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in the wake of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan.

The major highlight of opening night festivities is the premiere of United 93, the controversial new film written, directed and produced by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy), that tells the story of the fourth highjacked airliner on 9/11, which unlike three earlier flights that were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, crash landed in a field in Pennsylvania, presumably by passengers who overtook their captors.

The film has been both much anticipated and in some quarters considered premature in retelling the story of events occurring on that date. Almost five years after the tragedy, some people are not quite ready to see any depictions, as evidenced by audience reaction in some theatres here in New York when trailers were shown. Movie-goers were visibly disturbed, some leaving theatres upset, complaining that they should have been warned of the subject matter.

While undoubtedly the story of 9/11 has been one filmmakers have been chomping at the bit to tell, waiting for the right moment when emotions have healed enough to show even fictionalized images, I am not convinced that time has arrived. Critics charge that filmmakers haven’t taken into consideration the feelings of families who lost loved ones. I contend they haven’t considered the still frazzled nerves of anyone who was affected that day.

Producers are storytellers as well as businessmen and while this is a legitimate story to tell, I’m sure commercial considerations and the desire to strike while the iron is still hot was a major motivator for the timing of its release. But four and a half years is not enough time, particularly for those in the cities most closely associated with the attacks.

While I didn’t lose anyone personally, I was close enough to witness the collapse of the North Tower with my own eyes, a memory forever seared into my brain. I had professional colleagues whose offices were in the Towers who narrowly escaped. I was with the masses of New Yorkers who walked home that day in heart-palpitating fear. I breathed in the smokey fumes from the crumbled ruins that wafted across the entire city for weeks afterwards. I remember the gut wrenching “Have You Seen…” signs posted all over town by families of the missing, that as weeks and months passed, displayed the anguish of diminishing hopes.

With the recent release of audio tapes of 911 calls from people stranded in the Towers, the news media has been retelling the story. I haven’t wanted to watch or listen to those either. The images just rekindled the sorrow. I fear a full-length motion picture would be far too much to bare.

I don’t fully understand those who argue we must tell this story. It was reality tv for those in distant cities and painful reality for those in the affected ones. Immediately following the attacks, President Bush and others told us to “get back to life as normal.” Life could never be “normal” again, and we never got a proper grieving period.

As I said then and many times since, I think those of us who were there were affected in ways we won’t realize for years to come.

I respect the producers right to make the film, but I for one have no plans to see it.

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A film I will look forward to seeing, when it is released, hopefully by Christmas, is Dirty Laundry, the second feature film written and directed by Maurice Jamal (The Ski Trip). He recently wrapped a four week shoot with stars Loretta Devine, Jenifer Lewis and Rockmond Dunbar. While the budget was modest, sources say the performances and production values will leave us impressed. Fingers are crossed for a distribution deal soon.