September 9, 2006

A few pinhole impressions from this pinwheel of a week:

Last night, under a beige moon, I stood at 1 Police Plaza, walked under the Brooklyn Bridge, watched the night sweep over the towers surrounding Pace University. The buildings seemed scrawny compared to what had once stood nearby. The only sign of towering strength: the blue beam of light piercing the evening clouds (only one shone last night; two will shine tomorrow), commemorating an ever present Absence.

...On Sunday night, CBS will air 9/11. The documentary began as a coming-of-age tale of a young probie earning his spurs at the Duane Street firehouse, just blocks from the World Trade Center. It ended as the Zapruder film of the September 11 attacks. My friends Gedeon and Jules Naudet -- French filmmakers, brothers, and truly courageous young men -- shot inside and outside the towers, non-stop, surviving the twin collapse of the towers and coming away with footage that is unlike any other shot that day. (The Naudets, along with Graydon Carter, James Hanlon, Susan Zirinsky and I, served as executive producers.)

It is particularly galling to note that even though the documentary aired twice in the U.S. in 2002 (winning Emmy and Peabody Awards, airing in 140 countries, and raising $2 million for charitable causes), the current cultural climate is so warped in this country that several CBS affiliates have threatened not to air the show because of its graphic nature and because people utter obscenities in the two-hour broadcast. Judging by the fuss that the proposed ban has caused, it seems that in 2006 many people consider the documentary more obscene than the terrorist acts depicted in it. What a difference a couple of years, a clothing malfunction, a Mob-Rule mentality, a calcified Congress, and an emboldened F.C.C., make.

….Garrison Keillor’s generous review of Watching the World Change in The New York Times last Sunday set off an avalanche of good will (e-mails, letters, shout-outs at work, and phone calls from old acquaintances looking for money. I was happy, even giddy, to oblige).

….Richard Woodward’s review in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday raised the question: After all that has been written about the events, do we “now need to commemorate the lives of the documentarians [i.e. photographers]” as well? His answer? “Mr. Friend makes a convincing case that we should. His book is a fast-paced chronicle of that chaotic week as seen from those behind the lens. He turns a familiar story around and helps us understand why we saw events as we did.”