Award-winning 9/11 films start off documentary series

Robert David Port couldn’t have known what he was getting
into when he and a three-man crew began filming the NYPD’s
Emergency Service Unit in mid-2001.

He wanted to shoot a TV pilot about what he called “the
commandos of the NYPD.” However, the story of Port’s
series changed when many of the men he was filming died on Sept.
11, 2001. The Emergency Service Unit was among the first groups to
be called to duty, so the men were some of the first to die as the
World Trade Center towers collapsed.

Port combined his footage with some interviews he filmed with
survivors from the group to form “Twin Towers.” The
UCLA Film and TV Archive will screen the Oscar-winning 34-minute
short for free tonight in the James Bridges Theater, followed by a
screening of “Telling Nicholas,” another Sept.
11-related documentary. The night of screenings will kick off the
Archive’s 22nd annual “Academy/Contemporary
Documentaries” series, to be held Wednesday nights throughout
the academic year. Port and co-director Bill Guttentag will be
present at tonight’s screening.

“I’m happy I won an Academy (Award), but
that’s not the way I wanted to win it,” Port said.
“What I’m proud of is that a hundred years from now,
this will be the quintessential 9/11 film.”

The screenings will highlight documentaries nominated for 2002
Academy Awards, as well as other recent documentaries.

“There’s a lot of exciting work and a lot of
high-profile documentaries getting wide release,” said Mimi
Brody, an associate programmer at the Archive. “Documentaries
are no longer exclusively the work of festivals or cable
television.”

While the themes presented in the first night of the
series’ screenings may be heavy, not all of the documentaries
presented will be difficult to watch. The more light-hearted and
often funny “Spellbound,” which follows the private
lives of eight aspiring spelling bee champs, will screen Oct.
8.

“We try to program things thematically,” Brody said.
“We wouldn’t program something comedic with something
gut-wrenching.”

Though both “Twin Towers” and “Telling
Nicholas” fall neatly into the gut-wrenching category, they
are not entirely depressing films. Guttentag emphasized his desire
to turn his original footage into a film that paid tribute to those
who died on Sept. 11. According to Guttentag, the most important
part of “Twin Towers” is its ability to show audiences
what actually happened to the people involved in the tragedy.

“The film will be a record of what happened on 9/11 for
everyone, from UCLA students to the president of the United
States,” Guttentag said.

The president has already given “Twin Towers” his
approval. Port and Guttentag screened their film at the White House
recently, receiving a heartfelt, positive response from George W.
Bush and various members of his administration.

“(Bush) said “˜I’ll never forget that until the
day I die,'” Port said. “For a bunch of schmucks
from Hollywood, we did something good here.”

“Twin Towers” and “Telling Nicholas”
screen for free tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the James Bridges Theater.
For information on more upcoming screenings, visit
www.cinema.ucla.edu.

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