9/11 documentary director wants truth to prevail
Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:41 PM ET
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The director of a new documentary on
September 11 fears that two upcoming Hollywood dramatizations of
the World Trade Center attacks may eclipse her project.
"I hope the truth does not get lost amongst the fiction," Linda
Ellman, a former NBC News producer, who made her film directorial
debut with "On Native Soil," told Reuters.
"I don't have a problem with fictionalized stories or fictionalized
efforts about 9/11, because people need to be kept aware and should
never forget. I just hope the truth isn't replaced by fiction,
because the truth is shocking," she said.
Ellman was referring to film director Oliver Stone's upcoming
"World Trade Center," a drama about two police officers trapped
under the smoking rubble of the collapsed buildings, opening
nationwide on August 9, and the ABC television network miniseries
"The Path to 9/11," debuting on September 10.
Unlike those works, Ellman's goal with "On Native Soil," airing
next month on cable channel Court TV, was to stay true to the 9/11
Commission Report -- the government's account of the suicide
hijackings that killed about 3,000 people -- and present an
historically accurate version of events as they unfolded, almost in
real time.
All of these films, as well as other documentaries and television
specials, are being released to coincide with the fifth anniversary
of the attacks.
Ellman was approached by producer Jeff Hays to direct the project
with a budget of just over $1 million, and immediately saw
opportunities and challenges.
"Millions of copies of the book had been sold, but nobody was
reading it," Ellman said.
567 PAGES, ONE TRUE TALE
After plowing through the 567-page "9/11 Commission Report" in late
2004, Ellman set out to capture the story of victims' families who
were key in pressing the government to form the bipartisan panel
that investigated the tragedy and recommended reforms.
"My goal was to expose the truth about 9/11 that's been hiding in
plain sight. When it became clear to me that there almost wasn't a
9/11 Commission had it not been for this small group of people,
that was even more upsetting," she said.
Ellman said one of the biggest challenges was winning the families'
trust. She contacted each, one by one, and conducted what became
"deeply personal and painful" interviews.
Court TV bought the rights to broadcast the film, whose full name
is "On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report,"
to air on August 21.
Lionsgate Entertainment plans to release the film on DVD on August
22.
The movie, narrated by Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank, includes
never-before-seen interviews with victims' family members, as well
as familiar footage of the day's events, Osama bin Laden in
Afghanistan declaring his intentions on television in 1997 and
former White House counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke telling
victims' families, "Your government failed you."
Another scene features badly burned survivor Harry Waizer saying
about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "She will not
acknowledge that (the government) made a misjudgment. And that
galls me. That angers me."
Other scheduled programs dealing with the September 11 attacks
include CNN's "In the Footsteps of Osama bin Laden," National
Geographic Channel's "The Final Report: Osama's Escape," and the
History Channel's "The Miracle of Stairway B."
Reuters