{"id":346,"date":"2011-05-29T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T16:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.montclair.edu\/creativeresearch\/?p=129"},"modified":"2019-01-17T09:27:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T14:27:51","slug":"bearing-witness-to-911-a-filmmakers-story-by-beverly-peterson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/2011\/05\/29\/bearing-witness-to-911-a-filmmakers-story-by-beverly-peterson\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing Witness to 9\/11 – A filmmaker’s story – by Beverly Peterson"},"content":{"rendered":"
New York City<\/div>\n
June 1, 2011<\/div>\n
Dear Neil:\u00a0 Thank you for asking me to provide some personal and artistic background as preface to my 20-minute film 71 West Broadway: Ground Zero, NY.<\/strong><\/div>\n
For fifteen years, my husband, Farrell, and I lived within 3 blocks of the World Trade Center<\/a>.<\/div>\n
On September 11th<\/strong> I stood on the corner of Warren and West Broadway as the first plane flew over my head and became lost in a fireball. \u00a0I ran an excruciating block to find Farrell and the two of us shared what we thought were our last kisses. \u00a0We continued watching the Twin Towers <\/a>helplessly while\u00a0many leapt to their deaths.\u00a0 The crowd around us hushed as the next plane appeared ominously in the sky and the world turned upside down.<\/div>\n
After months of evacuation, the City finally deemed our building safe, and we returned to our artist loft — only to be priced out three years later by the “recovery efforts.” \u00a0Tribeca <\/a>had become the most expensive and desirable real estate in NYC, and our artist community scattered throughout the\u00a0boroughs.<\/div>\n
But whatever happened and wherever we would end up, we were thankful to be alive and have the gift of rebuilding our lives.<\/div>\n
Now —\u00a0nearly 10 years after that event —\u00a0I find myself suddenly watchful for planes on their way to surrounding airports as they make their slow descent over our new home. \u00a0 The sound of my husband’s soft breaths as he dreams of images to paint reminds me how lucky we are and I slow my breathing in sync with his while drifting back to sleep, and send silent angel prayers to those far less lucky than\u00a0we were\u00a0who somehow find the path toward hope.<\/div>\n
Looking back upon the whole experience now, quite honestly, I remember that I started filming because it was just an utterly natural way for me to cope with the horror of what was happening around us. \u00a0Shortly after the WTC attack<\/a>,\u00a0small business owners and those of us living next to the towers — or the smoldering pit where the buildings had been — were soon forgotten, and it\u00a0seemed impossible to share our experiences with people who lived outside\u00a0the “Red Zone.” \u00a0Even neighbors located a few blocks above the blockades were able to begin to process the global scope of the tragedy and begin to move on.<\/div>\n
But we were trapped locally<\/em> in 9\/11, our days lost maneuvering through the maze of support groups all with conflicting information and requirements.<\/div>\n
The piece\u00a0reflects the core of my work and\u00a0exemplifies, even now,\u00a0what I try to pass on to my broadcasting and film students at Montclair State University. \u00a0I leave it to CNN<\/a> to tell the who, what, why, and\u00a0etcetera framed within the objective approach. \u00a0Rather, I prefer to find truth by sharing a personal perspective and allowing viewers to experience first hand what it felt like to witness history unfolding — so I filmed and I filmed and I filmed some more.<\/div>\n
Later on in the year, filmmaker Pola Rapaport sent out a request for any short films that people were making about 9\/11<\/strong> for a compilation she was curating. \u00a0I had a\u00a0tremendous respect for her approach to documentary, so I sent her\u00a0the cut I was working on. \u00a0Pola asked if she could include my film, and since the first screening was at a festival at the Walker Art Center <\/a>in Minneapolis (March 2002), I finished editing shortly before that.<\/div>\n
I am grateful to the Creative Research Center <\/a>for requesting that I share 71 West Broadway<\/strong> with your readers and visitors, and I look forward to your public symposium on campus, \u00a0The Uses of the Imagination in the Post-9\/11 World<\/strong> <\/a>on Wednesday, October 12<\/strong> in Memorial Auditorium<\/strong>.<\/div>\n
Warmly,<\/div>\n
Beverly Peterson<\/div>\n
\n

[Professor Beverly Peterson<\/strong>‘s documentaries have been broadcast internationally and screened at major festivals including HBO, PBS, The Sundance Channel, The Sundance Film Festival, Human Rights Watch, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Walker Art Center, The Warhol Museum, The Kitchen. 71 West Broadway: Ground Zero, New York, NY<\/em><\/strong> was selected as part of the memorial presentation at the Library of Congress, which has included it in the national 9\/11 film archive<\/a>.\u00a0 Portions of her film\u00a0Invisible Revolution<\/em><\/strong> were featured on ABC’s 20\/20, Dateline, and HBO specials on domestic terrorism.\u00a0 Ms. Peterson is\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Department of Broadcasting at Montclair State University.]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City June 1, 2011 Dear Neil:\u00a0 Thank you for asking me to provide some personal and artistic background as preface to my 20-minute film 71 West Broadway: Ground Zero, NY. For fifteen years, my husband, Farrell, and I lived within 3 blocks of the World Trade Center. On September 11th I stood on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-research-center-guest-essay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}