A couple of 9/11 films to watch anytime
For weeks now, I've been piling up screeners of programming to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, fielding calls and emails from earnest PR people who want to tell me (and you) why their particular program is the one that stands out from the ever-growing crowd. I promised myself that sooner or later I'd take a look. But I really didn't want to. And not just because this is the busy season for any TV critic. Like most people, I spent much of Sept. 11, 2001, staring at my TV set, watching what had started out as a spectacularly beautiful day going straight to hell. I hope not to do that this Sunday. Or ever again. If you choose to commemorate one of the worst days in our collective memory by watching news retrospectives and documentaries about those events, there are, I promise you, plenty available this weekend. I've chosen to focus on just two, one a documentary, the other a work of fiction. Both grew out of what happened on 9/11, but they don't require the backdrop of this sad anniversary to be appreciated: "The Love We Make." 9 p.m. Saturday, Showtime. Albert Maysles ("Grey Gardens"), the filmmaker, who along with his late brother, David, chronicled the Beatles' first visit to America in 1964, picks up a 16mm black-and-white camera once again to follow Paul McCartney around New York in the days and weeks after 9/11. As the ex-Beatle works to pull together the benefit Concert for New York City, spending time with Bill Clinton and Billy Joel, Dan Rather and Howard Stern, Maysles not only captures a moment in time but gives us a look at what it's like, day to day, to be Paul McCartney. Undeniably odd at times, it's also oddly affecting. "The Space Between." 9 p.m. Sunday, USA. Oscar winner Melissa Leo ("The Fighter," "Treme") stars in this indie film as a surly flight attendant who, when the planes are grounded on Sept. 11, finds herself in charge of a 10-year-old Pakistani boy named Omar (Anthony Keyvan), who demands that she bring him back to New York, where his taxi driver father works a second job at the World Trade Center. That's not the only heart-wrenching coincidence in a story that already has more baggage than could fit in the overhead compartment, but Leo and her young co-star are splendid and performances like theirs would be worth watching on any night of the year.
A couple of 9/11 films to watch anytime
Ellen Gray, Daily News TV Critic
For weeks now, I've been piling up screeners of programming to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, fielding calls and emails from earnest PR people who want to tell me (and you) why their particular program is the one that stands out from the ever-growing crowd.
I promised myself that sooner or later I'd take a look.
But I really didn't want to. And not just because this is the busy season for any TV critic.
Like most people, I spent much of Sept. 11, 2001, staring at my TV set, watching what had started out as a spectacularly beautiful day going straight to hell. I hope not to do that this Sunday. Or ever again.
If you choose to commemorate one of the worst days in our collective memory by watching news retrospectives and documentaries about those events, there are, I promise you, plenty available this weekend. I've chosen to focus on just two, one a documentary, the other a work of fiction. Both grew out of what happened on 9/11, but they don't require the backdrop of this sad anniversary to be appreciated:
"The Love We Make." 9 p.m. Saturday, Showtime. Albert Maysles ("Grey Gardens"), the filmmaker, who along with his late brother, David, chronicled the Beatles' first visit to America in 1964, picks up a 16mm black-and-white camera once again to follow Paul McCartney around New York in the days and weeks after 9/11. As the ex-Beatle works to pull together the benefit Concert for New York City, spending time with Bill Clinton and Billy Joel, Dan Rather and Howard Stern, Maysles not only captures a moment in time but gives us a look at what it's like, day to day, to be Paul McCartney. Undeniably odd at times, it's also oddly affecting.
"The Space Between." 9 p.m. Sunday, USA. Oscar winner Melissa Leo ("The Fighter," "Treme") stars in this indie film as a surly flight attendant who, when the planes are grounded on Sept. 11, finds herself in charge of a 10-year-old Pakistani boy named Omar (Anthony Keyvan), who demands that she bring him back to New York, where his taxi driver father works a second job at the World Trade Center. That's not the only heart-wrenching coincidence in a story that already has more baggage than could fit in the overhead compartment, but Leo and her young co-star are splendid and performances like theirs would be worth watching on any night of the year.
In my dvd collection are 2 documentaries that I used to watch on Sept 11: the HBO documentary "NYC: In Memoriam" and WTC: The First 24 Hours. They are as hard to watch now as when they first came out, like a horror movie come to life. I'm not sure if I want to break them out this year. Every time I watch them, I think of 2 people in particular I knew who worked for the NYFD and NYPD respectively that lost their lives on that morning. Then again, it is OUR Pearl Harbor and we must never forget what happened that day and who did that to us. I expect in the coming years more fictionalized tales with 9-11 as the backdrop will be released, that's all well and good. But we must never forget that something terrible happened to us on that day.
