New 9-11 Documentary Focuses on Volunteer Efforts

NEW YORK — Aboard the USS Intrepid last Thursday, actress Kathleen Turner described her reasons for narrating the new 9-11 documentary. “Being a volunteer at ground zero was a life changing experience for me in many ways,” she said.

In the days following the attack on the World trade Center, Turner helped to serve meals at New York Hospital and helped to deliver much needed supplies to rescue workers. She was one of the nearly 40,000 emergency rescue and volunteer workers that the film honors.

Turner, along with Lou Angeli, the film’s director and a volunteer fire fighter, executive producer Bunny Dubin, and 30 men and women who volunteered at Ground Zero attended a press conference and screening of the film last week aboard The Intrepid, which is docked on the Hudson River near West 42nd Street. The Intrepid also served as the center of security operations when Ground Zero was declared a war zone.

The film contains digital video of the rescue efforts that took place in the days following the attack on The World Trade Center. The footage has never before been seen by the public.

Director Lou Angeli, an experienced volunteer fire fighter and a producer of disaster training films, was at home in Delaware on the morning of September 11, 2001 when he saw on television the horrific sight of the World Trade Center attacks. Moments later he received instructions to head for New York in a dual role: as a first response fire fighter and also as a producer of disaster training films.

Mr. Angeli stayed on location for 16 straight days, working both as a rescue worker and as a cameraman documenting the sights of the catastrophe and the efforts of thousands of volunteer workers who poured into lower Manhattan. Using a pocket-sized digital video camera that he borrowed from a CBS crew, he captured behind-the-yellow-tape footage that was inaccessible to television crews that were blocks away.

“As a veteran volunteer fire fighter, as well as a filmmaker, I wanted to share my experience of what it was really like at Ground Zero from the perspective of the rescue and recovery workers…I wanted the public to see not only the physical and emotional exhaustion of these brave men and women, but the way they worked together with such an amazing level of cooperation and compassion,” said Angeli.

The film will premier in San Diego on Sept. 1 and has its national theatrical release on Sept. 9. It includes Angeli’s Ground Zero footage as well as interview segments with 40 volunteers who assisted the rescue workers in the days and weeks following the attack.

Volunteers from all walks of life, including local downtown residents, experienced emergency workers, and many celebrities, are all featured in the documentary. Some of the celebrity volunteers in the film include: actor Robin Williams, singer Alanis Morrisette, actors Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and Sigourney Weaver, rock drummer Greg Gerson (drummer in Billy Idol’s band) and Kenny Sheehan, stage hand and on-camera personality on The David Letterman Show.

The net proceeds from the film will go to the Leary Firefighters Foundation (founded by actor Dennis Leary) and the New York Rescuers’ Detoxification Program. Many rescue workers and volunteers that helped at Ground Zero are now experiencing debilitating illnesses from exposure to the toxic dust that was created in the massive explosions.