September 09, 2003
American Experience | The Center of the World - New York: A Documentary Film | PBS
by Liza Sabater
American Experience | The Center of the World - New York: A Documentary Film | PBS
I just finished watching with my husband Ric Burns' documentary about the Twin Towers, "The Center of the World". I have no words to describe what I am feeling at the moment. After many tears and a long silence, we hug and kissed each other. We here at home, with our kids, when we heard the collisions and witnessed the final destruction. We are grateful that we're here but still grieve for all the people that died.
It has taken me two years to fully respond to that day, to what I heard from my apartment and saw from the roof of my building and the extent of the fear and confusion that overcame my oldest son, Evan, especially after we both witnessed the collapse of Tower #1.
Life went straight on that day for us, in an unusually disjointed way. We did not do the planned field trip for that day (which up until the night before had been the towers but was going to be that morning The Empire State Building). There were more kids in the playground, more parents with their kids at home, more people in the streets, more and more cars and busses sitting in traffic, more and more people going in and out of the hospital across the street in what seemed like the most beatiful fall day.
Watching the documentary brought back memories of life working downtown and shlepping, to and from New Jersey through the basement of the towers. The farmer's market. The stores. Some clients I had when I was a chef. And the unfulfilled visit to the observatory and Windows on the World.
This is truly a great documentary about one of the most important pieces of NYC history; with create archival footage and photos, great commentators and a great arc. It is a classical tragedy filmed as documentary.
There are many incredible moments during those three hours but there are two that will remain, to me, the highlights of this amazing historical document.
One is the account of Phillipe Petit, the high-wire artist who crossed the Towers in 1974:
Somehow I did this shift from being grounded to being aerial. And I started gliding, and the first crossing -- There might have been only one -- but the first crossing is always an interrogation between me and the place where I anchored my wire, me and the wire itself, because there's no way to test that wire before. So the first crossing has a little bit of a test to it. But I didn't even took the full length of the crossing to get to know the rigging and the vibration of the building and the wire. After a few steps, I knew I was in my element and I knew the wire was not well rigged (we had some tremendous problem during the whole night of rigging) but it was safe enough for me to carry on. And then, very slowly as I walked, I was overwhelmed by a sense of easiness, a sense of simplicity.
The way he talks about his "coup", about his "talking to the buildings", creating a relationship with them and basically learning how to overcome the impossibility of walking from one to the other over a wire, is just ... well mindblowing. All I can say is that by his account, witness accounts and photos, what one is witnessing is a man that was living enlightment. Pure, simple enlightment.
The other is one of utter regret. Leslie Robertson was the chief engineer of the WTC project. His last comments in the show are of utter regret and at one point he even admits to feeling responsible for all that loss of life. You will see a man that after having built one of the wonders of the world, has the humility to show his grief, sorrow, and sense of guilt for decisions that he feels are responsible for the whole complex's destruction. His is a story regret, of what ifs.
It is with these accounts and footage, once again, of that fateful day, that it makes me more and more aware of how human buildings can be. How the spaces in which we live and work and dream are not just "real estate" or "investments" or "capital" but extensions of who we are and who we want to be. The World Trade Center buildings were, in the words of Robertson, two abstract sculptures --it took people years to relate to them as anything but concrete, glass and steel. They were created to be exactly that --aesthetic displays of the wonders of capitalism; not spaces made for embrassing humanity.
As some of the commentators in the documentary said, I feel very strongly, more so now, that we should not build another WTC; that whatever buildings are raised, are done in a way to commemorate 9/11 and, at the same time, celebrate life downtown. Anybody that walks by the site now feels the absence of the towers. Still, one would have to be blind to not see how amazingly open, airy and light that whole area has become. We need a memorial park in that space and we need it badly. We need to celebrate the renewal of life on that hollowed ground. We need to make life easier, smoother and more human downtown.
In the NYC area, channels 15, 21 and 25 should be broadcasting the documentary soon. Check your local listings. Do yourself a favor and tape this show, so you can have a copy in hand for those who missed it --while you wait for your own tape or dvd from PBS.
Posted by Liza Sabater in Documentary, History, New York City, Video
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