Docu explores 9/11 Commission's findings

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...ON-9-11-DC.XML

(Gold9472: NOT 9/11: Press For Truth. You can write letters to the editor here.)

By Barry Garron
Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:30pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A few months ago, rabidly right-wing Ann Coulter made celebrity noise to plug her new book by asserting that widows of September 11 were exploiting the memories of their deceased spouses and were, in fact, better off now than before the World Trade Center towers fell.

Such morbidly cruel remarks don't merit a response, but there is an elegant rebuttal nonetheless in "On Native Soil," a 90-minute documentary to be telecast without commercial interruptions.

The work, exec produced by Jeff Hays and Linda Ellman (who also directed), retells the story of the al-Qaida attack and its aftermath. It uses as its frame of reference the work of the 9/11 Commission. Great pains are taken to point out that the commission, initially opposed by the Bush administration, would not have been formed were it not for the persistence of families of September 11 victims.

There are no great surprises here, which is fine because the truth is shocking enough. The strength of this work is its ability to organize a wide assortment of facts and testimony into a coherent picture of how the hijackings occurred and how government agencies repeatedly bungled the situation.

Bits of interviews with surviving family members keep the docu from becoming too clinical and constantly remind viewers of the human loss that continues to be felt. With plots and acts of terror ongoing, "On Native Soil" also serves as an important reminder of what remains to be done.