Today marks eleven years since the terrorist attacks that changed the world.  I’m not going to dwell on the facts, or repeat the stories that we have all heard before, but I do want to share one perspective on the event.

My day job involves sourcing archival footage for many different types of television productions.  One of the projects I worked on last year was a documentary about some of the survivors of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  It was an interesting experience to spend a decent amount of time researching the audio-visual record of that day, talking with those who were there and then watching the tragedy unfold over and over from many different perspectives – all from the guilty comfort of my office.

Photo taken by ‘TheMachineStops’ Flicker
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

In my profession it isn’t unusual to be called upon to trawl through footage of some of the more tragic events in human history – be it war, natural disasters or terrorist attacks.  I suspect it might be similar for anyone with an interest in history as it often seems that stories of suffering and the extremities of human behavior demand more interest and attention than stories of peace and normality.  Few people want to watch a documentary about the day that everyone ate ice-creams and played croquet but there is always an audience for yet another documentary about Auschwitz. Continue reading →