TVNZ 1 to Screen 9/11 Special

TVNZ 1 will air a movie-length documentary the BBC has commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Surviving 9/11 is a Top Hat Production that intertwines dual narratives: what happened in the two hours when terrorists hijacked four planes and crashed three into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the 20-year aftermath.

It blends new testimony from American and British interviewees and personal and public archives, detailed storytelling of the day’s events that unfold almost in real time, and contemporary accounts of how the lives of individuals continue to be affected by 9/11.

Surviving 9/11 also explores the effects the attacks had on the wider world.

Says distributor Keshet International: “Chosen for their unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds, our cast of characters collectively encompass the many dimensions of the tragedy – from the widow of the co-pilot on Flight 93, to survivors from the towers including an Iraqi IT worker and a pregnant worker from the 78th floor of the South Tower.”

“I was 18 when 9/11 happened and it feels like the defining historical event of my life,” director Arthur Cary, who won a 2020 BAFTA for The Last Survivors, says. “It happened in America, but it changed the world.”