Daily post 08 Aug 2007 06:10 am
33 years later
- Tom Sito‘s blog reminded me that yesterday was the anniversary of Philippe Petit‘s walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Karl Cohen followed up with an email reminder.
Two years ago I’d received this invitation from Philippe Petit in celebration of the anniversary.
I had just finished my film, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. The film for Weston Woods went on to win a lot of awards, but it also helped me keep my sanity during a very busy period where little of the work we were doing was anything to write home about.
I was able to sneak away from those other jobs to work on this film which, however it turned out, felt more artful than the other. It gave me the small opportunity of commenting, in my own way, on the horrendous events of 9/11.
On August 6th, the weather was just about identical to the morning of 9/11. A crisp, clear day with a stunningly blue sky. We went to the park to see Philippe Petit and were surprised to find him not there when we arrived a tad late. We sat waiting for something to happen, and no sooner had we arrived than the man, himself, rode about the park on a unicycle blowing a whistle. A crowd soon formed.
He drew a chalk circle and, without using words, made us all stand at the brink of that circle. Within, he started juggling, performing, getting people to laugh. Finally, he tied a thick rope to two trees – about five feet off the ground – and started walking the rope. He knew how to 
entertain the crowd and keep us all smiling. It was a lot of fun.
When it was over, Philippe passed his top hat around and collected a bit of money. Then he removed himself to the side and prepared for a second performance. It was then that we said hello, exchanged some kind words and moved on.
It made for a pleasant Saturday afternoon in New York.
At the moment, my film can be viewed on YouTube, but don’t be surprised if it’s pulled off again. We’ve already been through this several times.
- Speaking of anniversaries – unpleasant ones, today is the anniversary of the bombing of 
Nagasaki. With that bombing, the atrocity of Atomic War was draped across us all by Harry Truman. To celebrate this event, I suggest you try to catch the documentary airing on HBO, White Light Black Rain. It’s extraordinarily good and deserves your time. It’s well done and imparts a lot of information intelligently.
If you prefer there’s also a brilliant dramatic feature entitled Black Rain by the brilliant Japanese director, Shohei Imamura. You can rent the dvd with no problem, and it’s worth seeing if only for the art of the filmmaking.
Master director Shohei Imamura
on 08 Aug 2007 at 9:00 am 1.David said …
While Michael mentioned that The Man Who Walked Between The Towers has been posted on YouTube , he was probably being too modest in neglecting to suggest that anyone who wants to see the film can download it legally , for a mere $1.99, from Apple’s iTunes Store. http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/
I think YouTube is a great resource for viewing films that are out of circulation and couldn’t otherwise be viewed easily, but if a film is still currently being sold on VHS, DVD, or download via iTunes or similar service then one ought to do the right thing and purchase it . Hopefully a little slice of the purchase pie goes back to the film-maker (?) or otherwise benefits the film-maker by showing that their films are “viable” , having an audience out there willing to pay to view them.
Support independent filmaking !
Thus endeth the sermon.
on 08 Aug 2007 at 9:22 am 2.Michael said …
Thanks for the plug, David.
on 09 Aug 2007 at 1:24 pm 3.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
That’s a really neat film! I liked the book but the story works even better on film. Congratulations!