SnagFilms to commemorates 9/11 with online film retrospective

SnagFilms, which brings nonfiction films to the web and promotes viral web distribution through virtual movie theater widgets, recently announced its first annual September 11th Remembrance in Film, with a slate of five documentary films, featuring the critically acclaimed 7 Days in September. The films will be available in their entirety, without commercial interruption, at both www.snagfilms.com and www.indiewire.com between today and September 12th, 2008.

In addition to 7 Days in September, the slate of films comprising the online Remembrance include: Afghanistan Revealed, Beyond Belief, Saint of 9/11, and We Are Family. Each of the five films illuminates the roots or results of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States. As with all of the more than 300 non-fiction films in SnagFilms’ library, each of these documentaries may be streamed for free online in their entirety, or “snagged” via a widget which can be embedded on a user’s website or social networking page. A special five-film “multiplex” widget will showcase all September 11th Remembrance in Film offerings, which are available for free, instantaneous viewing and without commercial interruption. Viewers will be encouraged to share their own memories and reflections on both www.snagfilms.com and www.indiewire.com.

Comprising footage culled from more than two-dozen filmmakers’ material produced on the day and immediate aftermath of September 11th, 2001, 7 Days in September has been called by New York Times film critic A.O. Scott “an almost unbearably powerful documentary.” Director Steven Rosenbaum wove together the journeys of 28 New Yorkers – each of whom recorded their most private experiences during the attacks on the World Trade Center, and the week that followed. The storytellers, included a postal worker, a college student, an artist, and Rosenbaum’s 11 year old son Max, who together captured the sorrow and solidarity of the 9/11 story.

Viewers of films presented by SnagFilms.com are encouraged to become “filmanthropists,” either by opening a new movie theater widget on their personal website or social networking page, or by contributing directly to a cause tied to the films they watch. Viewers who respond to the “support” button connected to any of the Remembrance films will be able to contribute funds to the National September 11th Memorial and Museum. The National September 11th Memorial and Museum is the builder, programmer, and operator of the Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero.

Additionally, SnagFilms announced it would match its viewers’ contributions during the Remembrance Week.

Capsule descriptions of the five full-length non-fiction films presented by SnagFilms in the first annual September 11th Remembrance in Film follow:

7 Days in September
NY Times critic A.O. Scott called this “an almost unbearably powerful documentary.” He continued: “Because the film is limited in space and time, it presents a strictly street-level view of life (and death) in and around Lower Manhattan from the moment of the attacks until the following Tuesday. It recreates what those days felt like with excruciating precision: the wild panic, the moments of funereal calm, the spontaneous blossoming of solidarity and fellow feeling… to reconstruct the emotional geography of New York [in the week that followed 9-11], the film’s undercurrent of hope is more persuasive than the therapeutic formulas that define so much of Sept. 11.”

Saint of 9/11
Saint of 9/11 reveals the extraordinary life of Father Mychal Judge, a beloved Fire Department Chaplain, whose great humanity and compassion for those in need culminate on 9/11 and end with loss of an unforgettable man.

Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief is the film of two widowed mothers who lost their husbands in the planes that crashed on 9/11. The film traces the journey of these two women as they try to make sense of their loss and grief and which ultimately leads them to Afghanistan to help support Afghan widows who lost their husbands in that country’s conflict.

We Are Family
We Are Family brings over 200 musicians, celebrities and personalities (including Queen Latifah, Spike Lee, Diana Ross and Angie Stone) to re-record the Nile Rodgers hit song “We Are Family” and brings the power and spirit of music to help begin the healing process after the events of 9/11.

Afghanistan Revealed
National Geographic’s Afghanistan Revealed has author Sebastian Junger take you deep inside Afghanistan for the last interview with assassinated resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, in this portrait of a war-torn country and the lives of its people as they struggle against the Taliban. It is a harrowing journey that gives us insight into an ally and leader of the Afghani resistance against the terrorists – whose assassination of Massoud on September 10, 2001 lay the groundwork for the tragic attacks of 9/11.