Trio turn 9-11 issues into a blockbuster for local theater
By Peter Duveen
PETER'S NEW YORK, Sunday, November 30,
2008--Frustrated with the lack of accountability for what happened on September 11, 2001, three concerned upstate New
Yorkers recently joined forces to see if they could mobilize the public
to critically examine the government's version of the events of that
day. One of the three managed to convince the proprietor of a local
theater that a showing of the controversial documentary Loose Change
Final Cut, a film critical of the government's version of 9-11, would draw a
sizable crowd. The others teamed up in a supportive role to publicize
the event. The result was a screening of the film last Tuesday at the
Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls, New York, with a personal appearance by the
film's producer, Korey Rowe. Attendance far exceeded that of any other
film shown in the theater's history.
"That was a record," said the
theater's executive director, Bill Woodward, of the 143 paid attendees
who passed through the theater's doors. The previous high grosser was a film that brought out about 100 people, Woodward told
Peter's New York.
Peter Duveen Photo
Loose Change Final Cut producer Korey Rowe fielding questions after the screening of the film at the Charles R. Wood Theater in
Glens Falls, N.Y. A new feature is in the hopper, he told the audience.
The event was the brainchild of Dave
Nicholson, a committed activist on behalf of a variety of causes, both
local and national in scope. A Vietnam War veteran, he had concluded. along
with many other Americans, that individuals high in government circles
staged the 9-11 events to justify in the eyes of the
public the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that followed. The
government-promoted scenario of 19 Middle Eastern men who were said to
have hijacked
airliners that day and to have flown them into each of the the twin
towers of the World
Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia,
and into a field in rural Pennsylvania, was merely a smokescreen
full of contradictions, Nicholson contends. Nicholson said his aim is
to save as many lives as possible by unmasking the government's perfidy
and bringing to a halt the nation's aggressive military actions abroad,
which have led, by some estimates, to the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and thousands of U.S.
servicemen, not to mention the injuries, both physical and
psychological, wrought on survivors.
Peter Duveen Photo
Dave Nicholson, Vietnam War vet and local activist, pulled the showing
of Loose Change Final Cut together with the help of associates. Nicholson
wants to put a stop to the death and destruction of the U.S. invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Nicholson points to recent government
reports showing that the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used
as a justification to escalate the Vietnam War, never really happened
as it was represented to the U.S. Congress. If the truth had
come out at the time, the Vietnam war could have ended earlier,
Nicholson argues. "Now you have 9-11 with this information coming out
right now as we're fighting," he said. "If enough people were able to be
aware of how we're being manipulated again, we can stop more deaths,"
he said.
Nicholson had been meeting for the
past three or four months in restaurants or other places of mutual
convenience with two other concerned citizens to share ideas and
formulate ways to better inform the public of government malfeasance.
The tentative name they have given to the group is "Wake Up Now," the
very phenomenon they hope to generate. Each of the group carries out
his or her own activities to promote their shared goals, but this time,
they managed to pool their resources in mutually supportive roles.
Nicholson said he approached Woodward
with the idea of screening Loose Change Final Cut in the belief that
it could draw a larger crowd than other film showings he had attended at the
theater. After Woodward gave Nicholson some possible dates,
Nicholson contacted Rowe, who agreed to make a personal appearance,
waive speaking fees and answer questions after the film.
"It kind of all came together miraculously," Nicholson said.
Nicholson's two associates, Marian Jesmain and Jeff Tackett, helped with publicity. They penned letters to the Glens Falls Post-Star
describing the upcoming event, both of which made it into print. They and
Nicholson then set to work telling everybody they knew about the
film. The day before it was to happen, the Post-Star itself managed to place a blurb about the screening.
Peter Duveen Photos
Marian Jesmain introduced guest speaker Korey Rowe, director of Loose Change Final Cut. Jeff Tackett helped with publicity.
On the night of the program, people began streaming into the theater a full half hour before showtime,
and by 7 p.m., much of 300-seat auditorium was
filled. As the evening began, Jesmain, decked out in formal garb,
introduced the guest of the evening, Corey Rowe, who spoke briefly
before the screening and for a longer stretch after the film ended.
The Loose Change series of
documentaries summarizes the view that the U.S. government is lying
about and covering up its role in the events of 9-11. The first
film, written by Dylan Avery and produced by Rowe and Jason Bermas, was released in 2005. Loose Change Second Edition was devised to bring an
increasing number of people into a knowledge of 9-11 issues, Rowe told
Peter's New York. The last of the series, Loose Change Final Cut,
tightens the argument for government complicity with hard facts while
leaving conclusions to the viewer. David Ray Griffin, an author who has
written seven books on 9-11, the most recent being A New Pearl Harbor
Revisited, helped the filmmakers tighten arguments and improve
sources. The result is a
substantially different movie that runs two hours and nine minutes. It
has a decidedly intellectual tone, and one must listen carefully to
follow the train of the many arguments made to demonstrate government
culpability.
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Peter Duveen Photo
Loose Change Final Cut producer Korey Rowe chats with members of the audience after the showing of the film.
At the end of the film, Rowe took questions from the audience, all of which were asked in a favorable context.
One member of the audience asked if he should worry about being tracked by the government if he watches
Loose Change films on the internet. "Absolutely," Rowe said. Rowe
added that any group that is making progress in challenging the
government's storyline on 9-11 will be watched. "If you're making
noise, they'll know," he said.
Another asked why William Rodriguez,
among the last to have escaped from the collapsing towers of the World
Trade Center and who has been an adamant critic of the government's
version of events, did not appear in the film. "We didn't use him in
the third edition because he wanted a huge bag of money," Rowe said,
while describing him as a "great guy." "I just couldn't afford him."
Asked about the recent death of Barry
Jennings, who reported explosions in 47-storey Building 7 of the World Trade
Center complex the morning of 9-11, some eight hours before its mysterious
collapse, Rowe said he pulled an interview with Jennings from the film
at Jennings's request. He said Jennings was concerned about the effect
the airing of the interview might have on his job and
pension. "The fact that he passed away is extremely disturbing,"
Rowe said.
Rowe said lack of government
assistance to those who worked at the World Trade Center site to clean
it up after 9-11 was appalling. "Our government has not spent one
dollar--one dollar!--on the treatment of these men," Rowe complained.
Asked whether information was
available as to the specific roles government officials may have played
in implementing 9-11, Rowe said a film was in the works that would
answer that question. The film, which he said was being produced by the
group "Loose Change Colorado," would underscore the role of "50
of the most influential people" believed to have been connected with
9-11.
Woodward, who briefly addressed the
audience before the screening of Loose Change Final Cut, was not
complaining the morning after the show. But he distanced himself from
any public declaration in support of the film's content. "I'm
apolitical," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm a business guy."
He said anyone could rent the auditorium and
show a film as long as the film's content did not offend community
standards of morality. But Nicholson said he did not have to put up any
money for the showing, indicating that Woodward underwrote the event
and, like any good businessman, reaped the harvest of an educated
gamble.
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