In a recent article in The Telegraph, CNP President Stephen Flynn and CNP Vice President Scott Bates comment on a recent CNP event for the movie 'Boatlift,' a film portraying the selflessness of ferry boat captains on 9/11.
The scene is one that is forever etched into American memory: A commercial airliner plows into the side of the north tower of the World Trade Center. Soon after, another plane collides into the south tower. Fear, panic and smoke engulf lower Manhattan, and millions of people begin to evacuate.
After the attack, every mode of transportation out of New York City was shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands stranded. In a spontaneous act of resilience, ferryboat captains, coast guardsmen and civilian boaters ushered more than 500,000 panicked people out of the city in an unplanned, nine-hour rescue effort.
This was the basis for “Boatlift,” an original 12-minute documentary narrated by Tom Hanks. The gripping film opened “Remembrance, Renewal, Resilience,” the Center for National Policy’s daylong film festival and summit Thursday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
“The documentaries tell the other side of the Sept. 11th story,” said Scott Bates, vice president at the Center for National Policy. “They help us remember how resilient the American people can be.”
According to the center’s president, Stephen Flynn, the documentaries were made to remind the American people that in spite of the tragic events that occurred on 9/11, a selfless and unified spirit emerged.
“Our cameras were all focused on the towers; they weren’t focused on the response effort and how civil society responded,” Flynn said. “On one side, there was horror. On the other, people were turning to each other with unity and selflessness.”
[/boxed_content] [/spb_column] [spb_column width="1/6" el_position="last"] [/spb_column] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]View the entire article at The Telegraph.
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