RIC BURNS, CLIFFORD CHANIN AND OTHER EXPERTS TO DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESERVING AND PROTECTING IMAGES OF 9/11

Columbia University’s Lehman Center to host discussion and screening of never before seen 9/11 footage.

On Thursday, September 8, at 6pm, Historian Kenneth T. Jackson, will invite New Yorkers to explore the need to gather, collect and archive the invaluable images of 9/11.

Jackson will challenge leading filmmakers, historians and archivists to ask, “What are we doing to protect the fast-fading images of 9/11?”

The wounds left by the tragic events of 9/11 are still fresh. Because the horrifying images of 9/11 remain so vivid in the mind, many are not yet ready to view that which is on video.

The panel will discuss why it is imperative to properly archive these images so that when we, and future generations are ready to view them, that they are accessible and preserved.

“Images of 9/11 - Protecting the Past, Preserving the Future” is presented by The Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History at Columbia University to explore the issues that the attacks on the World Trade Center have raised for the creative community.

Moderator Kenneth T. Jackson is Barzun Professor of History and Director of the Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History at Columbia University. A former president of the New-York Historical Society and the Organization of American Historians, he is the editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City.

Participants:

Ric Burns is a noted documentary filmmaker. His work includes "The Center of the World - New York: A Documentary Film” for PBS's American Experience. The film has been a catharsis for many New Yorkers. Burns’ the WTC "at once the most familiar and the least well-known building in the world."

Clifford Chanin is a consultant to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation on the development and planning of the memorial museum. He is the founder and president of The Legacy Project a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting contemporary responses – in visual art, literature, film and public debates about memory – to historical traumas in societies around the world.

Douglas Greenberg is the president and chief executive officer of Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Greenberg came to the Shoah Foundation in 2000 from the Chicago Historical Society, where he served as president and director for seven years. Previously he was vice president of the American Council of Learned Societies and associate dean of the faculty at Princeton University.

Danny Leiner is the director of “The Great New Wonderful” a fictional account of life after 9/11 in New York. Called by some critics “the first GREAT film about 9/11” Leiner has said: “I never wanted to do anything straight about 9/11, but we just couldn’t stop thinking about it, so it became more about how people dealt with life after 9/11, as opposed to the event itself.”

Steven Rosenbaum is the curator of The CameraPlanet Archive, known as the single largest collection of amateur and professional video of 9/11. Rosenbaum was the Director of the critically acclaimed “7 Days In September”. The archive has partnered with National Geographic, PBS, HBO, The History Channel and many independent filmmakers around the world to make available this footage for documentary purposes.

These complex and important questions will fuel a discussion that will engage both the creative and historical communities.

Date: Thursday, September 8th
Time: 6:00pm / Reception 7:30
Location: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - Lecture Hall
Reception: The Joseph Pulitzer World Room

RSVP Required for admittance 212-854-0099
No charge for attendance.

For Additional Information Contact:

Press: David Falkenstein: Rubenstein Communications: 212-843-8281
Venue: Barbara Fasciani– Columbia University 212-854-0123

For advance media copies of video, email request to: Archive@CameraPlanet.com