Posted by chicagomedia.org on August 25, 2009 at 09:25:58:
9/11 documentary garners 4 Emmy noms
Chicago group's film to air again on cable TV
August 25, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE | Sun-Times Media & Marketing Columnist
Chicago-based Siskel/Jacobs Productions has wracked up no fewer than four 2009 Primetime Emmy Award nominations for "102 Minutes That Changed America."
The work is a two-hour documentary drawn from raw footage shot during the Sept. 11 attacks. The film was nominated in the outstanding nonfiction special category, as well as picture editing and sound editing and mixing.
The 9/11 documentary aired for the first time on Sept. 11, 2008, on the History Channel, where 5 million viewers saw it, making it that cable channel's most-watched show ever. It will air again next month on Sept. 11.
S/J Productions Principal Jon Siskel, nephew of late movie critic Gene Siskel, said "102 Minutes" was painstakingly pieced together from more than 100 hours of footage shot on that fateful September morning.
Siskel and his business partner, Greg Jacobs, obtained the material by reaching out to first-responders, posting a request for footage on YouTube and putting fliers in buildings near where the tragedy unfolded. Seed money from the History Channel helped them get started on the project.
Siskel and Jacobs are now finishing another feature documentary about Chicago high school students competing in poetry slams that they hope to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.