Requiem for a Landmark
Steve Bilich captures fallen WTC on 16mm
By Marc Savlov, Fri., Dec. 21, 2001
The grinding gears of history have been spinning at a fever pitch since that terrible day in September. Out of the thousands of individual tragedies arising from the terrorist actions, however, has come a blessed counterweight of inspiring works of art and imagination, from overnight examples of the photographic craft rushed into makeshift Manhattan showings to stories, plays, paintings, sculptures, and finally, inevitably, films.
Filmmaker and Austinite-at-large Steve Bilich (Ruta Wakening) was living just eight blocks from the World Trade Center complex when the din of the emergency vehicles alerted him to the chaos. Like so many others that day and in the days that followed, Bilich headed toward Ground Zero to see what, if anything, he could do to help. On the way he encountered Terry Murphy, a Cherokee trail scout and friend from Woodstock, with whom the filmmaker had been planning on shooting an as-yet-unrealized short film. Grabbing a 1920 hand-cranked Cine-Kodak 16mm camera he had picked up at a Village flea market, Bilich and his friend made their way as far as Pier 40, where Bilich "filmed [Murphy] in the foreground as Manhattan burned in the background."
The resulting film -- shot on short ends of 7231 black and white provided gratis by Kodak -- is grainy and washed-out, the image jerky and restless, ghostly and appalling and beautiful. Even in spotty black and white, it's obvious what a clear and gorgeous day it is. And then the camera pans over the pier, and there are the twin towers screaming in the background. Then one tower. Then none.
Hastily edited by Bilich's friend and Continental Club co-owner Jack Hazard and silent but for the somber backing of Mozart's Requiem, Bilich's film (titled Native American in Manhattan) will screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival's "Frontiers" shorts program in January.
Bilich, meanwhile, has set his camera aside and focused his energies on the task at hand, which for him has meant working in various capacities at Ground Zero. He was one of the original group of Manhattan civilians involved in setting up the so-called "Hero Highway" tent city at Pier 40, and in the immediate aftermath of September 11 he spent 18 straight hours "in the 'pile,' in a bucket brigade pulling out body parts."
He's also taken up the cause of much-noted New York City Fire Department Ladder 10/Engine 10 -- the Battery Park company lost their firehouse and five men in the destruction and then had their remaining members split up by the city -- working both the media and the mayor's office to raise funds for the men of the 10/10.
Instigated by Bilich in his role as Emergency Task Force/FDNY liaison, a plan to have the Austin Fire Department adopt the 10/10 is under way. (Austin and surrounding-area fire departments have already sent checks totaling $800,000, an amount second only to Washington State's recent $4 million donation, to the NYC Uniformed Firefighters Association.) A "Tenhouse Family Fund" has been created to raise money for the families of the battered company and to help defray the costs of the many personal items, such as family cars, the surviving firefighters lost.
Information on how to donate to the 10/10 fund is available by calling Paine Webber NY at 800/635-1983 x8108.
