HTA-0580: Missing Person — The Last Email

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Summary

Henry reports on a missing person case, with the last email received at 9:25 that morning.

Full Transcript

00:00
The last email that we got from him, that she got from him, was at 925 that morning.

00:07
That was 35 minutes after the planes had hit.

00:13
We're stuck. The room is filling with smoke. I'm scared.

00:18
The past week and today have been filled with stories like these, stories of tragedies as a result of the horrible terrorism of 9-11.

00:29
The question now is, okay, we've commemorated 9-11.

00:33
Where do we go?

00:34
How do we face tragedy?

00:36
How do we move on from tragedy?

00:37
How do we find some meaning in the face of tragedy?

00:41
Let me introduce you to the director of a film called Love, Hate, Love.

00:47
Damon Ackman is the co-director.

00:50
And would you explain the concept of the film and how you expressed it?

00:55
Sure, sure.

00:56
Love, Hate, Love is about three families that were victims of terrorist attacks.

01:00
One September 11th, which you just saw, was Liz Alderman.

01:02
She lost her 25-year-old son, Peter.

01:06
A family that was from London who lost their daughter and sister in the London bus bombing on 7-7, 2005.

01:14
And a survivor of a Bali bombing in 2002, Ben Tulipin, who lost his legs and was burned over 90% of his body.

01:22
So, I mean, you present the horror of all of these terrorist tragedies quite vividly.

01:31
But in a way, that's almost the easy part, to portray these terrible, bloody visual events.

01:40
But then you move on past that.

01:42
So can you explain where it goes?

01:43
Sure, sure.

01:44
So about the first 20 minutes of the film is what happened to these families in the terrorist attacks I just described.

01:52
But as the title kind of indicates, you know, these families had a love before these events.

01:57
Then hatred ruined that love.

01:59
But then love persevered in the end.

02:02
So all these people have chosen, made a very decisive choice to let love conquer hatred.

02:09
In what ways?

02:10
So in big and small ways.

02:12
So our 9-11 family, the Aldermans, they have set up mental health care clinics

02:17
because they got the best mental health care that our country has to offer,

02:20
which doesn't exist in the rest of the world.

02:22
And they had this epiphany one day that said,

02:26
we need to help the six billion people who don't have that.

02:29
And so they've set up 11 now mental health care clinics around the world

02:34
in Africa and Cambodia and elsewhere.

02:38
The British family, they did a smaller gesture,

02:41
but still very big, affecting the lives of thousands,

02:44
setting up an eye care clinic in India, Bhumaneshwar, India,

02:49
to make sure that people can live their lives and function.

02:54
And then Ben Tulipin, the survivor of the Bali bombing,

02:58
he just works one-on-one with other amputees and other people affected by terrorism.

03:03
And he says, you know, if I can get up and walk again, which I do, you can do it too.

03:06
And he goes to people right after their accidents and teaches them to golf

03:10
and says, you can enjoy life. This isn't the end for you.

03:13
Okay, so that's what they did. How did they do it?

03:16
What did you learn about these people in the course of this film?

03:19
You know, Liz Alderman, the mother of Peter Alderman from New York, has, I think, one of the best sound bites in the movie.

03:25
They all have a lot of great sound bites.

03:27
But she says you have two choices.

03:29
One, you can kill yourself either figuratively or literally.

03:33
Or you can choose to put one foot in front of the other.

03:36
And you really have no choice.

03:37
She had two other children.

03:38
She didn't want the terrorists to get them, too.

03:43
So is there a secret?

03:46
I mean, is there some mental click that they were able to do?

03:50
You know, I don't know.

03:51
I came to this story, my partner and I did,

03:54
after doing a documentary on the Bay Area survivors.

03:56
That's how we came to know about this issue.

03:59
And the resilience of a lot of the survivors

04:01
who we've met just in our lives as journalists,

04:03
in our careers as journalists,

04:06
it's unbelievable, the resilience.

04:07
I don't know if it's a click or if it's a human nature,

04:09
but I think we all would like to think that we could be like that.

04:12
Love, it's going to be shown September 21st, 7 p.m.

04:16
Marine Memorial Ballroom in San Francisco, kttfilms.com.

04:20
Marty, Isabel.

04:21
All right.

04:22
Henry, thank you.

04:22
That was lovely.

04:24
That's all for us this morning.

04:25
We leave you with live pictures from Pennsylvania, Washington, and New York.

04:29
Thank you for joining us.

04:30
Have a good day.

04:39
Juanillo.

04:41
Gabriela Savina Weissman.

04:44
Wendy Alice Rosario.