National Geographic is marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with 9/11 REUNITED, a three-part docuseries premiering Aug. 21 at 8 p.m. ET.
It brings survivors face-to-face with the strangers who rescued them that day.
“It’s more gratitude than anything else,” retired U.S. Navy Capt. Craig Powell, a former Navy SEAL who helped free colleagues trapped inside the burning Pentagon, told The Christian Post. “Gratitude that I got to live, gratitude that I got to appreciate my children, gratitude that I got to help.”
Powell was one of several rescuers inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building. Among those he helped was retired US Army Col. Marilyn Wills, who was trapped in a smoke-filled office and escaped through a window with his assistance. The two hadn’t spoken in nearly 25 years before 9/11 REUNITED brought them back together.
Director Julian Jones built the series around similar reunions: survivors of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the South Tower coming face-to-face with the first responders, coworkers and strangers who got them out alive. 72 Films produced the docuseries in partnership with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, with Dan Lindsay, T.J. Martin, David Glover, Mark Raphael, Cate Hall and Carolyn Payne serving as executive producers.
Each of the three episodes covers different ground: the first follows survivors of the Twin Towers, the second turns to the Pentagon and South Tower and the third centers on first responders who lived through the North Tower’s collapse. National Geographic airs the series first, with Disney+ and Hulu streaming each episode the following day.
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“Through the storytelling power of our platforms, we will mark this solemn anniversary with programming that honors the victims and their families,” said Debra O’Connell, chairman of Disney Entertainment Television, of the network’s broader 25th-anniversary push.
9/11 REUNITED arrives as part of a much larger commemoration. Movieguide® reported that Disney’s coverage runs Aug. 21 through Sept. 11 across ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic and History Channel, including a Michael Strahan special on how sports and music aided national healing and a primetime broadcast anchored by David Muir, Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer that culminates in the Tribute in Light.
Movieguide® noted at the time that with roughly 100 million Americans too young to remember that Tuesday morning, this kind of programming matters more, not less, as the anniversary passes the quarter-century mark.
The goal, Movieguide® wrote, is “honest storytelling that treats grief seriously, points toward hope.”
That’s what makes 9/11 REUNITED worth a family’s attention. It doesn’t sensationalize the attacks or dwell on the horror of that day. It sits with two people who once depended on each other for survival and lets them say, a quarter-century late, thank you.
For Christian viewers, that shape is a familiar one: strangers bound by sacrifice, gratitude outlasting grief.
“I lock everything away, and I don’t go back there,” Powell said of that day. Reuniting with the people he helped save, a quarter-century later, seems to be its own kind of grace.
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