One Day In September DVD

ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER is a unique and powerful documentary that tells an important story in an exciting and dramatic style that one doesn't typically associate with the genre. The film is about the Black September terrorist action at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It relies on interviews and archival news footage of the actual events, which personalize the story of the doomed Israeli athletes and the Palestinian terrorists who held them captive while the world held its collective breath. Also documented, in painful detail, is the astonishing ineptitude and indifference of the West German police and the insensitivity of the International Olympic Committee. Director Kevin MacDonald makes excellent use of news footage, promotional films, and the music of the early 1970s. He also uses interviews with many of those involved, including an on-camera interview with surviving terrorist Jamal Al Gashey and an in-depth interview with Ankie Spitzer, the widow of one of the Israeli coaches who was killed. But what makes the film so compelling is the shrewd way MacDonald brings these elements together to make a suspenseful, heartbreaking record of this tragic event. MacDonald sought to make a "documentary thriller" with this film, and he succeeded.

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2000. Cable television release: September 23, 2000 (HBO). ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Director Kevin MacDonald was inspired to make the film after seeing WHEN WE WERE KINGS. Kevin MacDonald also directed A BRIEF HISTORY OF ERROL MORRIS, about acclaimed fellow documentarian Errol Morris. Other than their concert film, THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME, Led Zeppelin had never before given permission for one of their songs ("Immigrant Song") to be used in a film. Black September was named for the murder of more than 4,000 Palestinians and the expulsion of thousands more from Jordan, which was ordered by King Hussein in September 1970. Their initial goal was to seek vengeance against the Jordanians. The British Independent Film Awards 2000 awarded the film and MacDonald its Douglas Hickox Award for Best First Feature.

One Day In September Reviews:

"...An important and properly disturbing film..." -- Ron Wertheimer, New York Times

"...For its penetrating excavation of the nationalist motives at play during the Munich massacre, this film rates an impressive score..." -- Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone

"...An unnerving, highly dramatic documentary....This is a story that can't help but involve us....Macdonald and his team have done a remarkable job..." -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"...An endlessly gripping chronicle of the attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes, the movie features a wealth of interviews..." -- Mike Clark, USA Today

"...Macdonald has produced a work of restraint....One of the year's most shattering films..."-- Nick Hunt, Total Film

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