9/11: The Longest War
In honour of the 15th Anniversary of 9/11, National Geographic Channel is looking back at the very best reporting we have done since this world-changing tragedy first happened using extended excerpts from past specials that relate directly to events leading up to and following the attacks on New York City and Washington DC.
Erik Nelson
Stephen Finnigan
Casts & Crew
J.V. Martin
Rudolph Giuliani
David Patraeus
Stanley McChrystal
Also Directed by Erik Nelson
The documentary story of Harlan Ellison
A meditation on youth, war and stunning bravery, featuring footage, taken from the National Archives, from the documentary filmed in 1943 by legendary Hollywood director William Wyler about the famous Memphis Belle flying fortress and the gripping narration from some of the last surviving B-17 pilots.
Recounts the harrowing end of World War II through the eyes of 24 men who lived through the events and using never-before-seen footage.
With Herzog's direction, Richard Thompson leads a small group of musicians into creating Grizzly Man's evocative soundtrack.
The eve of 9/11 is recalled. Eyewitnesses recall the day before the 9/11 terror attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers.
Computer-generated animation about the daily lives of dinosaurs, narrated by Werner Herzog.
In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film Gray State. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film’s crowd funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists and members of the nascent alt-right. In January of 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause célèbre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims.
Bill Paxton narrates this wonderful documentary taking a look at the final day in the life of President John F. Kennedy. The film pretty much traces his actions from the time he landed in Texas until his arrival in Dallas where he would of course be assassinated. The film starts off to a rather shocking, to me anyway, claim and that's the fact that Paxton himself was able to see Kennedy and have a photograph taken of himself in a crowd listening to the President give a speech the day before he was killed. Perhaps this here was known to fans of the actor but I personally never knew this but as the film plays out you see how those directly linked to the President on this day will never forget what happened and probably more than most people.
The film uncovers a part of the Holocaust that was once thought to be unrecorded, but thanks to Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum's work there is now documentation and photographic evidence of what life was like behind the fences of the death camp at Auschwitz. This film profiles a series of contrasting photos - one series portrays the banality of evil, while the other profiles the horror of life behind the wire.
Television movie
Also Directed by Stephen Finnigan
Adrian Chiles looks into an extraordinary game of professional football that took place in May 1979, where an all-white team took on a side comprised solely of black players.
Channel 4 documentary Britain's Racist Election follows the controversial 1964 Smethwick election battle between Peter Griffiths and Gordon Walker, fought on grounds of racial denomination
The extraordinary story of the planet’s most famous contemporary scientist, told in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking’s private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen's world, both past and present.
The extraordinary true story of Saddam Hussein's farcical venture into the movie business: a story involving Oliver Reed, big budgets, war, debauchery and a film lost in a Surrey garage for 35 years
An insight into the turbulent relationship between Princess Diana and her formidable stepmother Raine Spencer.
Providing unique insight into the private world of Clarence House, this documentary follows the rise and fall of William Tallon - a devoted servant, friend and butler to the Queen Mother.
Documentary offering a fresh perspective on the question of how history will judge Donald Trump, by setting his life next to that of a controversial leader from our own past.
With access to the real players, and using extensive, dramatic reconstruction Supergrass illuminates twelve crime ridden years in a world that seems far off Britain now, but is actually near-history. A world where the policing rules were very different, it explores the strangely ordered rules of the underworld where Supergrasses were the only way to crack the gangs, who were causing havoc in seventies ‘Sweeney’ London. A London where guns were used in armed robberies every week, and the city felt like the Wild West. The film tells the stories of dramatic crimes and outrageous criminal characters. People like London’s biggest bank robber and the first supergrass in 1972, Bertie Smalls, and Maurice O Mahoney, armed robber and hard man who shopped hundreds of associates in 1976.