DOKU.ARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
09.09.–27.09.2015
Filming Ground Zero: Politics and Reconstruction
As one of the few cinematographers with access to Ground Zero, starting in 2004 Mike Marcucci shot more than 700 hours of footage at the site of the World Trade Center – a mixture of long shots, static shots, horizontal and vertical panning and zooming. His work was originally intended to be a documentation of the building process, but because phases of major progress were interspersed with complete standstills, the filming was repeatedly stalled. Given the endless construction delays and the feuds battled out publicly among the decision-makers, the discord grew even amongst New York’s populace. Hence arose Marcucci’s idea for a film about the conflicting political and economic interests of those involved in the reconstruction.
Mike Marcucci
Mike Marcucci studied Cinema Studies and Media Studies at the School of Visual of Arts and at New School University. After working in the entertainment industry for over 20 years, he has been filming all aspects of the design, development and construction of the World Trade Center project since 2004. Marcucci’s World Trade Center work has won a number of industry awards including Telly, Aegis, Aurora, and Videographer awards. In 2009, Marcucci worked with the Smithsonian Institute’s Air Space magazine to create a film for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.