16 Acres

Overview

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in New Zealand who couldn't tell you exactly what they were doing the moment they heard two planes had crashed into the World Trade Centre. If you asked someone at the time how long they thought it would be before a new construction filled the void, chances are they wouldn't have guessed over a decade.

The question on my mind while watching 16 Acres was why wasn't there more coverage in the local media about all the ensuing drama related to the rebuild project? The answer, of course, is it was so convoluted and divisive that it must have seemed never-ending at the time, particularly to a foreign media like ours. Watching it play out in Richard Hankin's documentary however, is intriguing.

There are interviews with many of the key figures involved including former New York governor George Pataki, the developer Larry Silverstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the architect charged with carrying out his vision for the site. The film allows them all to have their say without showing any obvious bias. Offering astute commentary on the at times painful process is architecture critic Philip Nobel and Esquire writer Scott Raab. Interviews with the sister of a firefighter who died at the scene makes sure the human impact of the disaster is not lost amongst all the political bickering.

Exactly why it's taken so long for progress to be seen becomes clear as we learn about the conflicting interests involved. A worldwide architectural competition sees Daniel Libeskind's design favored, despite the fact he'd never worked on a skyscraper before. This is something Silverstein takes issue with and he demands a more experienced architect lead the project. Joke's on him though; in the years that followed Libeskind worked on several skyscrapers while the ground zero project barely got off the ground.

Not just for architecture buffs, this is a fascinating documentary about an extremely emotive rebuild project and an act which has had a lasting impact on our generation.