An Opinion on 'The Path to 911'

By Bemused

I have a comment on the current situation with Disney / ABC and the Path to 9/11.

By way of background - the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival is currently underway. A first feature film - Away From Her - from a young director is getting tremendous buzz - raves from all who have seen it in early screenings. The film features Julie Christie, Olympia Dukakis, a well known Canadian actor Gordon Pinset, and Michael Murphy.

The director is a young lady - twenty seven years old - Sarah Polly. Sarah is quite talented. She started very young (first credits in both television and film from when she was six) and was the original choice for the film Almost Famous - a part which went to Kate Hudson after Sarah withdrew, not being comfortable with her role.

Sarah is also quite political - on the left wing of Canadian politics, and has been since her childhood.

During the first Gulf war, Sarah attended a children's awards show in Washington, DC, and was seated at a table with some representatives from the Disney Company. They asked her to remove a peace symbol that she was wearing - was told that if she did not, she would never work for the Disney organization. Sarah refused. Disney has blacklisted her ever since. Sarah was twelve at the time. A measure of the Disney organization - the nature of the company which is behind Path to 9/11.

Some interesting sidebars. A Canadian Politician, Tommy Douglas, was designated by a country-wide survey last year as the greatest Canadian ever. Tommy's major contribution was introduction of public health care insurance in the province of Saskatchewan when he was Premier. Tommy Douglas is regarded as the father of Medicare in Canada.

Tommy's daughter, Shirley Douglas is an actress. She is also very active in social issues, and protested with Sarah Polly at a Summit of the Americas meeting in Windsor, Ontario (2000), and has been involved in Medicare related events with Sarah. Shirley's son is also an actor, and has had a higher profile than his mother - Kiefer Sutherland, plays Jack Bauer in 24 Hours.

Now get this - Shirley's most recent part as an actress is - Madeline Albright in Path to 9/11.

Also, Michael Murphy - one of the leads in Sarah Polly's new film, also has a role in Path to 9/11 - the role of William Cohen.

Sarah Polly's IMDB profile -which documents the Disney blacklisting (in the Trivia section) is here.

It will be interesting to see how the whole Path to 9/11 episode plays out.

9/10/06