The incredible vanishing Naudet brothers
At last, thanks to a new website 9-11 Foreknowledge.com, the film 9-11 (usually referred to as 'the Fireman's Video') by the Naudet brothers, Jules and Gédéon, is beginning to receive the critical scrutiny it deserves. This film purports to be the story of a probationary New York firefighter, 21yo Tony Benetatos, but turns out to be about 9-11 after that event suddenly 'changes everything.' It is best known for containing the only decent footage of the first 'plane' striking the North Tower.
BELOW: A frame from the film 9-11, purportedly taken by Jules Naudet during the course of making a film about a probationary firefighter Tony Benetatos.*
I have long been suspicious of this film, and when I borrowed it from my local DVD store in 2002, I found myself watching numerous scenes over and over in slow motion that struck me as somehow odd - particularly one in which a strange object resembling a bird, but much too large to be a real bird, flutters across the foreground. Now this excellent website-in-progress analyses numerous details in what seems to be a kind of propaganda film posing as real life documentary. This website establishes that at least some of the footage which is presented as having been filmed before 9-11 has to have been filmed afterwards. What's more, this website invites us to ponder the fact that one of the firefighters shown in the film - James Hanlon - is actually a professional actor. You can't work your way through the content on this website without wondering whether the entire film is a hoax, whether perhaps it was created after 9-11 as a vehicle for fabricated footage of the first 'plane' crashing into the North Tower.
What this website does not address, and what I think no one has commented on so far, is that the Naudet brothers are rather mysterious. They would seem to be Jewish - certainly, Gédéon would seem to be a Jewish name. I wonder whether they are really French, as we have been told, or whether they are perhaps Israelis posing as Frenchmen. Although we are told that they are French, we are never told anything about their background in France. Biographical information is virtually non-existent, even on a French 9-11 website (www.onze-septembre.com). The only reported facts are that they 1) moved from Paris to New York in 1989 (when Jules and Gédéon would have been aged 16 and 19 respectively) and 2) graduated from the (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts film school in 1995. (SOURCE 1 and SOURCE 2) I am curious about their move from Paris to New York (did they go with or without their parents?) and when and how they came to study at the Tisch school, which is one of the most competitive such institutions in the world. Entry is, reportedly, more competitive than to any of the Ivy League universities. (SOURCE) So who arranged it?
The brothers' parallel lives and identical biographies seem a little unlikely considering that there is apparently a three-year age gap between them. (Twins might go everywhere together and do exactly the same things, but brothers born several years apart?) Given their role in making films about American subjects - their first and only other film, Hope, Gloves, and Redemption: The Story of Mickey and Negra Rosario (1999), is concerned with events in Spanish Harlem - it is intriguing that I can find no profiles for these brothers prior to 9-11, and very little by way of publicity for Hope, Gloves, and Redemption. In fact, on the latter subject all I can find is a listing for the not particularly illustrious Northampton Film Festival, which apparently showed the film in 2000. According to the Northampton Film Festival website, 'Both [Jules and Gedeon] have worked for the Sundance Channel and for the French Television station Canal+.' (SOURCE) How could filmmakers at one of the world's most elite film schools fail to make any impact on the media, even the New York media (e.g., the Village Voice), prior to their breakthrough with 9-11? The Tisch School of the Arts website offers not a single reference to the Naudet brothers, even though its graduates are, by at least one account, responsible for the 'greatest documentary ever filmed.' (SOURCE) You'd think the School would like to crow about its association with the Naudets. Also odd, perhaps, is that these allegedly French brothers have no profile in France whatsoever. I can find no Naudet interviews with French media, at least so far as Google shows. Perhaps avoiding the French media is a must if you are not really French?
I also find myself wondering why the brothers, given that they are now world famous, haven't sought to capitalize on their amazing celebrity. Despite extensive googling, I have failed to dredge up a single interview or mention of anything the brothers have said or done since they did a round of media interviews on the occasion of the first 9-11 anniversary on September 11, 2002, with the exception of two firefighter-related functions they attended in the first half of 2003. (Jules Naudet attended the New York Fire Commissioner’s Humanitarian awards dinner at the New York Hilton Grand Ballroom on January 28, 2003, while both brothers appeared, together with James Hanlon, at the New York City Uniformed Firefighters Association Celebrity Golf Benefit at Lake Success on June 23, 2003.) They have not been trotted out on any succeeding 9-11 anniversary, nor have they made any more films. Why would legitimate filmmakers vanish into thin air for more than three years? Could it be that their entire purpose in pursuing film studies in the U.S. (if indeed they really ever attended the Tisch school) and in making Hope, Gloves, and Redemption was to establish their credentials as film makers in time for 9-11? And that having made and publicized 9-11, they have now discarded their phony identities? In short, could the Naudet brothers and their celebrated documentary have been just another Ziohoax? This webpage here casts doubt on whether they are even brothers - a question I now consider perfectly reasonable to ask.
*Leslie Raphael argues persuasively that the perspective from which Naudet filmed the strike was so perfect that it cannot have been a coincidence. The only reasonable conclusion to draw is that the location was chosen in advance, with all that implies by way of foreknowledge.
BELOW: A frame from the film 9-11, purportedly taken by Jules Naudet during the course of making a film about a probationary firefighter Tony Benetatos.*
I have long been suspicious of this film, and when I borrowed it from my local DVD store in 2002, I found myself watching numerous scenes over and over in slow motion that struck me as somehow odd - particularly one in which a strange object resembling a bird, but much too large to be a real bird, flutters across the foreground. Now this excellent website-in-progress analyses numerous details in what seems to be a kind of propaganda film posing as real life documentary. This website establishes that at least some of the footage which is presented as having been filmed before 9-11 has to have been filmed afterwards. What's more, this website invites us to ponder the fact that one of the firefighters shown in the film - James Hanlon - is actually a professional actor. You can't work your way through the content on this website without wondering whether the entire film is a hoax, whether perhaps it was created after 9-11 as a vehicle for fabricated footage of the first 'plane' crashing into the North Tower.
What this website does not address, and what I think no one has commented on so far, is that the Naudet brothers are rather mysterious. They would seem to be Jewish - certainly, Gédéon would seem to be a Jewish name. I wonder whether they are really French, as we have been told, or whether they are perhaps Israelis posing as Frenchmen. Although we are told that they are French, we are never told anything about their background in France. Biographical information is virtually non-existent, even on a French 9-11 website (www.onze-septembre.com). The only reported facts are that they 1) moved from Paris to New York in 1989 (when Jules and Gédéon would have been aged 16 and 19 respectively) and 2) graduated from the (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts film school in 1995. (SOURCE 1 and SOURCE 2) I am curious about their move from Paris to New York (did they go with or without their parents?) and when and how they came to study at the Tisch school, which is one of the most competitive such institutions in the world. Entry is, reportedly, more competitive than to any of the Ivy League universities. (SOURCE) So who arranged it?
The brothers' parallel lives and identical biographies seem a little unlikely considering that there is apparently a three-year age gap between them. (Twins might go everywhere together and do exactly the same things, but brothers born several years apart?) Given their role in making films about American subjects - their first and only other film, Hope, Gloves, and Redemption: The Story of Mickey and Negra Rosario (1999), is concerned with events in Spanish Harlem - it is intriguing that I can find no profiles for these brothers prior to 9-11, and very little by way of publicity for Hope, Gloves, and Redemption. In fact, on the latter subject all I can find is a listing for the not particularly illustrious Northampton Film Festival, which apparently showed the film in 2000. According to the Northampton Film Festival website, 'Both [Jules and Gedeon] have worked for the Sundance Channel and for the French Television station Canal+.' (SOURCE) How could filmmakers at one of the world's most elite film schools fail to make any impact on the media, even the New York media (e.g., the Village Voice), prior to their breakthrough with 9-11? The Tisch School of the Arts website offers not a single reference to the Naudet brothers, even though its graduates are, by at least one account, responsible for the 'greatest documentary ever filmed.' (SOURCE) You'd think the School would like to crow about its association with the Naudets. Also odd, perhaps, is that these allegedly French brothers have no profile in France whatsoever. I can find no Naudet interviews with French media, at least so far as Google shows. Perhaps avoiding the French media is a must if you are not really French?
I also find myself wondering why the brothers, given that they are now world famous, haven't sought to capitalize on their amazing celebrity. Despite extensive googling, I have failed to dredge up a single interview or mention of anything the brothers have said or done since they did a round of media interviews on the occasion of the first 9-11 anniversary on September 11, 2002, with the exception of two firefighter-related functions they attended in the first half of 2003. (Jules Naudet attended the New York Fire Commissioner’s Humanitarian awards dinner at the New York Hilton Grand Ballroom on January 28, 2003, while both brothers appeared, together with James Hanlon, at the New York City Uniformed Firefighters Association Celebrity Golf Benefit at Lake Success on June 23, 2003.) They have not been trotted out on any succeeding 9-11 anniversary, nor have they made any more films. Why would legitimate filmmakers vanish into thin air for more than three years? Could it be that their entire purpose in pursuing film studies in the U.S. (if indeed they really ever attended the Tisch school) and in making Hope, Gloves, and Redemption was to establish their credentials as film makers in time for 9-11? And that having made and publicized 9-11, they have now discarded their phony identities? In short, could the Naudet brothers and their celebrated documentary have been just another Ziohoax? This webpage here casts doubt on whether they are even brothers - a question I now consider perfectly reasonable to ask.
*Leslie Raphael argues persuasively that the perspective from which Naudet filmed the strike was so perfect that it cannot have been a coincidence. The only reasonable conclusion to draw is that the location was chosen in advance, with all that implies by way of foreknowledge.
