Timothy “Speed” Levitch’s idea for a World Trade Center memorial is simple: from Ground Zero should emerge a 16-acre tract of grassy parkland populated by free-ranging American buffalo, the very creatures that roamed America before humans arrived to take it from them.
In director Richard Linklater’s documentary “Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor,” shown Monday night at Exley Science Center, the ruin of New York City’s Ground Zero is presented as the ideal opportunity for urban resurrection.
The film follows urban philosopher Levitch as he tours Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero, musing on the metaphysical landscape of post-9/11 New York. Levitch was in attendance at the screening Monday night, along with the film’s producers, David Holbrooke and alumna Sarah Holbrooke ’86.
“Let Ground Zero, currently a hole in the ground, become a joy park,” Levitch said.
Ground Zero, he said, should be a park with a memorial in the middle that is not a stone but instead a heartbeat.
“A living memorial is a more forward step to what we are calling the future,” Levitch said, revealing how living buffalo could best commemorate a deadly tragedy.
The film was originally envisioned as a part of an anthology of eight to 10 films about 9/11 that the Holbrookes were working on for HBO. When the project fell through, they decided to try and make the film independently, and contacted “Speed” Levitch. They remembered Levitch’s unique personality and his deep-rooted connection to New York City as it had been displayed in the 1998 documentary “The Cruise.”
Levitch responded enthusiastically and thought that Richard Linklater, whom he knew from working on “Waking Life,” would be the perfect collaborator. Although “Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor” was his first foray into documentary filmmaking, Linklater’s well-known career as a filmmaker includes not only the aforementioned “Waking Life,” but also “Dazed and Confused,” “Slacker,” “School of Rock,” and the companion films “Before Sunset” and “Before Sunrise.”
In the film, Levitch spoke of the sacred space called Ground Zero.
“This is a land that is terrible at commemoration,” Levitch said early in the film. “[Ground Zero] may look like a hole in the ground but it is…[an] opportunity.”
In the absence of the towers, Levitch recognized that the new skyline is made up of old buildings to be appreciated in a new way.
Levitch pointed out that the first word in New York City—new—should be the focus of any redevelopment effort on the former site of the World Trade Center.
“Unoriginal thinking will surely kill us,” Levitch said.
Shot in a single day in 2002, the film’s unconventional message won praise and provoked dialogue. It was an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, and won awards at both the Santa Cruz and Tribeca Film Festivals.
In discussions following the film, Levitch and the Holbrookes pointed out that the film’s alternative look at a national tragedy was not without opposition.
“There was one time when a guy really stood up and screamed [at a screening],” David Holbrooke said.
The man felt it was inappropriate to have laughter in the audience of a film that made references to 9/11.
“We are not laughing at tragedy, but laughing with tragedy,” Levitch said. “I would say New York has changed a lot…Personally, I took [9/11] as a lesson and a parable.”
David Holbrooke turned the discussion to the future of Ground Zero, and explained that the film was made two years ago when there was no plan for the space at Ground Zero.
“The priorities of a society are reflected in the tallest building, and it seems that [the priorities of] those in power today is rule based on fear,” Levitch said in reference to the planned “Freedom Tower” for the site.
Sarah Holbrooke also commented on the memorial plans for the site.
“I don’t think any one of us have the right answer for Ground Zero,” Sarah Holbrooke said. “But we like to think of the film as our building—our memorial to 9/11.”
The audience was won over by Levitch’s sincerity and idiosyncratic originality.
“The question and answer was pretty tense and awkward, but afterwards Nina Macintosh [’08] and I got to have a long conversion with Mr. Levitch,” said Ray Tintori ’06. “He told us about how he wants them to build another skyscraper on top of the Empire State Building. We also talked about this Indian restaurant for cabdrivers in Manhattan called Punjabi, his favorite bench in Central Park and his admiration for Godspeed You Black Emperor.”
Students also commented on the viewing of the film in the Science Center.
“It was really strange to find Mr. Levitch in a small room hidden away in the bowels of the Science Center because the setting was the complete antithesis of everything he stands for,” Tintori said. “You had to navigate through a labyrinth of pristine white hallways to find this scruffy wild eyed guy who acts like a homeless Walt Whitman and is morally offended that New York streets are arranged like a grid.”
“Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor” can be purchased on Amazon.com or rented from Netflix.
Leave a Reply