Out of the Clear Blue Sky

The organization that suffered the greatest number of fatalities on 9/11 was a major tenant at the top five floors of One World Trade Center: Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street investment firm, which lost 658 of its 960 employees. Danielle Gardner's documentary looks at the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy through the experiences of the Cantor Fitzgerald survivors and the families of those that were killed. The most prominent member of the company, CEO Howard Lutnick, was taking his son to kindergarten when the hijacked airplane crashed into the skyscraper. Lutnick initially generated great public sympathy due to his vow to financially support the family members of his company's 9/11 victims, but his subsequent decision to suspend the paychecks of employees who were missing in the World Trade Center wreckage created a harsh wave of media scorn and vituperative outrage from angry survivors. (Lutnick eventually reversed himself and exhibited a financial generosity that was without modern precedent.) Other Cantor Fitzgerald employees and family members faced extraordinary pressures in the aftermath of 9/11, including agonizing decisions over which memorial services and funerals to attend (which at one point averaged 10 per day). Offering a heartbreaking view of a horrible event witnessed through the prism of one terribly hard-hit company, this is highly recommended. (P. Hall)