The $40M question that's been bugging me has been "who paid for this crapola?" And I think I've found the answer.
It's the Christian organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM), through their auxiliary - The Film Institute (TFI). Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, is the father of PT911 director David Cunningham.
Follow me over the flip for more stuff!
I was led to this by a
comment from everhopeful and I am ever hopeful we can shitcan this crapola hit piece.
YWAM members Mark and Krista Harris commented on their website:
As we have looked around, we've noticed a lot of big-mouthed giants running around, but not many young warriors brave enough to stake everything on God.
So that's what we've decided to do. Starting in July, along with our 'normal' discipleship efforts in YWAM, we will officially join The Film Institute - a new auxiliary branch of Youth With A Mission focused on tranforming film and television from the inside out. TFI's first project is a doozy: simply being referred to as: The Untitled History Project, it is already being called the television event of the decade and not one second has been put to film yet. Talk about great expectations!
Our goal is to help filmmakers, actors, technicians, etc. realize their God given potential and purpose in perhaps the most influential sphere of modern culture - film and television.
The "Untitled History Project" was the
working title, as this Fox story shows. It was produced by
in Toronto by UHP Productions. This quote from writer Cyrus Nowrasteh is particularly rich:
"Anything about 9/11 will be controversial," he said. "I commend ABC because they have continually asked me to be as truthful and honest as I can be. The producers have made every effort to be objective and tell the story truthfully -- because that's what the subject matter, and our audience, deserves."
This
article from Hamilton (a city near Toronto) even has the publicists phone number:
UHP Productions Ltd.
Contact Phone:
(416)778-8454
And from the site
YWAM Founders Site we get:
Mark Harris spoke following Braulia and showed a DVD clip by film director David L. Cunningham, who together with others has formed a YWAM auxiliary called The Film Institute (TFI). One goal of TFI is to fast-track UofN School of Digital Film interns, placing them within the film industry, not to give them jobs, but so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out.
I'm trying to dig up more, but a lot has been scrubbed...thank god for Google!
UPDATE: Whoa, this took off. Just got back from a ton of errands.
NOTE: I don't think YWAM funded this whole thing. I think they funded TFI, which provided seed money and initial production on the project. Then they probably went searching for big Christian funders (of which there are many) and started looking for an place to show it.
Questions I still have: 1) How far along was it when ABC got involved? 2) Who are the big funders?
Marc Platt, the Executive Producer, probably knows a lot about both these questions as well as David Cunningham.
OK, I'm getting my leash yanked back into honey-do land, so keep up the good work. I am planning to go to Crater Lake NP this weekend, so if anyone wants to put together all the goodies in the comments and do an updated diary about this tomorrow, please do :) I'm not sure how much net access I'll have.