Kavanagh's Weblog

The documentary, “Beyond the 11th,” is about the two women’s’ subsequent actions and the organization of the same name they created. It describes a bond they forged with Afghan widows, including those left partner-less by the ‘American War.’ The film shows how 9/11 prompted two people to embrace deeper understanding, without sinking into hatred and violence. “Beyond the 11th” shows two women confronting a need to make better things grow in the tragic ground they walked, and in doing so, helping others to be more connected across multiple boundaries.

In the period when the two first met, “Beyond the 11th,” describes the Massachusetts women as overwhelmed by the generosity they received. While it doesn’t dwell on their financial situation, the footage shows their homes and living conditions: surroundings most Americans only hope for, even as the hole in each of their families' lives is painful to watch. At the same time, Patti and Susan are drawn to another reality, one for other widows of war, terror, and violence. This is the situation of war widows in Afghanistan, numbering more than 30,000 in Kabul alone.

Their counterparts’ situation was even more desolate than it might be elsewhere, as most women had no means to make an income and no allowance to work outside their own homes and stay within the rules of Afghan society. With children to support, these widows were truly desperate. Susan and Patti learned about their plight just as they began to regard themselves as blessed by all the attention and support they received from their families and the community around them.

Rather than pushing away from their concern, or turning inward to deal with their own troubles alone, the pair chose to help women on the other side of the world, whose plight had eluded most Americans. They asked for support that Susan and Patti were in a unique position to speak up for— from an American public disposed to listen to families of 9/11’s fallen.

The filmmakers show the two women moving from private living room conversations about helping war widows in Kabul to becoming more polished public personas. The crew follows them describing their mission to a police and National Guard gathering and while they appear on various local and national television programs. The film also depicts frank discussions with non-profit partners and supporters, as the pair attempt to define the parameters of their support; they wonder what numbers will actually make a difference to those who receive their help.

The method Patti and Susan decided on was to support, through their organization, a trio of programs already in place in Afghanistan: Care International, Women for Women, and Arzu, which provided in-home agricultural and business support for women and education for girls. The programs, as basic as one that distributed chickens, incubators, and chickenfeed to women who could then sustain small businesses, were already successful, but were serving much smaller numbers than the need required.

To capture the attention of the public and financial supporters, Patti and Susan decided to bicycle the path home that their husbands never made in 2001. On the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the two started at Ground Zero in New York and cycled the 275-mile journey back to Boston, sponsored by contributors and followed by media hungry for a story about people affected by America’s tragedy. The film follows their ride and plays a spontaneous train of thoughts and emotions along the route of the journey as it unfolds. It strengthens the documentary that it relies heavily on following Patti and Susan living with their children and going about their personal challenges, rather than just illustrating set-piece interviews. It gives the film a genuine feeling of observed life experience, rather than retold history on film.

The exciting transformation that takes the film to another level, however, is that it follows the women’s lives farther, as they are drawn to visit Afghanistan, shows the lives of the women who they seek to help, and the life of an endangered international aide worker they befriend, as she confronts another fact of Afghan life, kidnapping.

That the story begins in Massachusetts, on the television sets of beautifully appointed living rooms and travels not only to the World Trade Center, but on to Kabul and back connects it to the ties that bind us all. "Beyond the 11th," the film, makes the physical and emotional leap that connects two women to the world beyond them and also connects the viewer to how much we are a part of the world, whether we choose to see it or not.

The film is a production of Principle Pictures and is directed by Beth Murphy. Contributions to the organization, Beyond the 11th, can be made here.