USA: A documentary about two September 11 widows who travel to Afghanistan, premieres in New York City

From the grief of losing their husbands in the World Trade Center attacks, to traveling to Afghanistan to find that the plight of the widows there is even more extreme, "Beyond Belief", a new documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, follows the emotional journey of two Boston September 11 widows. Directed by Beth Murphy, the film focuses on Susan Retik and Patti Quigley, two soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston whose lives change drastically when tragedy strikes and they both lose their husbands in the twin towers. The grief joins the two women together and compels them to find out more about the country where the WTC terrorists were trained -- Afghanistan. Eventually, as they coped with their tragedy and learned to become single mothers, the two women formed an organization called, "Beyond The 11th", which works to empower women in Afghanistan whose lives have been adversely effected by by decades of conflict, poverty and oppression - factors that the women view as the possible, root causes of terrorism. Murphy met Retik and Quigley during one of their events for "Beyond the 11th" and was immediately fascinated by their work in Afghanistan and the parallel between the 9/11 widows and widows in Afghanistan. Murphy had already filmed the duo in America for two years, before she followed them to Afghanistan. "To be able to travel to Afghanistan with Patti and Susan after we'd been filming together for almost two years at that point, was really, it was truly an incredible experience as a film-maker and as a friend of Patti and Susan, because I knew how much this trip meant to them, and it was a dream come true. It was a very deep personal feeling and to be able to be with someone as they are fulfilling a dream and to witness that and to be able to document it, was very meaningful to me," said Murphy. Of her journey to Afghanistan, Retik said that one of the things that struck her was that she felt that many of the women there, especially the widows, were much worse off than those in the developed world, like America. Murphy said that she misses her husband every day but also realizes that as a woman in America, she enjoys so many more privileges compared to poor women in countries like Afghanistan. "I mourn his (her husband's) loss everyday but I can still recognize that we live here in America, and the opportunities that people have here are unlike the majority of the world. And I think as Americans we often are able to shut out what the rest of the world is going through but when you really stop and take notice of what we really have, the poverty here, and I'm not trying to minimize poverty in America, I know people go hungry. But it is a different picture, it is a different landscape than the poverty and the horror in Afghanistan, and maybe Africa, and I could name many other countries," said Retik. Explaining the reason why she and Quigley chose to go to Afghanistan, Retik said that when they thought of aiding organizations working with women in Afghanistan, she felt the need to go there and see the aid work first hand. "I need to meet these women and I need to know that what these organizations are telling us these women need, they really need, that we are not putting American values on the needs of these women, and I wanted to eat the food, and touch these women, and experience their laughter and their sadness together, and really, it was just a very emotional, beautiful trip," said Retik. As for Murphy, she feels that the Tribeca Film Festival was one of the best forums for a film like this, and she hopes that "people watching the film walk away with a greater sense of connectedness to our world, feeling a greater sense of community, maybe feeling a desire to reach out in their own personal way." Murphy explained that she hopes that Retik and Quigley's "courageous journey" from their comfortable neighborhoods to desperate Afghan villages and their unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world, will inspire people to reach out to different communities and people in myriad parts of the world. While Quigley is no longer on the board of the organization she formed with Retik, she continues to help Afghan women and be part of the cause, and Retik hopes that the film will raise more awareness about the plight of Afghani women.

ITN Source | May 9, 2007

Tags:. .conflict. .compared. .comfortable. .awareness. .immediately