Last night, after a brief stop at the NYC Blogger event, I went to see the world premere of Brotherhood, which was playing at Stuyvesant (my alma mater) for the TriBeCa Film Festival. Brotherhood, a documentary, is about three firehouses in the Fire Department of New York, their members, and how they move on and cope after the events of September 11th. The three houses that were the focus of the film were Engine Company 252 in Brooklyn, Rescue 4 in Queens, and Rescue 1 in Manhattan.

The film starts in 2002, approximately a year after "the events", and progresses about a year. During filming, you can see how the firemen develop bonds within their squads and join the "brotherhood". They all risk their lives every day, not knowing if every call will be their last, and bond through their time in the firehouses too.

Brotherhood is a very romantic look at the FDNY, with little evidence of the problems exhibited in March, but one can see how there could potentially be problems. With several more senior members of the department having friends who passed and new members joining, the FDNY is undergoing many changes, which can obviously cause tension in the department.

It would have been nice to see the documentary address some of these issues, but that is the only place I would say this film fell short. It was an emotional, and at times funny, film that really did show the quality of the best fire department in the world. Also in attendance at the film were FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and film festival co-founder, Jane Rosenthal.

- TriBeCa Film Festival listing for "Brotherhood"
- World Movie Magazine coverage on "Brotherhood"

Posted by tien mao in Movies at 7:33 AM