It was not a particularly exceptional Tuesday morning in Southern California in September seven years ago. The haze was settling over the gridlock which is the 10 Freeway, the lattes were coming fast and furious at our premium coffee houses, and those of us who kept late hours rubbed the sleep from our eyes and powered up our televisions on the off-chance a weather person would tell us to expect anything other than another lovely day in Los Angeles.
But something odd was happening on this fateful day virtually every channel carried an image of an office building on the other side of the United States just as people in that time zone were getting to work. Apparently, pilot error had caused American Airlines Flight No11 to crash into the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center. The on-air chit chat was brisk: ''we're awaiting word from the Federal Aviation Administration ...''
And then the unthinkable. A second aircraft flew into the South Tower. The chit-chat ceased an eerie, gut-wrenching, deafening silence for what seemed like hours but was just a few seconds.
And on September 11, 2001, our world and yours was forever changed.
Film-maker Morgan Spurlock was in New York that day but away from home that morning supporting a friend running for office in the neighbouring borough of Queens. Once it was clear what was happening, his only thought was to get home to his understandably nervous girlfriend, now wife, Alex. ''The view outside my window was the twin towers,'' Spurlock says. ''That's what you saw from where we lived.''
He hailed a taxi from which he soon leapt once the inevitable traffic jam set in, and ran the last 5km to be with his partner. Little did he know then from the dust and ashes he saw out his window that a chain of events would follow which, almost seven years later, would lead to the screening of his movie Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? on the opening night of the Brisbane International Film Festival tomorrow night.
Spurlock calls what he does immersion film-making. For Super Size Me, his award-winning documentary on the effects of a McDonald's-only diet, he put on a full 12kg. That film includes dire warnings from his physician about his blood pressure and possible irreversible medical consequences of what he was doing to himself. Subsequent television work featured him spending 30 days in prison, working in a coalmine to highlight aspects of the energy debate in the United States, and living on the US federal minimum wage, just $US6.56 an hour.
But the making of Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? represented a whole new level of personal danger. With not so much as a day with the Boy Scouts under his belt, let alone proper military training, he set out to do what the CIA, FBI and the US and other armies have all failed to do find the world's most wanted man.
According to material in the film's press kit, ''Spurlock encounters both the rational and the radical faces of the Middle East. He interviewed many people who embraced him on the streets and welcomed him into their homes. He experienced their culture in ways that sharply contrast with the conventional media images of the region. Spurlock finds they're not that different sharing the same hopes and fears for their children that he has for his own.''
The bulk of the budget for this $2million film went to the logistics of filming in 17 countries over a 412-month period. The personal risks were underscored by discussions during self-defence courses Spurlock did as well as the wording of the insurance policy (which included ''death, dismemberment and kidnapping'') he'd have to take out.
Spurlock's remarkable objective against this very heavy backdrop was to foster understanding of the goals and aspirations of the everyday folk from that region.
''I think it's nice to hear and see the people overseas we normally don't get to hear from ... especially from the Muslim world.''
He also wanted to make a fun film, and the animations alone took a full year to complete far longer than the principal photography. The film's preamble includes an hysterical Osama Bin Laden cum MC Hammer Can't Touch This sequence. ''I don't want to just make movies for people who would go see a documentary,'' Spurlock says. ''I want to make films that will bridge demographics, that will reach younger audiences.''
On the day The Canberra Times spoke to Spurlock, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Perth meeting Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith who said later, ''We are very concerned about the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. We don't believe that can be regarded simply as a bilateral matter between Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is an issue which has regional and international community consequences.''
Spurlock's reaction to that statement? ''I think he's absolutely correct,'' he says. ''You're talking about an area that is supposedly under Pakistani control but it's more like the wild west. It is an autonomous entity where within that tribal area, the tribal agency functions on its own. The [Pakistani military] most of those people won't go in there now. And [Pakistan's President General Pervez] Musharraf has turned a blind eye to what's been happening in there while trying to appease both sides the fundamental religious as well as people who are much more moderate.
''So I think that will have to be addressed and addressed soon as to how to squelch the rise of radical fundamentalism that's happening within that region.''
Australia's partnership with the US in the fight against extremism has not always been a smooth one. Spurlock talks about the American war on terror from the standpoint of protecting its people successfully because there hasn't been another attack on US soil. But then he adds, ''On the other side of the world, you have two wars one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and you have this PR war on terror which the United States has completely lost, of how people view the United States now.
''Whoever gets elected president in this next election has to make changing that foreign policy a mandate from day one of how people look at us, how people judge us. That will be key in making sure that things like a 9/11 don't happen again.''
His choice for who best to accomplish that?
''That's a great question. [John] McCain comes from a very strong military background and a great understanding of military procedure. But I think when you look at someone on a world stage, people trust Barack Obama won't be a warmonger.''
The US reviews of his film, which opened the US in April and stayed in theatres until late May, were mixed. ''I think the film was treated unfairly by a lot of critics in the States. They say, 'It's a primer for people who've never read anything about the Middle East.' Well you know what? There's plenty of people that don't read papers every day, that have turned off the news.''
The real star of Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? and the person to whom the film is dedicated makes only a brief appearance in it.
Two-year-old Laken Spurlock, who made the trip to Australia with his mum and dad, is constantly cited by his father as the real reason for doing such an exhausting, dangerous project.
What's Spurlock's reaction should a parent come away from the film with the idea that his or her child won't grow up in a safe world unless the children of the Middle East have a better life as well? ''I think that's a fantastic thing to take away from the movie.''
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? screens at the Dendy Canberra from August 14.