September 5

The film tells the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis from the position of the people broadcasting it rather than the hostages or the police, and takes place almost entirely inside the ABC Sports control room. The team is there to cover a sporting event; one morning they find themselves in the middle of the biggest news story in the world, and technically unprepared for it. For his research Tim Fehlbaum spoke to Geoffrey Mason, who was coordinating producer of ABC's round-the-clock coverage that day and one of the few surviving members of that team. The production obtained blueprints of the ABC Sports control room and photographs from the period and built everything on screen to match. All the equipment in the room is genuine period hardware sourced from collectors and museums. The film also mixes real archive footage and the original ABC broadcast, with Jim McKay anchoring, into its own scenes. Who it is for: viewers interested in the decision points of news work and in the fact that a mistake made live cannot be taken back. Who it is not for: anyone wanting the political background. The film does not open up the Palestinian or Israeli side; it deliberately keeps the camera inside one room.