The shattering, deadly 1970 crash of a jetliner carrying the Marshall University football team and booster club members, and its aftermath, are the subject of a documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lillibet Foster, to be shown on ESPN at 11 p.m. Wednesday.
The St. Thomas native wrote, produced and directed "Remembering Marshall: 30 Years Later," which tells how the school and the college town of Huntington, W. Va., responded to the crash. All those aboard the Southern Airways DC-9 were killed when it slammed into a hilltop near Huntington, skidded into a valley and exploded.
Now based in New York, Foster said Monday that she was approached by production company @radical.media about making the film. "I did do a film about street basketball, but I don't consider myself so much a sports person, but more someone who wants an interesting story," she said.
"This is not really a sports program but is actually more in the vein of a dramatic film about this town and this school, how they coped with the crash and coming forward all the way to today."
Foster, who was nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year for her profile of violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg "Speaking in Strings," said she tracked down many of those affected by the crash, which in effect wiped out Marshall's football program. From the father of the team's quarterback to a freshman who became a key player in rebuilding the program, Foster said she tells the story through the points of view of those who were there trying to pick up the pieces of a devastated community.
Interestingly, Foster noted that at least two players on the Marshall roster the following year, when it fielded a team largely composed of walk-ons, were also from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
"Remembering Marshall" will also air on ESPN Classic on the anniversary of the crash, at 8 p.m. Nov. 14.
