In early 2003, I was sitting on Chair 9 with then Mountainfilm Festival Director Rick Silverman. He asked what I was working on and I responded that I’d produced an odd, but interesting, short that featured a tour guide from New York City named Speed Levitch. Shiva—directed by indie filmmaker Richard Linklater—follows Levitch around downtown New York on a walking monologue as he offers a very different vision of Ground Zero, one that does not involve another glass and steel tower. Silverman asked to see Shiva, but I responded that it takes place entirely in the city and didn’t seem right for this festival. He asked to see it anyway, so I sent it. He liked it and said it was just right for Telluride. I proudly became an official Mountainfilm filmmaker for the first time and am thrilled to screen it again ten years after 9-11.

—David Holbrooke