The film is a glimpse into the pivotal life of Professor Steven E. Jones by a young filmmaker, Brett Smith, when Professor Jones�s criticism of the official explanation for the destruction of the World Trade Center drew national attention to him and Brigham Young University.
Professor Jones had been teaching at Brigham Young University for over twenty years, and he loved his students and his career. He was attending a lecture in 2005 when the subject of 9/11 came up. The lecturer hinted that something was deeply amiss in the official story and half the room agreed with her. Professor Jones fell into the other half of the room's shocked surprise at the idea. Afterwards he did some research on the Internet, discovered Jim Hoffman�s WTC 7 site, and learned for the first time about building 7, not struck by a plane, which came down in the exact manner of a controlled demolition. His research into the destruction of the buildings began.
Professor Jones wrote his first paper on the subject, �Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?�, and presented a seminar on the same topic at BYU, both of which drew the local press and created quite a stir.
The film contains some priceless exchanges and interviews with random students and the administration officials at BYU, which are enlightening, frightening, and humorous. Most impressive are the interviews with Dr. Jones�s scientific collaborator Dr. Jeffrey Farrer, as well as views of the lab and their experiments. There is an excellent clip documenting the circumstances of the gathering of the first dust sample that Dr. Jones and Dr. Farrer examined together.
The most dramatic, surprising, and damning interview, however, was with the man, C. Martin Hinckley, who first threatened Jones and then tried to bribe him to stop his research on the evidence of explosives. His threats in fact materialize later in the media attacks and the administrative leave that ended Professor Jones�s teaching career at BYU. (I interviewed Brett Smith today on my weekly radio show, Community Currency, on Progressive Radio Network and learned that he actually was working on a short film on Big Brother when Hinckley mentioned Professor Jones, only later did Brett Smith change the focus of his documentary to Professor Jones. This is a rare, damning interview on the corruption of scientific research for political purposes. When I first saw it, I just couldn't understand how Hinckley could have agreed to be filmed.)
As we see Professor Jones's wife, son, and grandchild in the film and we become aware of his gentle, friendly, and caring nature, it becomes clear that it hurt him deeply to be forced to stop teaching. When he speaks clearly about his �pursuit of truth,� I can see in him the spiritual resolve of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom practiced �satyagraha,� �satya� meaning �truth� and �agraha� meaning �pursuit of.� Satyagraha was the term created to describe the non-violent movement that Gandhi led, which also began on a September 11th, in 1906. Professor Jones may laugh when he is nervous or frightened, but he clearly has courage, born out of a great love for his family, his community, his country, and the world.
Although Professor Jones has been attacked academically as well as by the media, it is clear that his research is logical, holds up to close scrutiny, and follows the scientific method. The documentary is a rare, honest gem of a film which provides an inspiring example of what Orwell meant when he wrote, �In a time of universal deceit to tell the truth is a revolutionary act.�
The film is short, 48 minutes long, and ends symbolically with a view of the door closing as Professor Jones leaves his office at BYU to continue his 9/11 research on his own.
Fortunately for film enthusiasts, when one door closes, another opens: the film festival premiering Hypothesis will also include The Hard Evidence Tour, Professor Jones�s November 2009 talk in Sydney, Australia which sheds more light on 9/11 truth developments since 2006 and the growing numbers of scientists, architects, and engineers who have joined Professor Jones in his pursuit of truth.
