Last month, Christ & Holy Trinity Church honored the memory of 9/11 with a screening of “The Trees: Growing a Forest at Ground Zero.”
The documentary — filmed over 5 years, telling the story of life returning to Ground Zero through the men and women who designed, grew, built and maintain living examples of New York’s resiliency — was followed by a conversation with the producer and director, Scott Elliott.
He did not have far to travel. He’s a Westport resident. Until a recent move from Compo Shopping Center to Norwalk, he worked here too.
On September 11, 2001, Elliott — an Amherst College English and history graduate –was editing his first documentary 20 blocks from the World Trade Center. “The Trees” brought together his interests in gardening, architecture and urban design.
Scott Elliott
He had already worked on his first feature length documentary, “Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery,” about the history of that neighborhood. It aired on PBS 3 years later, in 2003.
Elliott founded, and serves as creative director, of 590films. Their tagline is “Helping Good People Tell Great Stories.”
His documentary “Into the Gyre,” about plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean, won international film festival awards.
In 2019, married and with their second child on the way, Elliott and his wife started looking at suburbs.
After searching all over the tri-state region, they fell in love with Compo Bach — and everything else about Westport. They knew no one here, but quickly made friends.
He’s worked with the Biden Foundation, The Floating Hospital, Harlem Children’s Zone and New York City public schools. (His roster includes private schools too, like Greens Farms Academy, Hotchkiss and Deerfield.)
He has turned down work from clients whose positions he does not agree with — anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice, for example.
“I questioned whether non-profits would be a good business move,” he says. “They don’t pay like corporate videos do.
“But if you can be successful doing what you love; if your mission aligns; if you’re happy and proud, that sets a good example for your kids.”
Click here or below for a clip from “The Trees.”
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