The two-minute trailer for Paramount+’s 11 Minutes documentary series opens with Country music fans enjoying the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas before their joy was erased by a mass shooter. Using interviews with concertgoers, cellphone footage, and other videos, 11 Minutes recalls the horrific mass shooting and its aftermath.
The four-part docuseries was directed by Emmy and Peabody-winning director Jeff Zimbalist (Momentum Generation, The Two Escobars) and features the very first in-depth interview with Jason Aldean. The Country music star was actually on stage when the shooting began.
“When I turned around, my bass player was just looking at me like a deer in the headlights. And my security guy was on stage at that point, telling me to get down, waving me off the stage,” recalled Aldean.
Aldean admits to feeling survivor’s guilt. “It’s hard not to feel a little guilty. I mean, those people were there to support us,” said Aldean.
The documentary is executive produced by Susan Zirinsky, Terence Wrong, Stu Schreiberg, Jeff Zimbalist, and Ashley Hoff. Hoff was one of the concertgoers who was forced to flee as the bullets flew.
“As I ran out of that field, I believe I witnessed some of humanity’s greatest moments … I’ve gotten to hear from many fellow survivors, some of the strongest, bravest, most resilient people I’ve ever met,” stated Hoff.
“It’s important that people know the truth out of respect for those we lost, out of those who were injured, those who are still mentally and physically scarred … that everybody’s spirits and legacies remain intact. That friendships made that night in those 11 minutes were made for a reason,” said SiriusXM radio host and festival emcee Storme Warren.
Warren added: “The story, to me, wasn’t about a shooter. It was about people helping each other.”
11 Minutes is timed to air during the week of the shooting’s fifth anniversary. The shooting took place on October 1, 2017 and the four-part documentary premieres on September 27, 2022 on Paramount+.
Paramount+ released the following description of the documentary:
“The documentary highlights first-person narratives of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police force, trauma teams at Sunrise Hospital and concert goers who all experienced the trauma of this mass-casualty event. Using never-before-seen police bodycam footage and 200 hours of cell phone video, 11 Minutes lets viewers accompany heavily armed officers on a hair-raising mission, as step-by-step they approach the shooter’s hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
At the heart of 11 Minutes are miraculous stories of survival as ordinary people undertake extraordinary acts to help strangers. The series investigates the legacy of the 11 fateful minutes of gunfire as subjects ask crucial questions about lone-wolf violence, prevention and the humanity that transcends.”
