Nearly 30 years later, a new documentary shows the OKC bombing to a new generation

After nearly three decades, Kathy Sanders' feelings about April 19, 1995, have become bittersweet.

"I enjoy the anniversary. I love the fact that our loved ones are still being honored after all these years. ... You don't want your loved ones forgotten, so it's a good thing that they do," she told The Oklahoman via Zoom.

Ahead of the 2024 Remembrance Ceremony, she likens the pain of losing her grandsons Colton Smith, 2, and Chase Smith, 3, in the Oklahoma City bombing to losing one's sense of sight.

"If a person loses their eyesight, do you think there's ever a day they wake up in the morning and they don't mourn the fact they can't see the sun rising? I mean, they have this life that they didn't choose, and they didn't want, but it's the life they have now," said Sanders, formerly Kathy Wilburn, who now lives in Arkansas.

"There's still life worth living. You've got to deal with what you've had, and you carry that pain in your heart. But you go on. Life gets good: Got a smile on my face, and a song in my heart. Things are better."

Ahead of this year's bombing anniversary, Sanders is featured in the new HBO Original documentary “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th." The film is premiering at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 16 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.

"The goal, originally, was to bring this story to a new generation, because shockingly, when we started, one of the executives at HBO said her own children, who go to very good colleges, had no idea what the Oklahoma City bombing was. And we were like, 'No, that's impossible,'" said Marc Levin, who directed and produced the film.

"Obviously, 9/11 eclipsed everything. ... But it remains the deadliest domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. government in American history, and it is shocking that a lot of people don't know (about it)."

New OKC bombing documentary features a former domestic terrorist and more

Levin and fellow "An American Bombing" producer Daphne Pinkerson previously worked with NBC and respected journalist and Oklahoma native Bill Moyers on the 1996 documentary "Oklahoma City: One Year Later.”

"So, for us, this was coming full circle, in a way. A number of the characters that are in 'An American Bombing' we met 29 years ago," Levin said in a Zoom interview from New York alongside Pinkerson and Sanders.

"Plus, obviously, (there's) the polarized situation we're in now, with the threat of political violence becoming realer, and more people in the American public accepting that violence is legitimate for political change. In trying to understand the roots of that phenomena, I guess you could sum it up by saying, you have to understand what happened, so that you can understand what's happening now."

"An American Bombing" features interviews with former U.S. President Bill Clinton; investigative reporters Mike Boettcher and Bob Sands; former FBI special agents Danny Coulson, Michael Liwicki, and Bob Ricks; authors Stuart Wright, Jeffrey Toobin, Lou Michel, Dan Herbeck and Kathleen Belew; attorneys Stephen Jones, Asa Hutchinson, Aitan Goelman, Beth Wilkinson, Clark Brewster and Steven Snyder; and investigator Richard Reyna.

Plus, the film features Nancy Shaw, who survived the 1995 bombing; Mollie McDermott, a childhood friend of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; and former domestic terrorist Kerry Noble; a one-time member of The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, a far-right militia organization that was active in the 1970s and '80s.

Along with Sanders and her son, Daniel Coss, the documentary incorporates interviews with Marsha Kimble, LaDonna Battle-Leverett and Bud Welch, who also had loved ones killed in the bombing.

"This documentary is multi-layered. It's got both macro and micro (views). It's a sociopolitical narrative, about the growth of extremism, especially from the far-right over the last 30 years, but also the human story: the heart of Oklahomans, the survivors, the families. That was very important that we find a way to weave that into the story," Levin said.

The film is executive produced by Katie Couric, who covered the 1995 tragedy and was the first journalist to interview Sanders and her daughter, Edye Smith, Colton and Chase's mother, after the bombing.

"We want our country to be a place where we can raise our children and our grandchildren, without the threat of terrorism. We need to be communicating, we need to get our heads out of the sand, we need to know what's going on," Sanders said.

New film traces the surge in homegrown political violence through the story of the OKC bombing

"An American Bombing" recaps how McVeigh ignited a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown OKC on April 19, 1995. The blast left 168 people dead, including 19 children.

The documentary covers the experiences of the people who were there, the manhunt for the perpetrators and the pivotal moments of the trials of McVeigh and convicted bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. But the film also connects McVeigh's murderous anti-government actions with the ideology of a larger extremist movement forged in the aftermaths of the Gulf War, the fatal 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho and the deadly 1993 siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

"I think what's most disturbing, in the sense that the film is a wakeup call, is that what was on the fringe in 1995 — when McVeigh was captured and Nichols, and we all thought 'this is just a few fringe characters' — has become more mainstream. A lot of the ideology and ideas ... it's right in front of our faces," Levin said.

"We're living in the greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age. And that is a seedbed for extremism and for these demagogues to take advantage of. Contented people don't usually become terrorists."

The documentary lays out how big economic shifts like the 1980s farm crisis and the sharp decline in U.S. manufacturing affected McVeigh's family and outlook.

"What we show in the film is the 30 years of economic restructuring that's happened in the country. I think it's important for people to understand that the farmers didn't just say, 'Oh, well, lost my farm; gotta move on.' Many of them probably started working in factories, and then their jobs got outsourced. And then the unions broke, and they lost their seat at the table," Pinkerson said.

"There's really not democracy for a huge swath of the country, and I feel that both sides are demonizing each other and weaponizing differences for political advantage. If we can stop doing that — stop calling one side racists and the other side perverts or whatever — and see common ground ... maybe we could make our way out of this mess."

"The Road to April 19th" connects the OKC bombing to more recent acts of violence like the mass shootings at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 and at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022 as well the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

New Oklahoma City bombing documentary also incorporates hope and forgiveness

For Sanders and her family, the link between the Oklahoma City bombing and the Jan. 6 insurrection are very real: Her son, Coss, a former OKC police officer, is an emergency planning specialist with the U.S. Capitol Police who describes spending 18 harrowing hours at the scene of the riots.

"When the (Oklahoma City) bombing happened, I was living with my head in the sand. I had no idea. I didn't know about the underground movement and about the people like McVeigh and Nichols and what they were doing. It was just unheard of," Sanders said.

"But shortly afterwards, when I began to investigate, I learned that it's a massive movement. And I was telling people, 'You know, it's not going to be long that ... when I tell someone, "I lost my grandchildren in the bombing," they're gonna ask "which one?"' And that's certainly happened, because the movement that was hidden in the alley is now mainstream."

Kari Watkins, president and CEO of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, said she saw a version of the new documentary at a recent preview screening at the University of Oklahoma.

"I think anytime you can cause people to remember and to learn (about the bombing), it's important. ... There's some great people in it, people I have the highest respect for. I just think they take you down some paths that they don't complete," Watkins said.

"Bud Welch and what he went through in forgiveness is one of the all-time great stories of just human strength. ... Kathy has done remarkable things in how she's healed and rebuilt her life. I have the greatest things to say about these people because I hold them at the highest level of honor. I just don't always necessarily agree with some of the facts, because what we tell is just what was proven through the trials. And we don't go down all these other avenues."

The filmmakers said it was vital to bring themes of forgiveness, resilience and hope to the documentary, with Levin calling Sanders "a shining example of what I would call grace."

"That's the wonderful thing about this film, I think that it might bring hope to people that are against terrorism and don't know what to do. I think it'll bring hope and shine a light on it. ... Right now, we have that there's two sides and people are at war, and we need to be more understanding, It doesn't mean we have to agree on everything," Sanders said.

"If we would care one for another, I think that would be a really good way to start."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'An American Bombing' premieres on HBO, will stream on Max