Loose Change producer Korey Rowe and researcher Jason Bermas. Photograph by Gasper Tringale.

Nine-eleven conspiracy theories have been circulating for years, producing millions of Web links, scores of books, and a nationwide collection of doubters known as the “9/11 Truth” movement.

In 2005 the State Department responded by posting some “clues” to “identifying misinformation” on their Web site. “Does the story claim that vast, powerful, evil forces are secretly manipulating events?” it asks. “If so, this fits the profile of a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are rarely true, even though they have great appeal and are often widely believed. In reality, events usually have much less exciting explanations.”

One of the first American officials to publicly acknowledge conspiracy theories in connection with 9/11 was President George Bush, who on November 10, 2001, in a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, said, “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September 11.”

Yet according to a May 2006 Zogby poll, 42 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government and the 9/11 commission “concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks,” and that “there has been a cover-up.”

For those who can’t find information about the alleged cover-up on the nightly news, there is Loose Change, a documentary about 9/11 conspiracy theories which just might be the first Internet blockbuster. Since it appeared on the Web in April 2005, the 80-minute film has been climbing up and down Google Video’s “Top 100,” rising to No. 1 this May, with at least 10 million viewings.

“We beat the woman getting punched in the face,” says its director, 22-year-old Dylan Avery, from Oneonta, New York (population 13,000), referring to an oft watched video.

“We beat the guy who beats his computer with his keyboard,” says his producer, 23-year-old Korey Rowe, also from Oneonta and an army specialist who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We beat the [Stephen] Colbert speech,” says Jason Bermas, 26, their researcher. “The viral videos, we dominate them.”

Told in MTV-style jump cuts, illustrated by high-end graphics, and scored with hip music written by a few of their friends, Loose Change is an investigation into the official story of 9/11 as told by The 9/11 Commission Report, asking a number of highly controversial questions:

What, for example, were the explosions some witnesses heard after the towers were hit by planes? Why was the site of the collapse not treated as a crime scene, and why was the debris shipped off as waste to several foreign countries?