Are you now, or have you ever been ?a Republican?

Lionel Chetwynd doesn’t mind being held to a different standard in Hollywood for his conservative views. The veteran writer-director is used to the tilted playing field. He has rumbled up and down its terrain for years.

The disparity “makes me a better writer and filmmaker,” says Mr. Chetwynd, the writer and producer of Showtime’s “DC 9/11: Time of Crisis,” airing at 8 p.m. tomorrow.

The new telefeature recalls the first nine days following the September 11 attacks, focusing on how the Bush administration grappled with the worst terrorist strike in history. Timothy Bottoms (1971’s “The Last Picture Show”) stars as President Bush.

“A liberal can go out and make … ‘The West Wing,’ which is not even thinly disguised as a liberal view of politics, and do hours of propaganda every week, and no one questions it,” he says.

“It’s not something that’s done behind closed doors. It’s openly accepted by everyone, including me,” says Mr. Chetwynd, whose previous credits include “The Hanoi Hilton” (1987), about American prisoners of war during the Vietnam War, as well as numerous TV films and news specials.

Mr. Chetwynd says he faced withering questioning, some insulting, at the recent Television Critics Association meeting where he promoted the film.

“They demanded to know, did I contribute money to George Bush, how much did I contribute,” he says. He also got questions about his personal life and the people with whom he associates.

“Because I’m a Republican, I am suspect and should not be trusted,” he says.

He says if Harry Thomason, a longtime TV producer and famous pal of former President Bill Clinton’s, had made a film depicting that presidency, he wouldn’t face such an assault.

Despite his experiences, Mr. Chetwynd wants his film to be seen from a less ideological angle, much as the country dropped its partisanship briefly in the wake of the attacks.

He likens the film to a feature that recalled the Cuban Missile Crisis, what he labels a “defining” moment for him.

“I might get blown up later that morning,” he recalls of his emotions around that pivotal time.

The 1974 TV film “The Missiles of October” starring William Devane and Martin Sheen “took you inside the debate,” he says. “It was curiously devoid of the personality or soap-opera aspects.”

Mr. Chetwynd says his mission is tougher than what faced the producers of that film because of our “celebrity-obsessed society.”

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