11′09″01 September 11 (French: 11 minutes 9 secondes 1 image) is a 2002 international anthology film. It comprises 11 short films from 11 filmmakers, each from a different country, offering differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001. The original concept and production of the film was by French producer Alain Brigand. The film has been released internationally with several titles. The filmmakers included Ken Loach, Claude Lelouch, Danis Tanović, Youssef Chahine, Samira Makhmalbaf, and Sean Penn.

Synopsis

Overview

The film consists of 11 short segments directed by 11 filmmakers from 11 countries, each expressing a unique perspective on the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and each lasting 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and 1 frame (11′09″01). Each gave their own vision of the events in New York City during the September 11 attacks, in a short film of 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and one frame.

Jacques Perrin and Nicolas Mauvernay were producers of the complete 11′09″01 September 11.

Other crew included:

Producers

  • Tania Zazulinsky (segment "France")
  • Gabriel Khoury (segment "Egypt")
  • Marianne Khoury (segment "Egypt")
  • Čedomir Kolar (segment "Bosnia-Herzegovina")
  • Nicolas Cand (segment "Burkina Faso")
  • Rebecca O'Brien (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu (segment "Mexico")
  • Gustavo Santaolalla (segment "Mexico")
  • Laurent Truchot (segment "Israel")
  • Lydia Dean Pilcher (segment "India")
  • Jon C. Scheide (segment "United States of America")
  • Catherine Dussart (segment "Japan")
  • Nobuyuki Kajikawa (segment "Japan")
  • Masamichi Sawada (segment "Japan")
  • Masato Shinada (segment "Japan")

Writers

  • Youssef Chahine (segment "Egypt")
  • Sabrina Dhawan (segment "India")
  • Amos Gitaï (segment "Israel")
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu (segment "Mexico")
  • Paul Laverty (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Claude Lelouch (segment "France")
  • Ken Loach (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Samira Makhmalbaf (segment "Iran")
  • Idrissa Ouedraogo (segment "Burkina Faso")
  • Sean Penn (segment "United States of America")
  • Marie José Sanselme (segment "Israel")
  • Danis Tanović (segment "Bosnia-Herzegovina")
  • Daisuke Tengan (segment "Japan")
  • Pierre Uytterhoeven (segment "France")
  • Vladimir Vega (segment "United Kingdom")

Music

  • Michael Brook (segment "United States of America")
  • Mohammad-Reza Darvishi (segment "Iran")
  • Alexandre Desplat (title music)
  • Manu Dibango (segment "Burkina Faso")
  • Osvaldo Golijov (segment "Mexico")
  • Tarō Iwashiro (segment "Japan")
  • Salif Keita (segment "Burkina Faso")
  • Heitor Pereira (segment "United States of America")
  • Gustavo Santaolalla (segment "Mexico")
  • Vladimir Vega (segment "United Kingdom")

Cinematography

  • Samuel Bayer (segment "United States of America")
  • Luc Drion (segment "Burkina Faso")
  • Ebrahim Ghafori (segment "Iran")
  • Pierre-William Glenn (segment "France")
  • Peter Hellmich (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Yoav Kosh (segment "Israel")
  • Mustafa Mustafić (segment "Bosnia-Herzegovina")
  • Mohsen Nasr (segment "Egypt")
  • Masakazu Oka (segment "Japan")
  • Declan Quinn (segment "India")
  • Toshihiro Seino (segment "Japan")
  • Jorge Müller Silva (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Nigel Willoughby (segment "United Kingdom")

Editing

  • Rashida Abdel Salam (segment "Egypt")
  • Kim Bica (segment "Mexico")
  • Jay Cassidy (segment "United States of America")
  • Robert Duffy (segment "Mexico")
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu (segment "Mexico")
  • Julia Gregory (segment "Burkina-Faso")
  • Allyson C. Johnson (segment "India")
  • Mohsen Makhmalbaf (segment "Iran")
  • Stéphane Mazalaigue (segment "France")
  • Jonathan Morris (segment "United Kingdom")
  • Kobi Netanel (segment "Israel")
  • Hajime Okayasu (segment "Japan")
  • Monique Rysselinck (segment "Bosnia-Herzegovina")

Release

The film has been released internationally with several titles, depending on the language. It is listed in the Internet Movie Database as 11′09″01 - September 11, while in French, it is known as 11 minutes 9 secondes 1 image and in Persian as 11-e-Septambr.

It had its world premiere on September 5, 2002 at the Venice Film Festival in Italy. It was also screened at Toronto International Film Festival.

The premiere screening in the US was for an audience of graduate students in the Roone Arledge Auditorium at Columbia University in New York on 24 November 2002, partly due to Mira Nair's links with Columbia's film division. It premiered in the US in summer 2003. and on October 26, 2004 in the US. At a press conference for the film at the festival, a journalist mentions the Variety review referring to some labelling the film "anti-American". Various directors defend the film: Danis Tanović responded that this was never his intention; Samira Makhmalbaf said "there are enough contrasts and conflicts on earth without film directors having to increase them". Claude Lelouch said that his use of a deaf mute came from wanting to use silence. Amos Gitai talked about the form of the film, saying that each there was a wide variety of approaches used by the filmmakers.

Sarah Colemen, writing for Salon after the film's US premiere at Columbia University, wrote "it is patchy, sometimes brilliant, occasionally laughable and much too long... In the end, though, the most provocative thing about this film might be that it wrests the narrative of Sept. 11 away from Americans and puts it in the hands of other, far-flung observers — the implication being that the historical event belongs, in some senses, to everyone". She concludes that, although "far from a masterpiece... it's a film Americans should see".

Stephen Schaefer, writing in the Boston Herald in September 2003, gives the film 3 out of 4 stars. He refers to questions that other critics have raised: "Anti-American? Arrogant? Offensive?", and in general thinks the segments uneven in quality. He liked Mira Nair's film, but reserves highest praise for Idrissa Ouédraogo's and Inarritu's contributions.

In a feature article by Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas in the online film journal Senses of Cinema in January 2003, he refers to a "rather belligerent" review by Peter Matthews in Sight and Sound earlier that month, in which he stated that the film "virtually defines bad faith". Tsolkias disagrees, writing "11’09”01 probably fails miserably to do justice to the full implications of the bombings and subsequent declarations of war, but it is at least an attempt towards dialogue, and in canvassing responses from filmmakers across four continents, it counters the aggressiveness of Western media distillations of the event". Tsolkias thought that Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards was "one of the best allegories of war I had ever seen", and Youssef Chahine's film "fucking great", and also praises Ken Loach's film, which "[makes] the crucial link between compassion, understanding and history".

Ella Ruth Anaya, assistant professor of Cross-Cultural and Leadership Communication in the School of Media, Art and Culture at Trinity Western University in Canada, reviewing the DVD version of the film in 2011, wrote that the film "[had] been described as daring, artful, illuminating, intensely moving, and provocative". In her opinion, "The brilliance of this film is its scope and profundity".

the film has a rating of 77% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Accolades

At the 2002 Venice Film Festival, the film received the UNESCO Award and Ken Loach's segment was the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Short Film.

References