11’09″01 September 11

Plot:

To evoke the magnitude of the shock wave of September 11, to witness the resonance of the event around the world, to better understand the human dimension of this tragedy, to accompany the emotion, to give everyone’s word, a collective film: eleven filmmakers of different origins and cultures, eleven looks at the tragic events in New York on September 11, 2001, eleven points of view engaging their individual conscience.

In the aftermath of the tragedies on September 11, 2001, the French film company Studio Canal called upon a group of filmmakers, representing various regions of the world, to address the scope of the situation in however broad or intimate a context as they saw fit. The one guideline they were given was that no one film could exceed 11 minutes, nine seconds, and one frame. The resulting omnibus film, 11’09″01, showed at festivals around the world the following year and garnered a theatrical release in 2003. Each filmmaker’s entry takes a different approach: French director Claude Lelouch tells the tale of a World Trade Center tour guide who is on the verge of a breakup with his deaf girlfriend when the terrorist attacks hit; similarly, Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn chronicles the lonely existence of an old man living not far from the Twin Towers. Egyptian director Youssef Chahine and British social realist filmmaker Ken Loach created the most controversy with their entries, which, respectively, address the points-of-view of a suicide bomber and of a Chilean who recalls the brutal coup funded by the United States in his country on September 11, 1973. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s piece is the most abstract, taking images from television on the day of the attacks and cutting them with selected bursts of sound.

 

11’09 “01 september 11 is an important and necessary film, because from a horrible image, eleven filmmakers managed to give birth to other images, echoes often full of hope.

11’09″01 September 11 is a 2002 international film composed of 11 contributions from different filmmakers, each from a different country. 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. The original concept and production of the film were by French producer Alain Brigand. It has been released internationally with several different titles, depending on the language. In French, it is known as 11 minutes 9 secondes 1 image.

A film by 11 famous Fim makers

 

  • Claude Lelouch (segment “France”)
  • Youssef Chahine (segment “Egypt”)
  • Danis Tanović (segment “Bosnia-Herzegovina”)
  • Idrissa Ouedraogo (segment “Burkina Faso”)
  • Ken Loach (segment “United Kingdom”)
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu (segment “Mexico”)
  • Amos Gitaï (segment “Israel”)
  • Mira Nair (segment “India”)
  • Sean Penn (segment “United States of America”)
  • Shohei Imamura (segment “Japan”)

 

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s piece is the most abstract, taking images from television on the day of the attacks and cutting them with selected bursts of sound. Samira Makhmalbaf, Danis Tanovic, and Idrissa Ouedraogo all tell small-scale stories of the effects of the attacks on tiny villages in Iran, Serbia, and Burkina Faso, respectively.

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.

Release date  :  September 11, 2002 (France)

Duration :  1h15

Free entry … Open to all