French producer Alain Brigand was in Paris when airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. He found himself, like nearly everyone else in the world, glued to the television."I have a huge world map on my wall and I stared at it for several minutes," said Brigand. "I saw naturally that this was an American tragedy, of course, but it resonated across the globe."
On Sept. 11, 2001, before the ash and smoke had cleared from Manhattan's skyline, Brigand had envisioned his next project: 11'09"01, a collection of 11 short films by 11 different filmmakers trying to make sense of the terrorist attacks.
The title, which is the European numeric format for Sept. 11, 2001, also relates to the format of each short film: 11 minutes and 9 seconds, plus one frame.
"Because of these terrible images that we saw, we had to respond with other images," said Brigand. "While there were thousands and thousands of cameras that were looking at the United States, I wished that evening that there would be one camera that would just pan to understand how this shockwave had been understood across the world."
The contributors include a diverse array of filmmakers, including Iran's Samira Makhmalbaf, India's Mira Nair, Britain's Ken Loach, Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Burkina's Idrissa Ouedraogo and American Sean Penn, among others. Brigand gave each contributor $400,000 to make a short film in which the director had total freedom of expression.
Despite — or perhaps because of — the diversity and freedom, 11'09"01 has met controversy in its attempt to find a U.S. audience.
After an early Variety review that dubbed the film "stridently anti-American" and a heated press conference after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Brigand's omnibus film has been unable to find a distributor willing to bring it to the United States.
Allegations that the movie promotes anti-American sentiment stem from the contributions of British director Ken Loach and Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.
Loach tells the story of a Chilean exile in London who writes a letter to the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. In offering his sympathy, he asks Americans to remember the other Sept. 11 — Augusto Pinochet's U.S.-funded coup in Chile in 1973.
"Your dollars brought violence to the streets," writes the Chilean exile, who later describes how "men trained in the USA … put rats in women's vaginas."
Chahine, meanwhile, portrays an Egyptian filmmaker who meets the ghost of a U.S marine killed by a terrorist attack in Lebanon. The filmmaker brings the ghost to meet his suicide bomber's family and then tells him of the purported evils of U.S. and Israeli foreign policies.
Questioned about the political nature of the film during a press conference in Toronto, Brigand became defensive. "I did not know what they were going to do," Brigand said of the 11 directors. "They expressed their personal awareness or personal consciences in absolute freedom."
Weekly Planet Film Critic Lance Goldenberg, who saw 11'09"01 in Toronto, doesn't believe the entire film is anti-American. "But those two particular films, yes, they are anti-American," Goldenberg said. He praised the merits of Loach's contribution, but called Chahine's "absolutely stupid."
"It's a propaganda film, but it's not an effective one," Goldenberg said of the Egyptian director's ghost story.
Brigand's 11'09"01 premiered in France and Italy on Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the attacks, and then received its first screening in the United Kingdom on Dec. 27. Its reviews have been generally positive.
Nevertheless, the controversy has made 11'09"01 too hot for American film distributors to handle.
Asked about the film, Gregory B. Williams, chief executive officer for Lot 47 Films, said he understands the artistic need to come to terms with the tragedy, but added that his company has no interest in delivering the film to American movie theaters. In fact, Williams won't even see the film himself.
"I have no interest in seeing any interpretation of the real event that is so close to home," said Williams, whose lower Manhattan office is located near the World Trade Center site. "I'm not sure the public is ready or needs to see someone's else perspective on that event."
Lot 47 Films, which has recently distributed The Fast Runner and L.I.E., isn't quick to shy away from controversy. Like many independent and foreign film distributors, Williams has put his company's name behind films that have trod on controversial ground.
But 11'09"01 is different. Its ground is not only controversial, but also sacred. "Film by its nature is commerce," said Williams. "[Sept. 11] is not a subject that lends itself to commerce right now."
Amos Gitai, an Israeli director whose short film follows an Israeli television journalist whose story of a suicide bombing is overshadowed by the terrorist attacks in America, worries what will happen when unpopular opinions of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are effectively silenced in the country in which the attacks occurred.
"The Americans don't want anyone else to speak about their tragedies in other terms than their own," said Gitai. "… If they will establish an authoritarian, exclusive version of the incidents and they will not allow anyone else to speak in any other terms about the tragedy, in a way they will fulfill the desires of the enemies, which is to create an authoritarian society which has an exclusive vision of everything."
11'09"01 is one of three controversial films that have been shut out of U.S. movie theaters.
The Quiet American, which takes a critical look at U.S. involvement in Vietnam, has received a positive response despite expected hostility. The Guys, about a journalist who helps a firefighter write eulogies for his fallen brethren, will receive a limited release in February.
Even if the controversial 11'09"01 isn't screened at U.S. theaters, the film will likely find a domestic audience among those eager to see it. U.S. video distribution is still possible, as are DVD imports from Europe and Asia.
"The film will be seen," said Goldenberg. "It's just a matter of how."
Contact Staff Writer Trevor Aaronson at 813-248-8888, ext. 134, or trevor.aaronson@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2003.