11 09 01: September 11

Eleven renowned directors were given the brief to create a short films that in some way responded to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, when America was thrown into disarray by the terrorist attacks on, among other targets, the Twin Towers. The only proviso was that each film be eleven minutes, nine seconds and one frame long. The directors invited to participate were: Yussef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Shohei Imamura, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Mira Nair, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Sean Penn, Samira Makhmalbaf, Danis Tanovic, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The results are very mixed — from the abstract to the obvious — and the overall piece did not meet with great acclaim. Regardless, the project has some insightful moments, in particular, the segments from Ken Loach, Mira Nair and Samira Makhmalbaf.