DVD Talk Forum - 11'09"01

I watched this film just hours before the clock struck midnight, heralding the 2nd anniversary of the tragedy.

I cried. Twice.

While sometimes wildly inconsistent, some of the best pieces truly are demonstrative of the director's skills.

The best pieces were from:

Danis Tanovic - Bosnia

A quiet but somber parallel of the lives lost in Bosnia, on the day of the tragedy. Easily the most skillfully directed of all shorts.

Mira Nair - India

This piece completely gutted me. Inspiring due to the heroism, disturbing due to the inconsequence of such heroism, thanks in no small part to the Patriot Act.

Samira Makhmalbaf - Iran

A very observant piece about children with little perception of a country like the US, or a city like New York.

Ken Loach - United Kingdom

A powerful but controversial piece about a Chilean recounting the US-backed overthrow of the freely-elected communist government, replaced with the tyrant called Pinochet - that happened on the same day, 9/11.

Worst, in order:

1) Youssef Chahine - Egypt

Egotistical, offensive, and badly directed, this piece of excrement is a showcase of Chahine wanting to be called "maestro" at every turn, while vehemently spewing one-sided arguments against the US and Israel. For shame.

2) Sean Penn - US

Edited like a music video, this short seeks the empathy that it could not express. And the inclusion of magic realsim is just tacky. Very pointless, with little real relation to 9-11.

3) Alejandro González Iñárritu - Mexico

What a cheap trick. Yes, I cried like crazy, but I felt utterly manipulated. Not only that, the ending "epiphany" was a ludicrous statement that does nothing to tackle the complexity of the situation.

The rest, by Shohei Imamura, Idrissa Ouedraogo, and Claude Lelouch, were decent, but not demonstrative of the best of their work.

Overall though, the collection was definitely worth watching. 7/10.