Documentary Films: Witness of the Real
New York Diary presents one New Yorker’s personal take on September 11 and its aftermath. How was the immediate, unintelligible horror of the attacks digested and domesticated in the days and weeks that followed?
After the 9/11 attacks, we were given by our employer, Scudder Investments, now Deutsche Bank, a personal evacuation kit.
The months after the attack, many of us working in NYC office buildings thought another attack was imminent. I felt a bit safer with my personal evacuation kit. With my trusty kit under my arm, I would get out of a burning building unscathed.
Twenty three years later, I still keep my kit next to my desk at work. Fortunately, I have never needed it.
Yesterday I finally opened it.
It’s funny what we think will keep us safe.
Harrowing images from the first thirty-six hours give way to the rituals of missing posters, makeshift memorials and patriotic displays.
The unimaginable devastation of Ground Zero and the twenty-four hour a day removal of debris by truck and barge are juxtaposed with the get a snapshot, and take home a souvenir.
The film asks disturbing questions about how the global electronic village assimilates and banalizes terror and mass murder.
To view New Diary Part 1 click here.