This isn’t entirely what it seems to be. To a stranger, from the distance of five years, it probably looks like a music video. Trust me, that wasn’t the intention.
The morning of September 11th I TiVo’d what I could – I was changing back and forth between the channels, not really thinking of posterity. Over the next week I edited the footage for the monthly family movie, then laid down some music. (It’s the closing title music for “Crimson Tide,” a movie I’d recently seen.) The duration of the music clip matched the length of the piece almost exactly, with a few tweaks necessary at the end. The result captured the horror, sorrow and fury I felt then, and felt for quite a long time afterwards. Time dilutes the emotions, eventually – but I can’t watch this without feeling what I felt on that day. I’ve watched it on the anniversary dates ever since.
As I said, it might seem cheesy and banal, and somehow wrong; it wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t an action sequence, and some things should be left alone without artifice. But this is how I wanted to remember it five years ago, and that's how I remember it today: From the child and the dog to the great Amen, and the nightmare in between.
Click here to start. (Mac users with current QuickTime software can click here; the picture and audio are somewhat better.) 17 MB file. Let it load before you play for the best effect.
The morning of September 11th I TiVo’d what I could – I was changing back and forth between the channels, not really thinking of posterity. Over the next week I edited the footage for the monthly family movie, then laid down some music. (It’s the closing title music for “Crimson Tide,” a movie I’d recently seen.) The duration of the music clip matched the length of the piece almost exactly, with a few tweaks necessary at the end. The result captured the horror, sorrow and fury I felt then, and felt for quite a long time afterwards. Time dilutes the emotions, eventually – but I can’t watch this without feeling what I felt on that day. I’ve watched it on the anniversary dates ever since.
As I said, it might seem cheesy and banal, and somehow wrong; it wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t an action sequence, and some things should be left alone without artifice. But this is how I wanted to remember it five years ago, and that's how I remember it today: From the child and the dog to the great Amen, and the nightmare in between.
Click here to start. (Mac users with current QuickTime software can click here; the picture and audio are somewhat better.) 17 MB file. Let it load before you play for the best effect.
